Railways – Amusement – Rotary car on truck
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-27
2001-10-16
Le, Mark T. (Department: 3617)
Railways
Amusement
Rotary car on truck
C188S185000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06302029
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This application is the national phase under 35 U.S.C. §371 of PCT International Application No. PCT/EP98/02872 which has an International filing date of May 15, 1998 which designated the United States of America.
The invention relates to a vehicle, a vehicle for a fairground ride in particular, with an undercarriage guided in a track and a top carriage arranged on said undercarriage and turnable with respect thereto, a damping device for damping the relative rotations between top carriage and undercarriage being provided for.
2. Related Art
Such a vehicle is known from DE 195 25 429 A1. In this vehicle, the eccentricity of the axial position and the damping effect are set in mutual functional dependency in accordance with a function of quality. During the passage of curves of a roll coaster-like track portion the top carriage is stimulated by the attacking centrifugal forces to a rotational movement about the vertical axial connection or the axial connection inclined to vertical, with respect to the undercarriage. The rotational movement is desired and serves for increasing fun in driving. The important point is that it takes place in controlled manner and that the passengers are not strained to much.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention aims at further developing the generic vehicle such that in simple manner control is possible of the relative movements occurring during passage of curves, between top carriage and undercarriage.
The invention achieves this aim by way of the subject matter set forth in the claims. As compared to the generic prior art, the damping device therein is constructed as centrifugal brake and/or a locking and/or alignment system controlled by the track is provided for, which system blocks or releases rotations of the top carriage with respect to the undercarriage and/or aligns the top carriage with respect to the undercarriage.
The construction of the damping device as centrifugal brake permits an automatic adaptation of damping to the respective curve geometry, since the embodiment of the centrifugal brake in accordance with the present invention without problem prevents excessively quick rotational movements of the top carriage with respect to the undercarriage depending on the centrifugal forces caused by the passage of the curves.
The stopping system fixes the relative alignment of top carriage and undercarriage with respect to one another such that rotations between top carriage and undercarriage are impossible. In this manner, the carriage goes from a straight into a curve with a constant radius. Because of the locking, top carriage and undercarriage have the same angular speed and in the initial portion of the curve experience angular acceleration. Thereafter, due to the constant radius the angular speed remains constant, too. In a given position of the curve now the connection or locking, respectively, between top carriage and undercarriage is released such that the top carriage can rotate independently from the undercarriage. This rotation is maintained also after passage of the curve, wherein the speed of rotation due to the respective position of the center of mass of the top carriage in the horizontal plane (i.e. the actual eccentricity) can still be (blown up) increased. The passenger, thus, will experience the surprising effect of a rotation in spite of the fact that due to the track geometry no rotation still had to be expected.
In order not to experience an excessively strong impact when releasing the locking device during entering the curve, loosening of the locking device can be deferred or extended over a definite period of time by slipping. This a.o. also is required, if due to the eccentric support and/or support inclined to vertical, of the top carriage with respect to the undercarriage the effect of rotation during passage of the curve is even increased by superimposed effects of gravitation and oscillation. Just in case of occurrence of such effects again the supplementary centrifugal brake is particularly meaningful.
In particularly preferred manner, the centrifugal brake for this purpose comprises at least two centrifugal weights mounted on the top carriage. The centrifugal brake is dimensioned thus that it acts only in case of rotations of the top carriage, it cannot, however, be activated by other forces acting on the carriage (e.g. by braking the undercarriage in the track or by passing a “valley” (also: trough) or a “peak” (also: dome)). For doing so the centrifugal brake is pretensioned or preadjusted such that it starts to act only after a defined fined threshold force.
A transmission device converts movements of the centrifugal weights into application movements of a brake shoe. The brake shoe preferably acts on the outer circumference of a brake ring arranged on the undercarriage. Furthermore, one or several spring(s) are provided for defining the actuation force of the centrifugal brake and/or for compensation of the friction which e.g. is caused by guide elements for the brake actuation. The diametrically opposed centrifugal weights are connected with suitable rods such that they can act in same direction to the outside or to the inside so that in case of cross forces in rest, in case of centrifugal forces due to the rotation cause a regulating force to the rods, which is used for braking.
During realization of the locking system, a toggle lever mechanism actuated by stop cams turned out to be particularly advantageous. For this purpose. a brake disk arranged in the top carriage is provided for, in addition the locking systems includes a lock brake activation arranged on the undercarriage, which again comprises the spring-biased toggle lever system with roller actuation.
A further, particularly preferred modification of the invention supplements the vehicle by an alignment system for aligning the top carriage with respect to the undercarriage—e.g. in the station area. Such an alignment system can in simple constructive manner be combined with the above-described toggle lever system for locking.
Further preferred embodiments of the invention can be taken from the remaining subclaims.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5791254 (1998-08-01), Mares et al.
patent: 6098549 (2000-08-01), Mares
patent: 427891 (1926-04-01), None
patent: 0778060 (1997-06-01), None
patent: 392329 (1908-11-01), None
Le Mark T.
Maurer Sohne GmbH & Co. KG
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