AU2008223824B2

AU2008223824B2 - Device for the pretreatment of air for an air conditioning device of a rail vehicle

Info

Publication number: AU2008223824B2
Application number: AU2008223824A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Winfried Schutz
Original assignee: Siemens AG
Current assignee: Siemens AG
Priority date: 2007-03-06
Filing date: 2008-03-04
Publication date: 2012-04-26
Anticipated expiration: 2028-03-04
Also published as: WO2008107429A1; CN101626935B; RU2009136695A; PL2114742T3; RU2455181C2; DE502008003421D1; ATE508027T1; AU2008223824A1; DE102007011452A1; CN101626935A; EP2114742B1; EP2114742A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a device (1) for the pretreatment of air for the interior (21) of a driver's cab of a rail-guided traction vehicle comprising an air inlet housing (2), which has an outside air opening (2a) and an air conditioning device opening (15) with means for fastening the air inlet housing (2) to an air conditioning device (10), wherein an outside air duct (5) is equipped for connecting the air inlet housing (2) to the air conditioning device (10). It further comprises a separate air outlet housing (3), which has an exhaust air opening (12) and is connected via an exhaust air duct (13) to the interior (2) and/or the air conditioning device (10), wherein a bypass duct (9) bypassing the outside air duct (5) extends between the air conditioning device (10) and the air conditioning device opening (15), an air flap (16) connected to a servo motor being disposed in the bypass duct. The air inlet housing (2) is made of a dimensionally stable material, so that fixed interfaces are defined to the air conditioning device (10) and to the outside wall of the traction vehicle. Said device can be adjusted with little complexity to different requirements, wherein at the same time no changes must be made to the rail vehicle.

