Device for driving cars or chairs of a gondola-lift or chair-lift in stations

Claim 1

An aerial ropeway transport installation running continuously in a closed circuit, comprising an up track and a down track connecting two end stations, loads running on the circuit, carriages supporting the loads having detachable grips able to be coupled to the rope on the circuit and detached on entering a station, a half-loop circuit joining the up and down tracks, on which the carriages run in at least one of said stations before being recoupled on the rope on leaving that station, said half-loop circuit comprising a semi-circular section having a device to positively drive the carriages, comprising a drive wheel with a vertical axis coinciding with the axis of said semi-circular section, the drive wheel being driven in rotation and bearing on its periphery first means for driving the carriages over said semi-circular section, said first drive means being located at regular intervals on said periphery and driven at a predetermined first speed to impose a regular flow rate to the loads leaving the semi-circular section and a regular distribution of the loads on the circuit, said semicircular section equipped with said drive wheel comprising at least over a part of the section a second drive means for imparting to the carriages a slightly different second speed from that imposed by the drive wheel, one of the first and second drive means having priority to impose a predetermined flowrate of the loads leaving the semi-circular section.