United States Patent t1 Mizuno et al. [54] APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING ELEVATOR DOOR (75] Inventors: ‘Masamoto Mizuno; Terumi Hirabayashi; Masanori Tawada; Toshiyuki Kodera, all of Inazawa, Japan ‘Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, Japan 713,095 Jun, 11, 1991 Foreign Application Priority Data 173] Assignee: (21) Appl. No. (22), Fited: Go) Jun. 25, 1990 JP] Japan 2.155354 [si] Int, CLs 1. BOSB 13/14 [2] US. ci. 187/103; 187/31, 187/52 R; 187/104; 318/257, 318/282; 318/626 (58) Field of Seareh «0... 187/103, 104, 30, 31, 187/47, 48, 51, 52, 82 LC; 318/271, 272, 257, 281, 282, 286, 466, 468, 626, 801, 602 References Cited US. PATENT DOCUMENTS (56) NTC A A "Us0052507654 Patent Number: 5,250,765 Oct, 5, 1993 Date of Patent: a (85) 5,170,865 12/1992 Mizuno et al FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS 64.3798 1/1989 Japan 0163282. 6/1990 Japan 3-152084 6/1991 Japan .. Primary Examiner—Steven L. Stephan ‘Assistant Examiner—Thomas M. Dougherty ‘Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Leydig, Voit & Mayer (7 ABSTRACT ‘An apparatus for controlling an elevator door com- prises a motor for opening and closing an elevator door, an inverter unit for controlling the driving of the motor, ‘2 door position detecting unit for detecting the position Of the door, first and second sensors for respectively detecting that the door passes through a terminal refer- ‘ence point on the opening side and a terminal reference point on the closing side, a speed command generating unit for generating a speed command on the basis of a distance between the door position detected by the door position detecting unit to a stop target on the opening side or the closing side when the first and second sen- sors respectively detect the passage of the door, and a control unit for controlling the inverter unit on the basis 187/103 so 187/108 187/104 4.308481, 12/1981 Hmelovsky et al 187/29 cea ianoe bos ara TUz1G ofthe speed command output from the speed command 51131306 7/1992. Mizuno etal. 187/103 generating unit Sgs01 9/1992 Tawada etal. 187/103 S)62.711 11/1992 Heckler 318/268 9 Claims, 8 Drawing Sheets —- _ 24h T i i lspseo | -30 — : ~ | Icomwano rowan MIGROCONPUTER 20> [7 moe + SECTION 3 BRIDGE id 4 te 43 aur? Y Feuerenr ; IaWPLITUDE fejoarcucaTion! I! 39 ; ‘sPeen [SECTION 6 Shrrenine o>) aNPLIneR as or ea SECTION ier ie es at = } ose {A Doome 4 42 | 34 ‘ |GENERATING| agree me a eee eter) | leuie Rea i TWERTER Xr J) [SALCULATING| @ Wy UJ 1 | section | sm Tee DP kd Lae ce arta] Bit | | tor 1 |REVERSIBLE| Re id ia a counter 6 PHASE IT » [ie es Liat 4 a uftwsrat a ; | MEMORY Lo BSheet 1 of 8 5,250,765 Oct. 5, 1993 US. Patent | wise Hy ‘4aLNN0D 46 yaLNNod S1GISUIAIY ar Al NOILIaS ONLY INIWS UaLUBANI AY NOILO3S. NOILO3S Noueas walanawy| | [oniva3N39 ANRRUNOP TT] NYAINOD f+ AN3UUNO FH= NoiLoas we ny JONTHOLIAS oo NVWNOD| SOnLMany| 1 LN3YYND| —Kt—*t 300188 c€ | | \o2 Y3LNdWOOOUDIN - - . ~ oe —- . asi. Woe | Old SearUSS. Patent Oct, 5, 1993 Sheet 2 of 8 5,250,765 r----+Caer) FIG. 2 1s RISING OF TERMINAL SENSOR DETECTED 51 TERMINAL NO 2 SET FIXED- VALUE CLES: 53~4 REMAINDER DATA TO REVERSIBLE COUNTER REVERSIBLE | NORMAL 54: COUNTER VALUE OPERATION OF SPEED COMMAND is SPEED COMMAND Wr LESS THAN TERMINAL, SENSOR RUSH SPEED ? 55, INPUT TERMINAL. SENSOR RUSH SPEED Wro TO SPEED AMPLIFIER 56~1 INPUT wr TO SPEED AMPLIFIER 5g~J SPEED AMPLIFIER OPERATION 59~] VECTOR OPERATIONUS. Patent Oct. 5, 1993 Sheet 3 of 8 5,250,765 FIG. 3 SPEED COMMAND +hor ¢ POSITION (OVERSHOOT) + POSITION 0 #L2 FLT gio-g;8) (REMAINDER)U.S. Patent Oct. 5, 1993 Sheet 4 of 8 5,250,765 SPEED / TORQUE 1 /\ . i “| POSITION bag Sswuee’” agi" 4 | SENSOR 15 STOPPER 13 OUTPUT FROM CLT SENSOR 15 POSITION (REMAINDER) (Gio 8i*)U.S. Patent Oct. 8, 1993 Sheet 5 of 8 5,250,765 FIG. 7 PRIOR ARTU.S, Patent Oct. 5, 1993 Sheet 6 of 8 5,250,765 = - wo a S uw % i inal 5 * iL) (Gio- 6i*) 1 X5,250,765 Sheet 7 of 8 Oct. 5, 1993 US. Patent j 2E~\}rpismzimif #0 + 9 eye [I 19 sm od kal [oy aw x * ee by 2 y NOLLO3S No1L03S| lay ONG F Tonuwrnowa] | | ONLVINS WS ; i\ STONY 3SVHd Nouaag]_ |, NolLo3s NolLO3s cS maida | Peles, sé Tye f= J G i ANaUUND r 2° youaas le ood ualultgNv ONLIEAND 92 NOIL93S| aaadS + | GNVWNOD 6e NOLL IN TWO| ie @33dS BONNY] : ANBHHND amv r -k}—K— pi ce oe agonua | cf 7 “] oe u3LNdWOdONOIN asl ve luv Hold Q “S| 4US, Patent Oct. 5, 1993 Sheet 8 of 8 5,250,765 FIG.9 PRIOR ART VT wl pees ™ > 5 E N a Qo) =====S=5555=>=>>--- wr a. o ° Ss POSITION ’ ' ! 