The mid-story seismic isolated building has isolators at the mid-story and it is expected to apply for the seismic retrofit. The elevator for the mid-story seismic isolated building receives strong rail bending stress by the large deformation at the isolated story. To reduce the rail stress, the rail fixing span makes longer at the isolated story. This method has a big advantage for the elevator shaft space, but to realize the long rail fixing span, it is necessary to prevent a large reaction force excited by the car swing motion during an earthquake. To resolve the above problem, we developed a nonlinear finite element model to evaluate the earthquake transient behavior and checked the rail bending stress. The simulation result was evaluated by the experiment.

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From a viewpoint of an urban disaster prevention when an earthquake occurs, a Middle-Floor Seismic Isolation Buildings are widely constructed. This seismic isolation building structure is divided into the upper and the lower sides by base isolations, the upper is a seismic isolation portion and the lower is a non-seismic isolation portion, and in between the portions, horizontal large displacement occurs in case of an earthquake. Elevators Compatible with Middle-Floor Seismic Isolation Buildings is able to go up and down without a change the elevator shaft bisected in a isolated portion. In order to make an elevator run a seismic isolation layer smoothly, we developed new rail support structure which absorbs relative displacement between a seismic isolation building portion and a non-seismic isolation building portion. And a fixed interval is prepared between an elevator and an elevator shaft wall, new entrance hatch can expand and contract. These elevator system can detect a preliminary tremor of earthquake, and it is adopted new control operation system for emergency which operate an elevator more safely before horizontal displacement by an earthquake grows.

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Vibration of steps in escalators and auto-roads that use a conveyer chain has increased as a result of their compact size and high speed. This vibration is caused by geometric motion when the chain is rolled onto the sprocket in a polygonal shape. Oscillation has increased as a result of an increase in speed and miniaturization of the sprocket (fewer sprocket teeth). This report describes a vibration-suppressing guide rail that can easily eliminate this vibration. The vibration-suppressing effect of this guide rail has been verified.

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Now, population of downtown is congested, furthermore passage way which connect each buildings, to a gate, and so on are complicating. To let people move more smoothly, to prevent crowds and to reduce the fatigue we suggest "Moving Walk". But when installing "Moving Walk" in existent Cities, we find difficulties that old type can not make deal with it, because if the settled ground dimension or building height. We proceeded the development of the "Moving Walk" by, required depth of the ground to be half, comparing to the conventional "Moving Walk". In this development, we specified "Vibration Noise Problem" which cause from the thin machines. Specifying by analysis, in the consequence, we reached to the early development.

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In late years, machine-room-less elevators have become mainstream and the demand for further space saving of elevator system is still increasing. At the same time, from the viewpoint of eco-friendliness, we should consider the resource saving as well. However it is difficult to meet these demands with the conventional "Traction sheave system" due to its limit of traction capability. Under this situation, we have recently completed the development of a revolutionary new drive mechanism "TALON Drive" that saves space and resources. The TALON Drive mechanism moves the elevator cab up and down by pressing the technologically advanced belt against the rope surface. We have already obtained EN81 certificate and put it on the European and Middle Eastern market. Commercialization of TALON Drive in Japan, North America and Asia is in progress now. TALON Drive is to be our global standard product in future.

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An air pressure control system has been developed to vary air pressure inside the cars of the elevators installed in the Taipei Financial Center, Taipei, Taiwan, traveling at 1010m per minute. (Down rated speed 600m/minute) When traveling up and down in a high-speed elevator in a skyscraper, passengers may feel uncomfortable because of blocked ears caused by the sudden change in air pressure due to high-speed traveling in a skyscraper. Passengers sometimes fell pain in their ears. A report was submitted stating that as a technique to mitigate this discomfort, control of air pressure inside elevator cars to a steady rate of change from start to end of elevator traveling would be effective in enhancing the comfort of passengers. This paper reports the system (control equipment) configuration of the air pressure control system developed to control air pressure inside elevator cars to a steady rate of change, car enclosure structure, car entrance/exit structure, air pressure controller and results of the control performance in a test tower.

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The Elevator has an important transportation in high-rise buildings, but increasing of elevator shafts space is a serious problem. In order to solve the problem, we propose the double-car elevator system that has two cages in one shaft as one of the elevator systems in the near future. The double-car elevator has many problems that should be solved. We discuss about rules to avoid a collision, because two cages move at one shaft independently. Then, we propose the zoning method for two cages moving safely and operating efficiently, and show their effects by simulations.

