The Lift Brake

The European Standard EN.81.1 under paragraph 12.4.2.1 recommends that the machine brake should consist of two jaws operating independently. These jaws must be sized in such a way that in the event of a breakage of one of them, the other must be able to retard the downward travel of the fully loaded car. This paper analyses the behaviour of the drum brake (which is used on lift systems) in the event of a failure of one jaw under unfavourable load conditions. In addition a comparison is made with ultimate disk brake.