1 A A 1 eel con 15 STOPPER 13 \ OUTPUT FROM CLT SENSOR 155,250,765 1 APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING ELEVATOR DOOR BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling an elevator door in which the driving of a ‘motor for opening and closing the elevator door is con- trolled by an inverter. 2, Description of the Related Art FIG, 7 shows a mechanical structure of a general elevator door system. In FIG. 7, the elevator door sys- ‘em comprises a hanger case 1, adoor controlling unit 2, 1 door driving motor 3 connected to the door control- ling unit 2, nd a driving unit 4 fixed to the upperside of the hanger case 1 and containing the motor 3. A door 6 provided at the entrance of a cage is connected to the driving unit 4 through a four-throw driving link 5. On the door 6 are provided an engaging unit 7 which is engaged with the unit (not shown) provided on a door ata riding place within a door zone so as to Tink the door 6 t0 the door at each riding place, and a door hanger 11 which is moved by hanger rollers 9 and up thrust rollers 10 for guiding the door 6 to be opened and closed on a rail 8. The hanger case 1is provided with a door stopper 12 atthe opening end and a door stopper 330n closing end, both of which are made of an elastic material, as well as an OLT sensor 14 indicating an open state of the door 6 and a CLT sensor 18 indicating a closed state of the door 6. A door stopper 16 which strikes the door stoppers 12 and 13 and a fitting 17 for actuating the OLT sensor 14 and the CLT sensor 18 are also fixed to the door hanger 11 FIG. § shows the circuit arrangement of the conven- tional door controlling unt 2 for controlling the above- Gescribed elevator door system. For example, a three-phase alternating current of 200 V or 220 V, which is input from a power source, is rectified by’ diode bridge 20 and smoothed by a smoothing capacitor 21 to generate a de voltage. The de voltage is controlled to a sine-wave motor current by an inverter 22 comprising switching elements such as tran- sistors, FETs or the like. During this control, the switching elements of the inverter 22 are subjected to pulse width modulation by the PWM pulse generated from a PWM section 27. In this way, the speed and torgue of the door driving motor 3 are controlled “The speed of the door driving motor 3 is detected by ‘an encoder 23 provided on the motor shaft. The speed of detected by the encoder 23 is subtracted from the speed command « generated from a speed command generator 30 in a microcomputer 24 at a subtraction. section 31 to determine a speed deviation Aw. When the speed deviation Aa, is input 10a speed amplifier 32, the amplifier 32 calculates torque necessary for the door a, the command switching section 43 inputs the terminal sensor rush speed «oto the subtraction section 31 in Step 7 If it is decided in Step 50 that the rising of the termi- nal sensor is not detected and in subsequent step 51 that the terminal sensor is operated, itis decided that the fined-value remainder data 6 o has been already set in the reversible counter 41, and the flow moves to Step 54 in which the speed command , is output from the position amplifier 42 ‘The inverter 22 is controlled in the above-described ‘manner, and a current is supplied from the inverter 22 t0 the motor 3 50 as to drive the motor ata desired speed ‘The output Gio 6i* from the reversible counter 41 is subjected to addition or subtraction by the feedback pulse output from the encoder 23 so as to converge to 2ero. Since the ovtput 6ig— 6i* and the speed command ‘er output from the