Escalator

An escalator (or escalator ) is a passenger transport means to overcome a height distance at which constitute moving metal or wood segments stairs. The purpose is the transport of passengers in a higher speed than walking pace and with less muscle strength. The so- accelerated " removal " or the supply of people to a location is the time and space savings (eg at platforms ).

There is talk of moving walkway when the metal elements do not form a staircase, but a flat surface. Escalators and moving walks must be turned off during a fire or emergency.

• 7.1 Manufacturer
• 7.2 Elevators and escalators cartel

History

1895 was operated as an attraction at an amusement park at Coney Iceland for the first time an escalator. It was an invention by the American Jesse W. Reno, which on 15 March 1892, the patent applied for was granted. His first invention was merely a rubber bias tape with wood panels, ie a sloping conveyor belt. It had indeed been an earlier 1859 U.S. patent, an escalator with moving stages contained - because the principle was too complicated, it was never built.

The actual inventor of the escalator applies George A. Wheeler, whose patent was issued about five months after that of Jesse W. Reno. However, the real breakthrough he did not make himself Charles Seeberger, who failed with his own designs, bought in 1898, the patent of his colleagues.

The economic breakthrough happened at the Paris World Exposition in 1900. In the U.S., the escalator quickly established in department stores and especially in stations of the subway. An escalator in the built today design was constructed for the first time in 1920 by the Otis Elevator Company. On 11 July 1925, the department store " Tietz " ( Kaufhof / High Street ) installed in Cologne, the first escalators in Germany and the second on the European mainland.

Use in everyday life

Escalators are a feature of urban life, because usually they are only in places with high traffic. Although you have a slower conveyor speed as elevators, but offer the advantage that they can absorb significantly more people. Escalators in interior areas tend to have more slender flanks, which are often made ​​of glass, while they have outdoor metal panels. Due to the longer term and weathering are escalators that are in outside areas and are always in operation, more stressed. They can also be the target of vandalism, especially at night, or in a general weak traffic and remote areas.

Enforced Largely has the principle of " stand right, walk left " unless permitted by the width of the stairs. The principle applies even where normally on the left. In the house rules of the German passenger stations, this behavior is usually prescribed is mandatory. Elsewhere, in part pointed out with signs, such as to access to the London Underground. So to hold free the left side for emergencies, or in the absence of fixed stairs for pedestrians. If the escalator is not an appropriate usage message is already installed, the rule is " Go left, stand right " in Munich, at any rate recognized in customary law and is usually also followed by the locals exactly.

Symbolic content

The silent film The Battleship Potemkin (Russian Original title Броненосец Потёмкин / Bronenossez Potemkin ) by director Sergei Eisenstein shows for the first time a static stairs as a powerful image. Newer films sit by the apparent reversal of static and mobility and developing from paradox to exactly this.

In many films, camera position and direction of travel of the escalator to be used as a stylistic device. Movement opposite to the direction of travel and skip the distinction between two opposite -running escalators is often referred to as the general order counteracting element or used as a symbol of reversal of the scenario.

In the 1922 silent film The resulting all-electric house with Buster Keaton is a built- in a private home escalator as a symbol of modernity, the self- adjustable speed shows but clear and amusing the limits of progress.

Input

An ordinary escalator requires an average of 2-5 kW of electrical power. The demand depends on the speed, length and thus the size of the stairs. Less crucial for the power consumption is the exposure to people. To avoid idle time, have more modern systems via sensors in the form of step plates or photoelectric sensors with a downstream logic. If there are no people on the escalator, it is switched off by the electronics and does not start up again until someone enters them. To determine whether this is a defective or switched to standby mode escalator, have this at the ends of the handrails next to a status display with two small lights. Mostly green stands for operating, more rarely blue; red indicates the opposite direction. Escalators in closed buildings have not such a device usually. Newer escalators are often not completely turned off, but continue to operate with greatly reduced speed. Power consumption and wear and tear while reducing less than the cut-off, but may oncoming passengers operational readiness and the direction are signaled, and the freezing of the stairs at low temperatures is prevented.

Security

Although accidents on escalators are rare, they pose some dangers. In particular, the levels can pinch clothing or body parts. Also a too loosely tensioned handrail can be dangerous, so you should never place your fingers as possible in the vicinity of the guide rail when you grasp the handrail. This can even lead to serious injury. Even a sudden stop can lead to falls. Therefore, there is for the operation safety.

Regulations

The EU Directive on general product safety rules regarding the marketing, among other technical equipment. These include machines such as escalators and moving walkways. This must be created by an EC declaration of conformity as provided for in the EC Machinery Directive. It must be attached to the escalator or moving walkway at a CE mark.

In addition, the speeds of escalators are standardized, they are only allowed to speeds of 0.5 meters per second (1.8 km / h), 0.65 meters per second (2.34 km / h) or more than 0.75 meters per second (2.7 km / h) move. Escalators at the lowest speed used mainly in department stores used, the two faster in subways and airports.

