Railway rolling stock – Locomotives – With land engaging wheel
Patent
1997-07-23
1998-11-03
Morano, S. Joseph
Railway rolling stock
Locomotives
With land engaging wheel
104243, 180401, 238122, E01B 2528
Patent
active
058293574
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a guidance system for a vehicle fitted with steered wheels on pneumatic tires.
Document WO 88/00544 has already disclosed a rapid public transport vehicle that runs on tires and is automatically guided along a predetermined track by a grooved roller that follows a rail. Although no precise description of the rail is given in that document, it can be inferred that the rail is similar to those used for travelling cranes. Such a rail has a horizontal head bounded by vertical lateral faces which meet said head along 2 to 5 mm rounded edges which are inherent in the way the rail is rolled. As for the guide roller, this has a U-section groove defined by the rim of the roller and two flanges, one on either side of the rail.
However, this known rail has certain defects of adhesion and noise that can be explained by careful examination of the complementary forms of the cross-sections of the rail and of the groove of the roller. It will be found that any lateral movement of the roller caused by a sideways swaying of the supporting arm or a curve in the track greater in amplitude than the amount of play between the rail and the roller causes the flange of the roller to strike against the lateral face of the rail. Since the flange of the roller and the lateral face of the rail are both in the same vertical plane, their area of contact coincides with that of a segment of a circle whose radius is equal to the external radius of the flange and whose chord is the generatrix of the rail lying along the lower limit of the rounded edge.
The relative speed of each of the contact points of the roller flange with respect to the rail varies in proportion to the distance which separates it from the instantaneous centre of rotation of the rim of the roller on the head of the rail. Those contact points of the roller that are moving at the fastest relative speeds and are under the greatest contact pressures from the rail will be subject to the severest wear and will produce the greatest part of the unwanted noise.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to solve the abovementioned problems and avoid many other faults connected with the use of a rolling metal-on-metal contact--in particular the risk of derailment and poor adhesion. To this end it provides a rolled rail having a head which comprises receding inclined lateral faces.
The present invention relates to a guidance system for a vehicle fitted with steered wheels on pneumatic tires, comprising a rail and a grooved roller designed to follow the rail, which grooved roller floats at the end of a directional arm coupled to the pneumatically tired steered wheels of the vehicle, which is designed to follow a two-way track.
The directional arm extends parallel to the rail. It points in the direction in which the vehicle is moving, when it carries the roller in front of itself, and there is generally also a second arm pointing in the opposite direction to the direction of movement of the vehicle, in other words a supporting arm pulling a second guide roller as disclosed in European patent No. 0,062,370 by the applicant.
The rail according to the invention finds its main application in rail-guided vehicles designed to run on a two-way track compatible with a normal roadway. The rail is usually let into a channel cut into the road surface or is laid on the surface of the ground in a dedicated site.
The guidance system of the invention for a vehicle, designed to follow a two-way track and comprising pneumatically tired steered wheels coupled to a directional arm, comprises: a rail with a rolled steel section comprising a head supported on a web strengthened by a lower foot projecting from each side of the web, said head being bounded laterally by receding inclined lateral faces; and
a grooved roller following the rail, said grooved roller floating at an end of the directional arm of the vehicle.
In accordance with one feature of the invention, the lateral faces of the rail are at an angle of inclina
REFERENCES:
patent: 2619290 (1952-11-01), Thomson
patent: 2717739 (1955-09-01), Burkhardt et al.
patent: 3180280 (1965-04-01), Kuch et al.
patent: 3730103 (1973-05-01), Weaver
patent: 4355578 (1982-10-01), Raquet
patent: 4454819 (1984-06-01), Cuylits et al.
Bombardier Eurorail, S.A.
Morano S. Joseph
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