position amplifier 42 have the rela- tion shown in FIG. 3, the speed command «also con- verge to zero. Namely, the speed of the elevator door 6 is decreased in such a manner that the actual speed 1a," =0 when the door stopper 16 is placed at a position just ahead of the stopper 13 or 12, as shown in FIG. 4. In FIG. 4, the broken line shows the torque Ty of the motor 3 In FIG. 3, when the position dio 6i* (a remainder to 2 position just ahead of the stopper 13 oF 12) passes through zero, ie., when the door stopper 16 is brought {nto contact with the stopper 13 or 12 and pressed against it since the polarity of the speed command ois reversed, the opening and closing of the door 6 are5,250,765 5 controlled so that the position dio—6i* converges to zer0. For example, assuming that the position loop gain of the reduction pattern G-A-O shown by the the soli line in FIG. 3 is Ky, and that the remainder at the start of reduction is Li, ‘a,=Kpor(Gio~8i*) and «0=Kpos L1 within the range of | Bi—8i*)| =L1. When the posi tion passes through the origin which is a target point, since (Gig 6i*)30, the speed command «is also nega” tive. In this case, the pattern H-D-O shown in FIG. 3is obtained. When the position loop gain is increased 0 Kos | (>Kpo), the speed at the point +L1 is greater ‘than the terminal sensor rush speed «for example, reaches the point C. The pattern of the speed command «ris therefore shown by G-A-C-B-O in which the point Avis jumped to the point C. If the relation 01 Kpor(Gio—6i*) Se, is constantly ‘established, no jump is produced in the speed command ‘ar even if the position loop gain is changed. When the position loop gain is increased to the above value Kost, the speed command is calculated s0 that «-=Koid ‘eg. Namely, in FIG. 3, the reduction start- ing point is the point +L2, and the speed command wy is reduced along the pattern G-A-B-O. When the posi- tion passes through the origin, the pattern in the over- shoot direction is shown by O-F-D-H in FIG. 3. This calculation is made in Steps $5 and 57 shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 5 shows the block diagram of an automatic control system equivalent to the door controlling apps- ratus according to the embodiment. A speed amplifier 432 is generally subjected to PI control and has a great force to return the position to the target value even if the position amplifier 42 produces positional error be- cause it contains an integrator 32a ‘As described above, the embodiment enables the driving of the motor 3 to be controlled so that the dis- tance from the door stopper 16 of the elevator to the stop target point provided at a position just ahead of the door stopper 12 or 13 is zero. The door 6 is thus at the ‘position just ahead of the stopper 12 or 13 without col- liding with stopper at the opening and closing ends. Itis, therefore possible to prevent the generation of sound by door stopping when the door is opened and closed and the vibrations of the door 6. In addition, since the reac- tion force which has the maximum torque determined by the driving capacity of the motor 3 and the inverter 22 is generated for preventing the door 6 from being forced open, the safety is improved. When the door stoppers 12 and 13 are provided, as shown in FIG. 7, itis unnecessary to consider the over- shoot position. For example, when the position (Bio— i*)330, as shown in FIG. 6, the characteristics of the position amplifier 42 may be set so that the speed com- mand ois zero. This method has the advantage that even if the reversible counter 41 is mistakenly operated ‘when the door 6 is stopped at the opening and closing ends, the movement of the door 6 is not started ‘What is claimed is: 1, An apparatus for controlling an elevator door com- prising: 1a motor for opening and closing an elevator door; fan inverter unit connected to said motor which con- trols the driving of said motor; door position detecting means connected to said ‘motor for detecting the position of the door; first and second sensors connected to said door