Description

PCT/EP2008/052586 - 1 2007PO4014WOCN Description Device for the pretreatment of air for an air conditioning device of a rail vehicle The invention relates to a device for the pretreatment of air for an air conditioning device for the interior of a driver's cab of a rail-guided traction vehicle. Such a device is known, for example, from DE 698 11 821 T2. The device described in said document is used for the pretreatment of air for ventilating an engine compartment of a vehicle, wherein the air which is used for ventilation is filtered. What is referred to as a cyclone precipitator and a filter unit arranged downstream of the cyclone precipitator are provided for the purpose of filtering. DE 689 05 389 T2 describes an alternative air filter for a vehicle, which air filter also comprises a cyclone precipitator. Cyclone precipitators and filter devices also serve here to clean the air which is subsequently used for cooling or air conditioning. DE 20 2004 020 167 Ul has disclosed an air conditioning device for a rail vehicle. Depending on the location of use of the rail vehicle, a wide variety of requirements are made of devices for the pretreatment of air which are used in rail vehicles. For example, the external air in coal trains generally contains a large amount of dust so that great importance is placed on the filtering of the air which, after it has been cleaned, is fed to an air conditioning system. In contrast, in northern countries it is necessary to take effective precautions in order to ensure the method of functioning of the air pretreatment device even in the case of permafrost. The device of the type mentioned at the beginning has the disadvantage that it 5 can only be adapted to the respectively applicable requirements at great effort. In particular in the case of rail vehicles in which only a limited installation space is available, the differing configuration of the device has far-reaching consequences for the configuration of the rail vehicle. However, this configuration which is dependent on the requirements is costly. 10 Object of the Invention It is the object of the present invention to substantially overcome or ameliorate one or more of the disadvantages of the prior art. 15 Summary of the Invention The present invention provides a device for the pretreatment of air for the interior of a driver's cab of a rail-guided traction vehicle, having an air inlet housing which has an external air opening and an air conditioning device opening with means for attaching the air inlet housing to an air conditioning device, wherein an external air duct 20 is configured to connect the air inlet housing to the air conditioning device, and having a separate air outlet housing which has an exhaust air opening and which is connected via an exhaust air duct to the interior and/or to the air conditioning device, wherein a bypass duct, which bypasses the external air duct and in which an air flap which is connected to a servo motor is arranged, extends between the air conditioning device and the air 25 conditioning device opening, and wherein the air inlet housing is composed of a dimensionally stable material, with PCT/EP2008/052586 - 3 2007PO4014WOCN the result that fixed interfaces of the device with the air conditioning device and with the external wall of the traction vehicle are defined. According to the invention, a dimensionally stable air inlet housing is made available. The dimensionally stable air inlet housing has an external air opening which permits external air to enter. In addition, an air conditioning device opening, to which an air conditioning device can be attached, is made available. Owing to the dimensionally stable configuration of the air inlet housing, in this way two interfaces are made available, specifically on the one hand to the exterior of the traction vehicle and on the other hand to the air conditioning device, and any desired additional devices can be inserted between these two interfaces. The dimensional stability of the air inlet housing therefore permits standardized installation of the device in the traction vehicle irrespective of the location of use of the traction vehicle or the respectively prevailing requirements. The device can therefore be extended in a modular fashion, and the additional components communicate with the air inlet housing here. The external air duct expediently has a filter unit and an additional fan. Incorporating these two components into the external air duct permits the function of the device according to the invention to be extended without the need for changes to the interfaces and therefore changes to the overall design of the device according to the invention. Furthermore, the components which interact with the device, for example the air conditioning device which is provided in the traction vehicle, do not need to be changed either. According to a development which is expedient in this regard, the additional fan and filter unit are attached to the air inlet housing. Owing to the dimensionally stable configuration of the air PCT/EP2008/052586 - 4 2007PO4014WOCN inlet housing, the latter has the necessary strength to support the additional fan and filter unit. In this way, a compact design is made available, with the result that the installation space which has to be made available for the device according to the invention in the traction vehicle is minimized. The air inlet housing advantageously has means for attachment to the traction vehicle. The means for attachment are provided, for example, in the region of said fixed interface with the traction vehicle. The traction vehicle can therefore always be configured in the same way even when different requirements are made of the air pretreatment device. After the air inlet housing has been attached to the traction vehicle, the device can be equipped with the necessary components, and the ready mounted traction vehicle can therefore be adapted to the respective application without special structural additional measures having to be taken. The air outlet housing is advantageously also fabricated from a dimensionally stable material. According to this expedient development, a fixed interface, at least with the external wall of the traction vehicle, is also made available for the air outlet housing. Furthermore, the air outlet housing can now also serve as a framework for the attachment of other components. Furthermore, the exhaust air duct also forms a fixed interface with the interior or with the air conditioning