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In recent years, there are many reports about planned extra high -rise buildings. In such buildings, the huge population would require very high levels of traffic handling capacity, and thus the large amount of space needed for elevators presents a serious problem. For such cases, the use of multi-car elevators (MCE) that has several cars in a single elevator shaft is considered as one possible solution. We have already studied the performance of MCE in the case of pure up-peak traffic. In practice, however, all kinds of uneven and changing pattern will occur and some kind of group control algorithm becomes necessary This paper reports on the development of the group control for MCE, and shows its effectiveness.

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With the enforcement of the Barrier-Free Law (install in stations of passengers over 5,000 people per a day), demands for building station elevators are increasing from the railway companies. Characterized by "Pitless" (pit depth 150mm) aiming renovation cost and time reduction for already installed station, installation hours were reduced. Moreover, Water and Grycol is used for operative fluid instead of operative oil considering "Environment Friendly"

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Airships are an environmentally-friendly, safe and energy-saving vehicle. They are useful in rescue activities for large-scale disasters which are free from ground conditions. Therefore, they are now reconsidered as the most suitable vehicle to meet the modern social needs. If minimal-sized airships with highly enhanced maneuverability can be realized, they will satisfy people's desire to fly freely in the air without anxiety. In case of disasters, airships can closely monitor and access damages n the ground. However, conventional propulsion systems have very little hope to enhance their responsiveness. Hence, we try to adopt cycloidal propellers thrust by controlling attack angles of blades which rotate constantly. By placing the airship's gravity center and the buoyancy center as close as possible, the airship can perform even a somersault around the center of gravity. In this paper, the state of art of a trial fabrication of this airship is presented.

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Amusement rides provide joy, excitement, and thrilling experience for guests. Since the amusement rides are intended for human occupants, they must ensure safety and provide comfort at the same time. This paper describes one analyzing technique for securing the structural safety in those rides, through the efficient application example of MSC. ADAMS and MSC. NASTRAN.

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In this paper, we propose the parking operation method for one car elevator on residential building. First, we analyze relationship between parking operation and traffic flow characteristic parameters, like passengers arrival ration of congestion floor and series boarding rate. Series boarding is the situation that a passenger gets off at a floor, and boards at the same floor before another passenger arrival at any floor. This situation caused by residents' action like meeting at the lobby or throwing garbage away to the garbage can. Second, we propose decision rule of parking floor according to the results of simulation. Furthermore, we show the simulation under some real building condition, to demonstrate our method.

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[in Japanese]

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The final goal of this study is to apply the shock absorber utilizing plastic deformation of aluminum tube to elevator buffer. First, in order to study characteristics of axialty crushed tubes, various aluminum tubes were compressed on two types of plane and conical dies. As a result, these caused the two modes of progressive. bucking and inversion. It is concluded that the load-displacement curve of the inversion mode has ideal shape as shock absorber and the inversion load depends on the thickness of the tube. A theoretical expression to calculate the inversion load is derived from the virtual work theorem, the prediction of which agrees well with experimental and FEM results. Secondly, the adjustability of the inversion mode for elevator buffer is discussed Reproducibility of the inversion mode and effect of interference fit for earth quake-proof a presented. Moreover, anti-Euler buckling is discussed for long-stroke absorber. Finally, dynamic response of an elevator system with the inversion mode absorber was simulated by FEM, the result of which confirms that this absorber is able to satisfy specification of the buffer.

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In this paper we present an application of the ILQ design method with frequency-shaping to the opening-and-closing speed control problem of an elevator door. We have applied the design results to an actual equipment, and performed an opening-and-closing experiment. By proper shaping of the frequency response of the closed loop transfer function from the noise to the output, an unnecessary vibration of speed generated by the uncertainty was proved to be suppressed. As a result, the proposed method has been verified to show better performance than that of the existing control method.

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For space-saving and cost-reduction of elevators, the reinforcement materials of press processing were joined by projection welding, and the panel structure that raises rigidity was developed. This example, which applied the knocking sound characteristic of a panel to the evaluation parameters at the time of development, is reported in that case.