posi- tion detecting means which respectively detect that said door passes through a terminal reference point on an opening side and a terminal reference point on a closing side; 6 speed command generating means for generating a door speed command on the basis of a distance between the door position detected by said door position detecting means 10 a stop target position fn the opening side or the closing side when said first and second sensors respectively detect the passage of said door by the opening and closing Side terminal reference points; and ‘control means for controlling said inverter unit on the basis of the speed command output from said speed command generating means. 2. An apparatus for controlling an elevator door ac- cording to claim 1, wherein said door postion detecting rieans comprises an encoder connected toa shaft of said motor 3. An apparatus for controlling an elevator door ac- cording to claim 1, further comprising opening~ and closing-side stoppers, the opening-side stop target posi- tion and closing side stop target position being set at positions just ahead of said opening-side stopper and said closing-side stopper, respectively. ‘4 An apparatus for controlling an elevator door ac cording to claim 1, wherein said speed command gener- ating means includes the function of outputting a speed command which is proportional to a distance between the door position detected by said door position detect- ing means and the opening-side stop target position ot the closing-side stop target position. '. An apparatus for controlling an elevator door ac- cording o claim 1, wherein said speed command gener- sting means includes the function of outputting zero as speed command when said door passes through the ‘opening-side stop target position or the closing-side stop target ‘6. An apparatus for controlling an elevator door ac- cording to claim 4, wherein said speed command gener- ating means includes the function of outputting as the maximum speed command the speed when said door passes through the opening-side terminal reference point or the closing-sde terminal reference point 7. An apparatus for controlling an elevator door com- prising ‘a motor for opening and closing an elevator door; an inverter unit connected 10 said moor which con- trols the driving of said motor, an encoder connected to said motor which generates pulses indicative of the speed of said motor; door position detecting means connected to said en- oder for detecting 3 position of the door, first speed command generating means for generating ’ speed command for the door, said first speed command generating means being connected 10 ‘aid door position detecting means, second speed command generating means for gener- ating a speed command for the door, 4 command switching means connected to said first ‘and second speed Command generating means for transmitting the speed command generated by said first speed command generating circuit when determined door position is detected by said door position detecting means; and control means for controlling said inverter unit on the ‘basis of the speed command output from said com- ‘mand switching means. 8, An apparatus for controlling elevator doors as claimed in elaim 7 wherein said door position detecting means includes a reversible counter connected to a data memory. 9. An apparatus for contrslling elevator doors as claimed in claim 7 wherein said first speed command generating means includes a position amplifier. 0 4s 85 6UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENTNO. : 5,250,765 DATED ‘October 5, 1993 INVENTOR(S): wi zuno et al. Itis certified that error appears in the above-i corrected as shown below: lentiied patent and that said Letters Patent is hereby Claim 2, column 6, line 14, after "moto" insert Claim 3, column 6, line 18, change "closing side" to --closing-side--. Claim 5, column 6, line 32, after “target” insert --position--. Signed and Sealed this Nineteenth Day of April, 1994 [BRUCE LEHMAN Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks