Device and method for the evacuation of buildings

1. An elevator shaft provided with comprising:

at least one sealing element positioned in the elevator shaft and constructed to seal the elevator shaft, so that the elevator shaft is divided into at least two sections by the at least one sealing element,

wherein at least one landing of the elevator shaft is provided with car-sealing elements that are designed to seal a gap between a respective elevator car and the respective landing.

2. A system for the evacuation of buildings providing an elevator system comprising at least one elevator car and an elevator shaft, said system comprising:

means to detect an incident or means to receive an emergency signal;

means for determining a floor of the incident or the emergency signal; and

at least one sealing element positioned in the elevator shaft and constructed to seal the elevator shaft, so that the elevator shaft is divided into at least two sections by the at least one sealing element,

wherein the elevator system comprises two or more elevator cars that can be moved independently, and

wherein at least one elevator car or at least one landing is provided with car-sealing elements that are designed to seal a gap between the respective elevator car and the respective landing.

3. The elevator shaft as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the at least one sealing element is a sliding door, a trapdoor, a hatch, has the shape of an iris diaphragm or the shape of a roller shutter or is inflatable, and

wherein the at least one sealing element comprises at least one door element.

4. The elevator shaft as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the at least one sealing element is arranged at more than one floor,

wherein a position of the at least one sealing element is between elevator doors of adjoining floors so that sealing of two adjoining sealing elements would result in the division of the elevator shaft into three sections, where one section lies under an area or a floor of an incident, one section lies above the area or the floor of the incident and one section includes an elevator door of the floor of the incident or elevator doors of the area of the incident.

5. The system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the elevator system is operated by the use of steel cables or elevator cars having an individual moving system.

6. The system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the car-sealing elements are designed to be moved in a sealing position in the case of an emergency and stay in a non-sealing position during normal operation, and

wherein the system comprises moving elements that are designed to move the car-sealing elements in a sealing position in the case of emergency, move lock bars holding car-sealing elements in a non-sealing position or

wherein the system comprises the car-sealing elements that are inflatable and the system comprises elements to inflate the car sealing elements in an emergency case.

7. The system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the system is designed to separate safety elements of the elevator system from a main safety system of the elevator system, and

wherein the system is designed to separate the of the elevator system into two sub-systems controlling the divided sections of the elevator shaft.

8. The elevator shaft as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising at least one of fire sensors, smoke sensors, gas sensors, radiation sensors and sensors for detecting biohazard in the elevator shaft, and is designed to determine during evacuation, whether the atmosphere or heat in the respective shaft-section is safe for evacuation or not.

9. The elevator shaft or system as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the sensors are in the elevator shaft.

10. The system as claimed in claim 2 , further comprising at least one of fire sensors, smoke sensors, gas sensors, radiation sensors and sensors for detecting biohazard in the elevator shaft, and is designed to determine during evacuation, whether the atmosphere or heat in the respective shaft-section is safe for evacuation or not,

wherein the sensors are in the elevator shaft, and

wherein the elevator system is a cable bound elevator system, the sensors determine, determine if cables of the elevator system are still suitable for evacuation despite of heat in other sections of the elevator shaft.

11. The system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the at least one sealing element comprise apertures at a position where cables of the elevator system will be in a sealed position of the at least one sealing element, and

wherein these apertures are less than 5 cm larger than a diameter of the cables.

12. A method to evacuate buildings by using an elevator system comprising the steps of:

detecting an incident or receiving an emergency signal, and determining a floor of the incident or emergency signal;

moving at least one elevator car of a plurality of elevator cars in a predefined evacuation position;

sealing an elevator shaft with at least one sealing element, so that the elevator shaft is divided into at least two sections by the at least one sealing element;

providing at least one landing of the elevator shaft with car-sealing elements that are designed to seal a gap between a respective elevator car and the respective landing; and

moving the at least one elevator car in at least one of these sections to evacuate inhabitants of floors below and/or above the floor of the incident or the emergency signal.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12 , wherein, before closing of the at least one sealing element, any of the plurality of elevator cars above the floor of the incident or the emergency signal are moved to floors below the floor of the incident or the emergency signal or before the closing of the at least one sealing element, a ratio of inhabitants above:below the floor of the incident or the emergency signal is determined and the elevator cars are arranged so that a number of cars above and below the floor of the incident or the emergency signal correspond to the ratio.

14. The system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein at least one sealing element is a sliding door, a trapdoor, a hatch, has the shape of an iris diaphragm or the shape of a roller shutter or is inflatable, and

wherein the at least one sealing element comprises at least one door element.

15. The system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the at least one sealing element is arranged at more than one floor, and

wherein a position of the at least one sealing element is between elevator doors of adjoining floors so that sealing of two adjoining sealing elements would result in the division of the elevator shaft in three sections, where one section lies under an area or floor of the incident or the emergency signal, one section lies above the area or floor of the incident or the emergency signal and one section includes an elevator door of the floor of the incident or the emergency signal or elevator doors of the area of the incident or the emergency signal.

16. The elevator shaft as claimed in claim 3 , further comprising at least one of fire sensors, smoke sensors, gas sensors, radiation sensors and sensors for detecting biohazard in the elevator shaft, and is designed to determine during evacuation, whether the atmosphere or heat in the respective shaft-section is safe for evacuation or not.

17. The elevator shaft as claimed in claim 4 , further comprising at least one of fire sensors, smoke sensors, gas sensors, radiation sensors and sensors for detecting biohazard in the elevator shaft, and is designed to determine during evacuation, whether the atmosphere or heat in the respective shaft-section is safe for evacuation or not.

18. The system as claimed in claim 2 , further comprising at least one of fire sensors, smoke sensors, gas sensors, radiation sensors and sensors for detecting biohazard in the elevator shaft, and is designed to determine during evacuation, whether the atmosphere or heat in the respective shaft-section is safe for evacuation or not.