Railways – Switches – For toothed rail
Patent
1992-03-05
1993-09-28
Le, Mark T.
Railways
Switches
For toothed rail
E01B 2500
Patent
active
052478904
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
DESCRIPTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a girder type switch track for use in a branching point of a girder type track for guiding a car such as a magnetic levitating type linear motor car or a monorail car.
2. Background of the Invention
As a girder type track for guiding a vehicle, one for supporting and guiding the monorail car is well known.
A known switch track for use in a switch portion of such girder type track comprises a girder portion disposed between a stationary main track and a plurality of stationary other tracks. The girder portion is turnable at its end adjacent to the main track so that the other end can be connected to any of the other tracks In such girder type switch track, in order to obtain a sufficient deflection of the track with using a single such girder portion, the latter should be long enough to smoothen a turning of a car guided thereby. Further, when such girder portion is turned around the one end thereof, an angle of the girder portion with respect to the main track becomes large, so that the car can not be guided smoothly In order to solve this problem, it has been proposed to constitute a switch track with a plurality of girder portions mutually turnably connected to each other to form an articulated curve so that the car is guided smoothly along the curve.
FIG. 5 shows an example of a conventional articulated switch track 53 which is used to connect a stationary main track 51 of a girder type track to either of two other main tracks 52a and 52b thereof. The switch track 53 includes a plurality (four in the illustrated example) of girder portions 53a, 53b, 53c and 53d. The first girder portion 53a is turnably connected at one end thereof to an end of the main track 51 by means of a pin 54. The second to fourth girder portions 53b-53d are mutually turnably connected to form a series connection. Each of the girder portions 53a to 53d is driven by respective drive means. The drive means may be a crank mechanism having a swingable crank arm. For example, a crank arm 50 of a crank mechanism 55 is engaged with a longitudinal groove formed in the first girder portion 53a such that the latter is switched between a position shown by a solid line and a position shown by a chain line with rotation of the crank arm 56. Similarly, the second girder portion 53b is driven by a crank arm 58 of a crank means 57, the third girder portion 53c is driven by a crank arm 60 of a crank means 50 and the fourth girder portion 53d is driven by a crank arm 62 of a crank means 61. The respective crank means 55, 57, 59 and 61 may be driven in symchronism with each other by a single connecting rod 64 which is in turn driven by an electric motor 63. The first girder portion 53a is turned around the pin 54 by a predetermined angle with respect to the main track 51, the second girder portion 53b is turned by a predetermined angle with respect to the first girder portion 53a. Similarly, the third and fourth girder portions 53c and 53d are turned, respectively. Thus, the main track 51 is connected switchingly to either the other main track 52a or 52b.
In this conventional switch track, there are provided gaps between the fourth girder portion 53d and the other main tracks 52a, 52b in view of thermal expansion of track. Further, in order to avoid collision of the fourth girder portion 53d with any of the other main girder tracks when the switch track is turned, the gaps provided in between the fourth track portion 53d and the other main tracks 52a and 52b must be large enough, which may cause a smooth guiding of the car to be difficult. Further, due to the necessity of moving the girder portions by means of the respective drive means, an overall facility therefor becomes large and expensive.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to solve these problems inherent to the conventional art by providing a girder type switch track having a simple structure and being capable of smoothing the guiding of a car to any of other main tracks.
Ano
REFERENCES:
patent: 4016818 (1977-04-01), Ellzey
patent: 4109584 (1978-08-01), Mihirogi
HSST Corporation
Le Mark T.
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