device. The exhaust air duct advantageously has an exhaust air flap having a servo motor, wherein a bypass duct having a pressure protection blower bypasses the exhaust air flap. The use of a pressure protection blower on the exhaust PCT/EP2008/052586 - 5 2007PO4014WOCN air side and the adjustable exhaust air flap makes available pressure protection which serves to avoid large fluctuations in pressure in the interior of the traction vehicle. The pressure protection blower expediently cooperates here with the additional fan on the air inlet side and is activated or switched off by means of a separate switch. In this context, the additional fan on the air inlet side feeds counter to the pressure protection blower on the slightly throttled exhaust air side. The steep characteristic curve of the two fans absorbs possible fluctuations in pressure in the interior with respect to the external atmosphere in the characteristic curve of the two fans. The external air duct expediently opens into a bypass duct between the air conditioning device and the air flap. According to this expedient development, an additional duct which opens into the air conditioning device from the air inlet housing no longer has to be provided and the device according to the invention is accordingly more cost-effective. The filter unit expediently comprises a cyclone precipitator and a fine particle filter. Such combination filters have already been disclosed in the prior art, with the result that there is no need to give more details thereon at this point. A weather protection grille is advantageously provided at the external air opening and/or the exhaust air opening. At least one of the weather protection grilles can expediently be heated. Heatable weather protection grilles serve to avoid freezing up of the weather protection grille in cold regions, as a result of which the ventilation of the interior of the traction vehicle is ensured even in the case of frost. According to this advantageous development, complex CO 2 detectors in the interior have PCT/EP2008/052586 - 6 2007PO4014WOCN become superfluous. The continuous supply of oxygen to the interior is ensured even at low temperatures. The additional fan expediently has a virtually constant characteristic curve as a function of the static pressure, which permits the air inlet housing to be arranged on the front side of the traction vehicle. Due to the velocity of the traction vehicle, arranging the air inlet housing on the front side results in a pressure stasis, the level of which depends on the level of the velocity. According to this expedient development, the additional fan makes available such a feed capacity that a reliable supply of air to the interior is made possible even at relatively high velocities of the traction vehicle. Further expedient refinements and advantages of the invention are the subject matter of the following description of exemplary embodiments of the invention with reference to the figures in the drawing, in which identical reference symbols refer to identically acting components and in which: figure 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of the device according to the invention with an air conditioning device, figure 2 shows a further exemplary embodiment of the device according to the invention, figure 3 shows a further exemplary embodiment of the device according to the invention, figure 4 shows a further exemplary embodiment of the device according to the invention, which exemplary embodiment is installed at the front end of the traction vehicle, and PCT/EP2008/052586 - 7 2007PO4014WOCN figures 5 to 8 show further exemplary embodiments of the device according to the invention in a schematic illustration. Figure 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of the inventive device 1 which comprises a rigid air inlet housing 2 and a dimensionally stable air outlet housing 3. The air inlet housing 2 has an external air opening 2a which is covered by an air-permeable weather protection grille 4. An external air duct 5 extends from the rear end of the air inlet housing 2 to a bypass duct 9 via a filter unit 6 and an additional fan 7. The bypass duct 9 is part of the air inlet housing 2 and opens in an air conditioning device opening at which means for attachment to an air conditioning device 10 are provided. Furthermore, the air inlet housing 2 has means 11 for attachment to a traction vehicle of a rail vehicle, which is not illustrated figuratively in figure 1. The air outlet housing 3 bounds an exhaust air opening 12, from which air is output into the atmosphere from the interior of a traction vehicle. The air outlet housing 3 is connected to the air conditioning device 10 via an exhaust air duct 13, and a weather protection grille can also be attached to the exhaust air opening 12 here. The weather protection grilles 4 are heatable weather protection grilles in the exemplary embodiment shown in figure 1, and in this context a control unit 8 is configured to adjust the heating temperature and it makes available the necessary safety technology for the heatable weather protection grilles. The illustrated device 1 is configured for the pretreatment of the external air before it enters the air conditioning device 10. The external air which enters the air inlet housing 3 firstly passes PCT/EP2008/052586 - 8 2007PO4014WOCN via the external air duct 5 to the filter 6 which is a fine particle filter in the exemplary embodiment shown. The drop which occurs here in the pressure of the external air is compensated by the additional fan 7, which is connected downstream of the filter 6 in the direction of the air stream. The external air then passes into the air conditioning device 10 via the bypass duct 9 and the air conditioning device opening. The air conditioning device 10 itself has expedient fans for feeding the external air. Furthermore, the components which are necessary for conditioning the air are, of course, provided in the air conditioning device 10. In other words, the air conditioning device 10 is an air conditioning system which sets the desired temperature and the desired humidity of the air in the interior of a traction vehicle of a rail-guided vehicle. The air which emerges from the air conditioning device 10 firstly passes into the interior of the traction vehicle and then into the air outlet housing 3 via the exhaust air duct 13, and is finally output to the external atmosphere through the exhaust air opening 12. The device which is illustrated is