AU630250B2 - Resilient rail retaining clip - Google Patents

Description

630 25R 692 S F Ref: 112692 FORM COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA PATENTS ACT 1952 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

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Class Int. Class Application Number: PJ7349 Lodged: 13 November 1989 Accel ed: Published: Priority: Related Art: Sa *5*S 0* S

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*0 ee Name and Address of Applicant: Actual Inventor: Address for Service: General and Railway Supplies Pty Ltd Institute Road Montacute South Australia 5134

AUSTRALIA

NOT KNOWN Spruson Ferguson, Patent Attorneys, Level 33 St Martins Tower, 31 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, 2000, Australia Complete Specification for the invention entitled: Resilient Rail Retaining Clip 118413 1,I 9C The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us 5815/2 am" RESILIENT RAIL RETAINING CLIP FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a resilient rail retaining clip, which clip retains in position rails upon which railway vehicles pass.

BACKGROUND ART There is frequent use of base plates for supporting rails from sleepers, the base plates performing the function of holding gauge over a predetermined area. Usually, the rail foot and base plates of a rail are retained by dog spikes which are driven through apertures in the base plates, the dog spikes having heads thereon.which engage over the rail foot.

One of the problems which are encountered in track maintenance of a railroad track is that the dog spikes, particularly those directly engaging the rail, eventually work loose from a sleeper (particularly a timber sleeper) and this allows both the base plate and the rail to have movement with respect to the supporting sleeper.

There is considerable demand for resilient fastening systems which employ resilient clips to secure the rail to the base plate. The above described conventional dog spiKe systems are not resilient, in that they do not allow movement between the dog spike and the rail. These conventional systems are not adapted to employ resilient clips and accordingly conversion to a resilient fastening system is expensive.

QBJECT OF THE INVENTION It is the object /of the present invention to overcome or substantially ameliorate the above disadvantages.

SUMMARY OF THE I YJNJIA There is disclosed herein a resilient clip comprising: an upper limb bifurcated by a slot and having a toe portion for engaging a rail foot;

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a lower limb; the limbs joined by a generally U-shaped portion-, the upper limb -further comprising an insert head retaining portion located between the toe portion and a closed end of the slot; the lower limb being shorter than the upper limb.

A preferred form of the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 is a cross sectional view of a resilient rail fastening system securing a rail to a base plate; b LMM/274E 1 A Figure 2 is a side elevation of a resilient clip according to the present invention; Figure 3 is a bottom plan view of the clip of Figure 2; Figure 4 is a plan view of the blank, used in the fabrication of the

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b* JLfI/LMM/274E 2 clip of Figures 2 and 3; Figure 5 is a side elevation of an alternate rail clip of the present invention; Figure 6 is a bottom plan view of the clip of Figure Figure 7 is a plan view of the blank used in the fabrication of the clip of Figures 5 and 6; Figure 8 is a side elevation of yet another embodiment of the present invention; Figure 9 is a plan view of the blank used in the fabrication of the clip of Figure 8.

BEST MODE AND OTHER EMBODIMENTS OF THE ILNVENTIO o In Figure 1 there is depicted a rail 10 to engage the wheels of a railway vehicle, The raAl 10 Is supported on a base plate 11 fixed to a sleeper 56. The rail 10 has a head 49 joined to a foot 13 by a web 14.

0* The foot 13 is directly mounted on the base plate 11 and is held laterally in position by two ribs 15 which extend longitudinally of the rail 10. The base plate 11 is provided with an aperture 16 through which an insert 17 passes and which in use is upright compared to the plate 11 the insert 17, includes a head 22. The head 22 is of a T-shaped configuration so as to 'oo provide two horizontally extending arms. The arms extend generally parallel to the rail 10 and provide curved downwardly facing surfaces which Sengage the clip 18. The insert'basically consists of a shank 25 having an S upper end providing the head 22, and a lower end 26 which is located V"'S beneath the plate 11. The lower end 26 provides an abutment surface 27 which engages the T wer surface 28 of the plate 11. The abutment surface S 27, which is basically a stp in the shank 25, prevents the insert 17 from being withdrawn due to forces being applied thereto by the clip 18. The shank 25 is also provided with a further abutment surface 29 which engages the upper surface 30 of the plate 11.

The clip 18 includes an upper limb 60 and lower limb 61. The upper and lower limbs are joined by an intermediate generally U-shaped portion 62. The upper limb 60 is bifurcated by a central slot 63, forming generally parallel fingers 64. The fingers 64 straddle either side of the insert shank 25. The upper limb 60 also includes a hump or raised insert head retaining portion 65 an insert contacting portion 68 and an up-turned toe 66 which is intended to engage the rail foot 13. The retaining portion is located between the closed end of the slot and the toe 66.

The lower limb 61 Is considerably shorter than the upper limb JLH/274E -3 The lower limb includes a notch 67 which is intended to engage the abutment surface 29 of the insert.