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Average deceleration of safety gear and buffer for elevator is specified below 1G in domestic and international standards. But, the performance evaluation methods of the deceleration for these devices differ respectively, and the safety relations for human tolerance with deceleration level and its duration time are not clear. Then, JEA (Japan Elevator Association) has established, in July 2003, the elevator safety device working group which consists of experts, and now, is deliberating the performance testing method of safety gear and buffer of JEAS (JEA Standard) from a viewpoint of human tolerance of decelerations. This paper is an interim report on WG in JEA and has described the following contents. (1) Current performance diagnosis of safety device (2) Safe level of deceleration of elevator (3) Conformable judging method of safety device

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A cycloidal propeller is known as an omni-directional high-lift thruster. Aiming at construction of a human powered aerobatic airship for indoor use, a design and trial fabrication of the cycloidal propeller have been performed untill last year. However, in order to enable outdoor flights, power source is planned to be converted to a high power output electric motor. We have performed re-designing of a cycloidal propeller which can be driven by a motor power, and carried out aerodynamic calculation, structural calculation of blades, required power, etc., then, we have built a prototype model. As a result, a required power for the thruster, its rotational speed and a size of blade beams have been determined for the expected motor output level. The adopted manufacturing method of blades and the thruster's basic kinematic performances have been proven through its trial fabrication by using the beam and rib combination structure.

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This paper describes the method to measure the displacement of tympanic membrane of the passengers of the high speed elevators and the evaluation of the relationship among the air pressure, behavior of tympanic membrane and ear pressure discomfort. The ear pressure discomfort is caused by the difference of air pressure between the lower floors and the higher floors. For the recent high rise buildings, the effect of ear pressure discomfort is getting much important for the ride comfort of the elevator passengers. The "shape from shading" method is applied to reproduce the displacement of tympanic membrane measured by microscope and high speed video camera. Then the relationship between the displacement and the ear pressure discomfort is evaluated. The result shows that the maximum displacement of tympanic membrane is about 2 mm and it hardly moves much more when an elevator car descends, and then, the ear pressure discomfort is the worst and it is not improved without active opening of the eustachian tube. Additionally, when a car descends, there is no relationship between the displacement of tympanic membrane and the velocity of air pressure change.

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Taipei 101 opened on January 1, this year. This building is 508 m high, and it is the highest building in the world. In Taipei 101, there are 2 elevators which can travel 1010 m in a minute, and they are also the fastest elevators in the world. To this elevator, many new technologies are appllied, such as an atmospheric-pressure-control-system and active-mass-damper. So far, we could not verify the elevator system by our facilities, we have carried out our development based on the numerical simulation mainly. In starting the system at the site, we completed data measurement in the first time, we report the performance of these items.

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It is enumerated in the high rank to improve "Waiting time" and "Getting on time" as demands for the elevator from the user. Although improvement in the speed of an elevator, the additional installation, etc. can be considered for those improvements, there is a limit in improving them by the limited space and limited enerey. As one method to achieve those demands, we propose an elevator system with variablle speeds which can change travel speed by using the ability of the driving device to its maximum according to the weight difference (number of passengers) between the car and the counterweight. The outline is shown about the development subjects, the feature, and the effect of the elevator system in this paper.

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The machine room less elevator. which was introduced more than 5 years has rapidly spreaded into Japan and also world wide market. The requirement of Machine Room Less is now common requirement of all over the world and new elevator system for further improvement (ex. space factor) has been expected. OTIS has introduce new elevator system called "Gen2" (Generation 2) with "nat rope" and "pencil type machine" to comply this requirement. Those new propulsion components produces quite new world of Machine Room Less Elevator. OTIS has applyed this "Gen2" to elevators for residencial usage in Japan.

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The concept of elevators for low-rise buildings has greatly changed by popularizing of machine room-less elevators, installed compactly driving devices within a hoist way. Especially, SPACEL^<TM> which was released into the Japanese market in 1998, has taken the initiative in the elevator industry. We have developed and commercialized new style machine room-less elevator SPACEL-EX^<TM> featuring new technology, composed of new compact traction machine, high-tension rope, a thin control panel and sheaves with smaller diameter. These devices are installed more compactly than the former model. Moreover.the universal design is adopted to SPACEL-EX^<TM>.

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In recent years, installations of escalators or elevators in the station are increasing for barrier-free corresoondence. Since the elevator with universal design for station use was developed this time, the feature points are reported below.

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The vibration of steps in passenger-conveyers that use a conveyer chain has increased as a result of their compact size and high speed. So we have proposeed the vibration-suppressing guide rail which can easily eliminate this vibration as we mentioned in the previous report. This report describes that we have estabilished the method to verifiy the effect of improved vibration-suppressing guide rails with a mechanical simulation program Working Model^<TM> -2D.

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