Developing elevator landing door safety retainers capable of withstanding 1,000 J using numerical simulation and experimental verification

Abstract

Current elevator landing door safety retainers are able to prevent fall accidents from an inadvertent bump against the door, as they are designed to endure a kinetic energy of 450 J. However, the recent increase in fall accidents among people in electric wheelchairs indicates that retainers are required to sustain stronger external shocks to prevent fall accidents against elevator landing doors. The purpose of this study is to develop elevator landing door safety retainers capable of enduring 1,000 J to prevent fall accidents of electric wheelchairs at the landing doors of elevators. In this study, crash analysis simulations were conducted after designing new scenarios that are not stated in the current regulations, considering the collision behavior of an electric wheelchair against an elevator landing door. The side hook was confirmed to play an important role in withstanding a collisional energy of 1,000 J. Crash analysis yielded different results according to the shape of the guide shoe. The analysis simulations were verified by performing experiments on various established scenarios. This study also confirmed the reliability of the developed safety retainers by implementing more realistic experiments on the crash of electric wheelchairs instead of the impactor proposed in the current regulations.

Keywords

• elevator landing door
• safety retainers
• crash analysis
• finite element analysis
• guide shoe