configured for mounting on the front side of the traction vehicle. Owing to the relative wind which occurs, a pressure stasis may occur at the front of the traction vehicle. The additional fan 7 is dimensioned such that a constant supply of fresh air to the interior is also made possible taking into account this pressure stasis. Figure 2 shows a further exemplary embodiment of the device 1 according to the invention, but the air conditioning device is no longer shown for reasons of clarity. The device 1 which is illustrated here comprises again an air inlet housing 2 and an air outlet housing 3, which are again fabricated from dimensionally stable material. The external air duct 5 extends from the air inlet housing 2 to the bypass duct 9 via an additional fan 7 and a combination filter 14, which is composed of a PCT/EP2008/052586 - 9 2007PO4014WOCN cyclone precipitator and a fine particle filter. Combination filters are known to a person skilled in the art so that there is no need to give more details on them at this point. The weather protection grilles (not illustrated figuratively in figure 2) in front of the external air opening 2a and in front of the exhaust air opening 12 cannot be heated in this exemplary embodiment which is shown since the rail vehicle is provided for operation in southern countries in which frost does not occur. Figure 3 shows a further exemplary embodiment of the device 1 according to the invention without the air conditioning device 10. The dimensionally stable air inlet housing 2 and the air outlet housing 3, which is also dimensionally stable, can be seen again, the external air duct 5 opening again into the bypass duct 9 via the filter unit 6 and the additional fan 7, and said bypass duct 9 bounding an air conditioning device opening 15, at which means for attachment to the air conditioning device 10 are provided. Furthermore, an air flap 16, with which the bypass duct 9 can be closed off to the external air entering the external air opening 3, can be seen in figure 3. Owing to the air flap 16, the external air is therefore forced to flow via the external air duct 5, the filter unit 6 and the additional fan 7 before it enters the bypass duct 9 behind the air flap 16 in order to pass into the air conditioning device 10 (not illustrated) via the air conditioning device opening 15. In addition it is possible to see that the air inlet housing 2 is equipped with means for attachment to the traction vehicle. This is a simple flange connection. Furthermore, the inventive device 1 according to figure 3 has a pressure protection blower 17 which is arranged in a bypass duct (not illustrated figuratively). The bypass duct serves to bypass an PCT/EP2008/052586 - 10 2007PO4014WOCN exhaust air flap 18, in which case, depending on the position of the exhaust air flap 18, the exhaust air which emerges from the interior of the rail vehicle is either guided via the pressure protection blower 17 or passes directly out of the interior to the exhaust air opening 12. Figure 4 shows an exemplary embodiment of the device 1 according to the invention in the installed state, said device 1 being arranged on the front side 19 of a traction vehicle 20 of a rail vehicle. It is apparent that the traction vehicle only makes available a limited installation space. However, the device 1 according to the invention can be installed, for the purpose of pretreating the air, equipped in any desired way while the arrangement of the air inlet housing 2 and of the air outlet housing 3 remains the same. In other words, the device 1 according to the invention can be extended in a modular fashion in a limited installation space, therefore providing a platform for a wide variety of requirements in the field of air conditioning technology. Figures 5 to 8 clarify the various exemplary embodiments, in particular in terms of their method of functioning, in a schematic illustration. It is apparent that the external air enters the air inlet housing via the weather protection grille 4 through the external air opening 2a of the air inlet housing (not illustrated figuratively) . By virtue of the closed air flap 16, the external air passes from said air inlet housing via the external air duct 5, the filter 6 and the additional fan 7 into the bypass duct 9 which opens with its air conditioning device opening into the air conditioning device 10. The air outlet housing (likewise not illustrated figuratively) is connected to the interior 21 of the traction vehicle via the exhaust air duct 13, and the additional fan 7 makes available such a feed capacity here that a pressure stasis which results owing to the relative wind when the exhaust air is output into the external atmosphere via the exhaust air opening 12 PCT/EP2008/052586 - 11 2007PO4014WOCN is overcome. The air flap 16 is used, where necessary, for example when the traction vehicle is stationary, to output air to the external atmosphere also via the air inlet housing 2 from the interior of the vehicle 21, with fans of the air conditioning device 10 making available the necessary feed capacity. This refinement meets applicable railway engineering standards. Figure 6 shows a device according to figure 5 which, however, has an exhaust air flap 18 in the exhaust air duct 13 on the exhaust air side of the air outlet housing (not illustrated figuratively), in which device a bypass duct 22, which bypasses the exhaust air flap 18 and in which the pressure protection blower 17 is arranged, is provided. The pressure protection blower 17 and the exhaust air flap 18 are connected to an expedient operator control switch, and they prevent pressure fluctuations in the interior 21 of the traction vehicle. The closing of the ventilation flaps 16 and 18 and the operation of the fans 7 and 18 occur simultaneously, with the additional fan 18 being slightly throttled. The steep characteristic curve of the two additional fans enables a pressure fluctuation in the interior 21 to be reliably avoided when pressure fluctuations occur in the external atmosphere. The function of pressure protection is activated by means of a control unit and is not illustrated. Figure 7 shows an exemplary embodiment of the device 1 according to the invention, with a combination filter, which has a cyclone precipitator 23 in addition to a particle filter 6, being arranged in the external air duct 5. The cyclone precipitator 23 is used, for example, to precipitate relatively coarse impurities which can occur, for example, in conjunction with coal mining.