The main monitoring and safety devices

After the Euro norm EN115 tarnishing the prime mover must be prevented or she must stop immediately in some situations. These include failure of power, ground or overloading of electrical circuits. Also this includes the case of an overload of the drive, an overload with an increase in the motor winding temperature, excessive speed or unintentional reversal of travel direction. The failure of the auxiliary brake, breakage or unacceptable lengthening of the immediately the steps, pallets or belt driving components (eg chains). A reduction in the distance between the drive and return means ( e.g., by blocking of the step belt ). External influences, such as jamming of foreign material on the ridges of the delivery ports, top and bottom, a response of the safety devices of the handrail enemas, a decrease of some of the steps or pallets or other damage, through the engagement of the combs is no longer guaranteed, a non-opening of the brake system, a difference between the speed of the steps and the handrail, open access panels, missing steps or grates as well as exceeding the permissible braking distances. An amendment to the European Standard EN115 for safety of escalators also prohibits since 1 January 2010 the carrying of prams on escalators. Background is the risk of accidents, which consists mainly in a sudden emergency stop of the escalator for the kids in the car.

Special escalators

Besides the usual rectilinear escalators, there are also spiral escalators with curved raceways and escalators with stairs.

Some of the few curve escalators can be found in the Minato Mirai 21 in Yokohama buildings and department stores in Hong Kong, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Shanghai and Singapore. Given their technical vulnerability and high cost they have not been able to prevail and a prestige object remain. By the curvature of the outer side of each stage has to move faster than the inner side. This is achieved by more wheels on the further outward side. Due to the different loads and the highly stressed curved guide chains of wear is high and the escalator technically vulnerable.

Escalators with stairs located, for example in the Barcelona airport, in front of the building of the Franz Josef train station in Vienna or in Tokyo subway stations (eg Kudanshita and others).

A special version is the escalators with changing the direction of travel. The direction of travel is not marked as otherwise always consistently and with stickers, but is indicated by status displays at the two ends, which indicate the respective current direction of travel. The change of direction can be switched by the first person entering the stairs, through switches for peak hours, or other conditions that determine the flow of traffic, such as retracting trains at stations. If the change by the person entering, so the stairs running in the direction of where first a light barrier is crossed and left quickly stand back when nobody is in it. Escalators of this type are, for example, common in the Munich subway and light rail Hannover and are at smaller stations save space and money compared to the installation of two escalators with a fixed direction. In the Central Mid-Levels Escalator in Hong Kong, the change takes time of day to facilitate pedestrians at rush hour the way to and from the city center.

Escalators with especially high speed currently are still used in the Prague Metro. All older subway stations in Prague do not have a mezzanine level, that is, the escalators leading directly from the entrance level to the platform, so that a large height difference must be overcome at once. Some of these extremely long escalators were still being manufactured in the Soviet Union and have a speed of up to 0.9 meters per second, which is not consistent with the current rules in the European Union in line. Therefore, the out-dated escalators are to be replaced by 2015.

The longest freestanding escalator in Germany leads to the Ruhr Museum at the Zollverein mine and is 58 meters long.

The longest uninterrupted escalators in the world are each 137 meters, the four escalators to the metro station Admiralteiskaja in Saint Petersburg. The journey takes about 2 minutes and 50 seconds.

In the Colombian city of Medellin 13 a 384 meters long was in the slums Comuna and parts escalator cascade built in six sections. The 5.3 million euro plant can be used for free and reduced a leading over hundreds of steps half-hour distance on six minutes.

Known escalators are, for example, to find the Atomium in Brussels and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Escalators were installed on aircraft carriers to transport the pilots from their common rooms on the flight deck.

Economy

Manufacturer

Manufacturer of escalators are today, for instance:

• Otis Elevator
• ThyssenKrupp
• Mitsubishi Electric ( Japan)
• Schindler lifts
• Kone
• ELES, St. Petersburg, Russia ( ЭЛЕС; . In the USSR, Leningrad machine-building plant "IE Kotljakow " ( Ленинградский машиностроительный завод им И.Е. Котлякова ) or production association " Eskalator " ( Производственное Объединение ( ПО ) " Эскалатор " ) )
• Geyssel escalator service, Cologne, Germany
• Kleemann Group, Kilkis, Greece
• Doppelmayr Wolfurt, Austria

Elevators and escalators cartel

The so-called elevators and escalators cartel, also called " lift- cartel " or called "elevator and escalator cartel ", laid between 1995 and 2004 fixed prices, shared markets, rigged bids for procurement contracts and exchanged commercially important and confidential information. The first evidence of the cartel, there were the end of 2003; then the investigators of the EU Competition Commission moved out to raids in January 2004. After more than three years of investigation, it imposed in February 2007, then the highest EU antitrust fine for a total of 992.3 million euros.

Gallery

Cropped metallic stage an escalator

Drive for the handrail

Operation of an escalator

Open Escalator, the reverse steps are clearly visible