Remote recording of maintenance operations for an elevator or escalator installation

• US 8,028,807 B2
• Filed: 11/07/2005
• Issued: 10/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Inventio AG (Schindler Holding AG)
• Original Assignee: Inventio AG (Schindler Holding AG)
• Inventors: Bodmer, Christian, Deplazes, Romeo
• Primary Examiner(s): SALATA, ANTHONY J
• Application Number:
  US11/718,981
• Publication Number:
  US 20080283342A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,157 Days
• Field of Search: 187/247, 187/248, 187/391, 187/393, 702/179
• US Class Current: 187/391
• CPC Class Codes: B66B 25/006 Monitoring for maintenance or repair for security reasons B66B29/005
• CPC Class Codes: B66B 5/0006 Monitoring devices or performance analysers B66B5/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B66B 5/0025 for maintenance or repair

Abstract

A method and device for maintenance of an elevator installation or an escalator installation communicates the presence of a maintenance technician at the elevator or escalator installation to a remote service center. The service center is thus informed about that the maintenance technician has to maintain or is maintaining or has maintained a specific installation and is in a position of checking the quality of this maintenance. The maintenance operations are recorded as a maintenance record and communicated to the service center. For example, the maintenance record contains details about which maintenance technician on which day of the year and for how long has undertaken which maintenance operations on a specific elevator or escalator installation. The quality of a thus detected maintenance can then be compared with a quality standard. In addition, the maintenance operations performed are thus uniquely detected and can be evaluated.

Claims

1. A method for maintenance of an elevator installation or an escalator installation, comprising the steps of:

communicating a presence of at least one maintenance technician at the elevator installation or the escalator installation to a remote service center;

detecting, using a recognition unit at the elevator installation or the escalator installation, maintenance operations carried out by the at least one maintenance technician at the elevator installation or the escalator installation; and

recording the detected maintenance operations as a maintenance record for use after the maintenance operations are completed.

2. The method according to claim 1 including identifying the at least one maintenance technician at the elevator installation or the escalator installation.

3. The method according to claim 2 wherein the at least one maintenance technician is identified by recognition of at least one of at least one identification code, at least one admittance feature, and positional localization in a network at the elevator installation or escalator installation.

4. The method according to claim 1 including communicating the maintenance record to the service center.

5. The method according to claim 1 including checking serviceability of the elevator installation or the escalator installation by the service center after conclusion of the maintenance operations.

6. The method according to claim 1 including communicating the maintenance record by the service center to a customer associated with the elevator installation or the escalator installation.

7. The method according to claim 1 including ascertaining a maintenance requirement by the elevator installation or the escalator installation and reporting the maintenance requirement to the service center or to the at least one maintenance technician.

8. The method according to claim 1 including communicating state data of the elevator installation or the escalator installation to the service center, based on this state data determining a maintenance requirement by the service center and reporting the maintenance requirement to the at least one maintenance technician.

9. The method according to claim 1 including determining a maintenance state by the elevator installation or the escalator installation and displaying the maintenance state.

10. A service center configured to perform a method for maintenance of an elevator installation or an escalator installation, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving an indication of a presence of at least one maintenance technician at the elevator installation or the escalator installation; and

recording maintenance operations completed by the at least one maintenance technician at the elevator installation or the escalator installation as a maintenance record for use after the maintenance operations are completed, wherein the maintenance record includes details about kind of maintenance, length of time the maintenance technician was present, and operating times/cycles of maintained components of the elevator installation or the escalator installation.

11. A device comprising:

a recognition unit configured to be arranged at an elevator installation or an escalator installation, the recognition unit being configured to recognize at least one identification code of a maintenance technician or at least one admittance feature of the maintenance technician, the recognition unit being further configured to record a location of the maintenance technician at the elevator installation or the escalator installation and further configured to detect maintenance operations carried out at the elevator installation or the escalator installation;

said device being configured to create a maintenance record of the maintenance operations at the elevator installation or the escalator installation; and

said device being configured to communicate the maintenance record to a remote service center for use after the maintenance operations are completed.

12. The device according to claim 11 wherein a presence of the maintenance technician is communicated to the remote service center by said device.

13. The device according to claim 11 wherein said device communicates a recognized identification code or a recognized admittance feature or the recorded location of the maintenance technician to the remote service.

14. An installation comprising:

at least one elevator or at least one escalator; and

at least one recognition unit coupled to the at least one elevator or the at least one escalator, the at least one recognition unit being configured to detect maintenance work performed on the installation, the installation being configured to transmit a record of the detected maintenance work to a service center.