DYNA JOURNAL ENGINEERING

Key words:

efecto cadena, guías antipoligonalización, escalera mecánica, cadenas de rodillos, polygonization effect, pulse-free guides, escalator, roller chains

Article type:

ARTICULO DE INVESTIGACION / RESEARCH ARTICLE

Section:

RESEARCH ARTICLES

Escalators and moving walkways sector have maintained the basic mechanical design for more than a century. The permeability from new patented designs is negligible. This paper presents the first published work in the literature about polygonization problem, oscillatory pulsating movement, in escalators, which occurs when roller chains pass through curved geometries. Conventional geometries (circular curved rails) and pulse-free designed geometries have been analyzed. Pulse-free geometries present a better kinematic behavior than circular paths, which increases passenger comfort, improves mechanical behavior and lowers maintenance costs. The results show that errors, produced by manufacturing and assembly tolerances, in the theoretical path up to 2mm, are admissible. Therefore, pulse-free guides present a robust kinematic behavior and will improve escalator passenger comfort and allowing to save manufacturing and maintenance costs.

Keywords: polygonization effect, pulse-free guides, escalator, roller chains