Roller guides were and are important!

"Sliding guides and roller guides continue to be extremely important for lifts and this will remain the case in the future too, despite all advances in development," emphasised ETN managing director Horst Eichler.

Sliding rollers are the form most commonly used. They have probably existed for a few thousand years; for the most part, they have been used in mining. Roller guides are the comfort version for lifts.

As buildings began to get higher, the importance of roller guides grew as a result of the length of the conveyance paths and the higher speeds desired and needed.

However, roller guides can not only be used for faster lifts, but also in different versions for smoother, quieter and more vibration-free transport. Even the simplest design with permanently attached rollers on bearers produces comfortable running thanks to the elastic roller lining, depending on hardness (Shore A).

Guide holder for easy adjustment of the rollers

The lining of the rollers in the most sophisticated designs is made of VU (Vulkollan) and is generally used by ETN. Vulkollan is a highly elastic polyurethane with an especially high load-bearing capacity for elastomers, depending on the hardness of the rollers, combining especially good resilience and durability.

Depending on the hardness of the lining, this material is very good at compensating for rail irregularities, offsetting and roughness of rails, better than roller guides can, or cheap products with rollers made of rubber or PU based on Desmodur 44.

The aluminium or steel bearers used by ETN have a guide holder for easy adjustment of the rollers.

Diameters and widths can be adjusted

Contrary to the otherwise normal use of excenters, the support rollers here are always opposite each other. Since they are pressed on by hand, the linings cannot be crushed; this prevents considerable wear both to the rollers as well as to the entire lift.

Apart from the rigid roller guides, which ETN lists under the abbreviation FK for lift car and GG for counterweights, there is the special RS version for backpack roller guides.

When it comes to the bearers (holders) of the roller guides, ETN distinguishes between aluminium or steel designs and in special cases even stainless steel. The rollers have cores made of steel, stainless steel or (as in most cases) aluminium, as required. Depending on the use, the VU linings vary in hardness between 65° Shore and 98° Shore.

The diameters and widths of the rollers can be adjusted to almost any requirement. All ETN rollers have precision ball bearings. Almost all linings have undergone additional turning or polishing for high true-running accuracy.

The springs do not cause any additional vibrations

The designs RFG (spring-loaded roller guides), RFGK (small spring-loaded roller guides), RFGW (Winkelrollenführung gefedert) and of course the tandem roller guide TRF boost the comfort of the parts mentioned by using elastic springs to compensate for rail jolts and unevenness on the rails as well as unintended vibrations. This is always dependent on centrally suspended lifts.

ETN makes exclusive use of spring mountings made of a Vulkollan elastic intermediate layer per roller, consisting both of cells or homogeneous or both mixed. They can be easily adjusted by any fitter without additional tools. The springs do not cause any additional vibrations, as is always the case with steel springs.

Suitable for comfortable, low-noise, vibration-free and fast transport

Each roller can be individually adjusted in the case of the roller guides (RFG; RFGK; RFGW) with three rollers each and in the case of tandem roller guides (TRF) with six rollers, each is individually suspended, as in luxury cars, without the otherwise normal seesawing with two rollers.

This version is especially suitable for comfortable, low-noise, vibration-free and also fast transport up to about 8 m/sec.

TRF is especially suitable for hospital lifts, where it is already in widespread use, for hotels, administrative buildings of all kinds, skyscrapers, concert buildings or simply wherever a high degree of comfort is desired.

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