The head of the insert 22 is positioned relative to the foot 13 so that the clip 18 is in a compressed condition, thereby biasing the foot 13 into engagement with the base plate 11. More particularly, as the clip 18 is inserted, the limbs 60 and 61 are deflected towards each other to thereby resiliently deform the clip 18. Thus it will be understood that the resilient gripping characteristics of the clip 18 can be tailored by adjusting the dimensions of the clip 18. As shown in Figure 1, clips 18 of different lengths may be utilised in conjunction with the same insert, base plate and rail. An alternate or longer clip 118 is depicted in dashed lines in Figure 1. The longer clip 118 is depicted in more detail in Figures 5, 6 and 7. A third clip configuration is shown in Figure 8.

.15 Figures 2 and 3 illustrate more clearly the construction of the resilient clip 18 of the present invention. Note that the notch 67 is preferably arched. The arch conforms to the exterior profile of the abutment surface 29.

As shown in Figure 4, the resilient clip 18 of the present invention ,2,0 may be fabricated from a flat blank 70. With reference to the clips oo*" depicted in Figures 2 and 3, the blank is preferably 156 millimeters long and 50 millimeters wide. The notch 67 has a radius of 10 millimeters and is recessed 6 millimeters with respect to the end of the blank 71 from t which the lower limb is formed. The slot 63 which bifurcates the upper limb is preferably 21 millimeters wide and 66 millimeters long. The radius of the slot corners 72 are preferably 3 millimeters. The exterior corners 73 generally include a 2 millimeter x 45 degree chamfer. After the blank o 70 has been formed, and as is shown in Figure 2, the radius 74 of the head contacting area 68 is 9 millimeters, the external radius 75 of the head retaining portion 65 is 18 millimeters, and the toe radius 77 is 18 millimeters. The radius 110 of the U-shaped portion is about 9 millimeters. The angle 76 formed by the straight portion of the clip 18 located between the toe 66 and the head retaining area 65 is approximately degrees. The bottom of the toe is inclined by an angle 78 equal to about 15 degrees. The crest formed by the top portion 79 of the head retaining area 65 is elevated by about 25.5 millimeters with respect to the line formed by the bottom surface 80 of the lower limb 61 and the bottom surface of the toe 66. The trough formed by the lowest part of the head contacting radius 74 is elevated about 24.5 millimeters with respect to the JLH/274E 4 bottom surface 80 of the lower limb. A preferred material for the resilient clip of the present invention is a 50 x 9 (XK9258S) steel, heat treated to RC 46-49, with a natural finish.

A somewhat elongated clip is depicted in Figure 5. As shown in Figure 7, the elongated clip is made from a longer blank. The blank depicted in Figure 7 is preferably 198 millimeters long. The clip made from the blank of Figure 7, and shown in Figure 5, are essentially identical to those of the clip depicted in Figure 2. The primary differences are that the elevation of the head retaining portion 82 is preferably 26 millimeters with respect to the bottom surface 80 of the lower limb, the elevation of the trough formed by the head contacting portion is preferably elevated by 25 millimiieters with respect to the bottom surface 80 of the lower limb, and the extra material afforded by the longer 1:5 blank 70 is taken up by the extended rear portions 81 of the upper and lower limbs as shown in Figure 0" A third embodiment 100 of the clip of the present invention is depicted in Figure 8. In this clip, the angle 101 of the lower limb and the angle 102 between the toe and the head retaining portion are degrees. The crest 103 of the head retaining portion is elevated by 32

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millimeters. The radius 104 of the intermediary U-shaped portion is 21 millimeters. The overall height 105 of the clip is about 55 millimeters.

The overall length, in plan view, is about 112 millimeters.

Accordingly, as shown in Figure 9, the blank 106 has a length 107 of about 182 millimeters. The length of the slot 108 is about millimeters. The width of the slot is preferably 22 millimeters.

Nhile the resilient clip of the present invention has been described with reference to particular materials and details of construction, it should be appreciated that these are provided by way of illustration and not as limitation to the scope or spirit of the invention.

JLH/274E

Claims (9)

1. A resilient rail retaining clip comprising: an upper,limb bifurcated by a slot and having a toe portion for engaging a rail foot; a lower limb; the limbs joined by a generally U-shaped portion; the'upper limb further comprising a, insert head retaining portion located between the toe portion and a closed end of the slot; the lower limb being shorter than the upper limb.

Z. The clip of claim 1, wherein: the lower limb further comprises a notched terminal edge.

3. The clip of either of claims 1 or 2, wherein: the upper limb is bifurcated by a central slot which defines two parallel fingers.

4. The clip of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: the toe portion of the upper limb is up-turned.

The clip of claim 2, wherein: the notch on the terminal edge further comprises an arched recess adapted to engage a surface of a rail insert.

6. In ccmbination, a resilient rail retaining clip according to any one of claims I to 5 and a rail insert, the insert comprising a shank S.having an upper end in the form of a T-shaped head, the bifurcated upper limb adapted to receive the shank so that the toe may exert a compressive force on an adjacent rail foot. 25

7. The combination of claim 6, wherein: the insert further comprises an abutment surface adapted to engage and restrain the lower limb.

8. A resilient rail retaining clip, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the drawings.

9. A combination of resilient rail retaining clip and insert, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figure 1 of the S 1 drawings. DATED this TWENTY FOURTH day of JULY 1992 General and Railway Supplies Pty Ltd Patent Attorneys for the Applicant M SPRUSON FERGUSON