PCT/EP2008/052586 - 12 2007PO4014WOCN Furthermore, it is apparent that the exhaust air duct 13 is branched and leads to the exhaust air opening 12 both from the interior and from the air conditioning device 10. Furthermore, it is apparent that the weather protection grille 4 is embodied as a heatable weather protection grille, which makes it possible to melt snow and ice. Figure 8 shows the exemplary embodiment according to figure 7, but again an exhaust air flap 18 and a pressure protection blower 17 are provided in a bypass duct 22, with the result that the pressure protection function is made available.

Claims

1. A device for the pretreatment of air for the interior of a driver's cab of a rail guided traction vehicle, having an air inlet housing which has an external air opening and an air conditioning device opening with means for attaching the air inlet housing to an air conditioning device, wherein an external air duct is configured to connect the air inlet housing to the air conditioning device, and having a separate air outlet housing which has an exhaust air opening and which is connected via an exhaust air duct to the interior and/or to the air conditioning device, wherein a bypass duct, which bypasses the external air duct and in which an air flap which is connected to a servo motor is arranged, extends between the air conditioning device and the air conditioning device opening, and wherein the air inlet housing is composed of a dimensionally stable material, with the result that fixed interfaces with the air conditioning device and with the external wall of the traction vehicle are defined.

2. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the external air duct has a filter unit and an additional fan.

3. The device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the additional fan and the filter unit are attached to the air inlet housing.

4. The device as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the air inlet housing has means for attachment to the traction vehicle.

5. The device as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the exhaust air housing is composed of a dimensionally stable material.

6. The device as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the exhaust air duct has an exhaust air flap having a servo motor, wherein a bypass duct having a pressure protection blower bypasses the exhaust air flap.

7. The device as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the external air duct opens into the bypass duct between the air conditioning device and the air flap.

8. The device as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 7, wherein the filter unit comprises a cyclone precipitator and a fine particle filter.

9. The device as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein a weather protection grille is attached to the external air opening and/or to the exhaust air opening.

10. The device as claimed in claim 9, wherein at least one of the weather protection grilles can be heated.

11. The device as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 7, wherein the additional fan has a constant characteristic curve as a function of the static pressure, which permits the air inlet housing to be arranged on the front side of the traction vehicle.

12. A device for the pretreatment of air for the interior of a driver's cab of a rail guided traction vehicle, the device being substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to any one of the embodiments of the device as that embodiment is shown in the accompanying drawings. Dated 30 March 2012 Siemens Aktiengesellschaft Patent Attorneys for the Applicant/Nominated Person SPRUSON & FERGUSON