EP0315621B1 - Switching apparatus for movable parts in the diverging region of a railway point - Google Patents

Abstract

In a switching apparatus for movable parts of a railway point in the diverging region of a point, in particular tongue rails (3), monorail deflection devices or movable stock rails, in which the movable rails (3) can be moved to bear against rigid point parts (1, 2), the movable rails (3) are supported in their bearing position by means of supporting bars (4) which run in the longitudinal direction of the rails and are guided displaceably on the sleepers or baseplates in the longitudinal direction of the rails. In this arrangement, the supporting bars (4) are designed as an actuating member for the switching and comprise thrust supports (7) which interact with thrust supports (10) of the movable rails (3) for the purpose of displacing the rails, at least one of the interacting surfaces of the thrust supports (7, 10) of the rail (3) and/or supporting bar (4) being formed by a wedge surface (8) which merges into a supporting surface (9) which is essentially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the supporting bar (4), which supporting surface (9) interacts with the thrust support (10) of the rail (3) in the bearing position of said rail. As a result, a reliable and exact switching for points, in particular high-speed points having a large radius of curvature, is made possible in a simple manner (Fig. 1). <IMAGE>

Description

The invention relates to a switching device for moving parts of a rail switch in the deflection area of a switch, in particular tongue rails, monorail deflection devices or movable stock rails, in which the movable rails can be brought into contact with rigid parts of the switch, the movable rails running at the sleepers in the longitudinal direction of the rail or support plates are supported in their adjacent position support rods guided displaceably in the longitudinal direction of the rails.

In a construction of the wing rail support known from AT-PS 328 488 (corresponds to the preamble of claim 1), the switch adjustment was carried out in a conventional manner and with the parts to be displaced, each one running in the direction of displacement, on the sleepers or base plates guided slide rod is provided for support in the adjacent position. From US Pat. No. 1,269,444, a design is already known in which movable rail parts which can be brought into abutment alternately in a centerpiece are adjusted by means of wedges engaging between fixed abutments on the sleepers and the webs of the rails. In such designs, the sliding drive must engage the wedges in an articulated manner, since the wedges must be held in contact with the rail web. Exact guidance of the adjustment mechanisms is not readily possible with such a design, and above all a defined end position is not readily guaranteed. The wedges have to be pivoted in the known design with the movable rails and this pivoting results in length changes in the drive connection due to the geometry of the articulation and the known design therefore does not appear to offer the required safety in any way for high-speed routes .

A training similar to US Pat. No. 1,269,444 can also be found in US Pat. No. 1,569,141, the displacement drive again requires a joint in order to be able to follow the pivoting movement of the pivotable rail part. In this known design, the support is in turn provided on the web area of the movable rail part and such guidance on the web area of the movable rail part requires the articulated connection of the support rod to the drive.

For the adjustment of moving parts of a rail switch in the deflection area of a switch, in particular tongue rails, a series of switch drives have so far been developed which have been effective in the direction of the displacement movement of the tongue rails, the end position assumed in each case being locked with corresponding locks. A well-known example of such closures is the so-called clamp tongue closure.

In particular for high-speed turnouts with high radii of curvature, there are a number of previously unsolved problems for the correct adjustment in such conventional turnout drives. For example, for such high-speed turnouts, the adjustment of the turnout at just one point with a conventional turnout drive is generally not sufficient to maintain the desired large curve radius over a longer area and to ensure that it can be driven at high speed. However, the multiplication of conventional point machines for tongue rails leads to a number of adjustment problems, since the corresponding drives assigned to the same tongue rail in the longitudinal direction of the same have to be operated while maintaining the required curve radius.

The invention now aims to provide a switching device of the type mentioned for the moving parts of a rail switch in the deflection area of a switch, in particular for the tongue rails or movable stock rails, and in Especially for switches that can be driven through at high speed, with which it is possible in a simple manner to exactly maintain the desired curve radius during the changeover and at the same time to ensure safe tracking. In particular, the changeover device according to the invention is also intended to reduce the outlay such as would have to be carried out in the case of a plurality of closures of conventional design and to substantially reduce the number of drives required, in particular in the region of the tongue rails which is long and displaceably mounted in order to achieve large radii of curvature. To achieve this object, the invention essentially consists in that the support rods are designed as actuators for the changeover and have thrust supports which cooperate with thrust supports of the movable rails for displacing the rails and that at least one of the interacting surfaces of the thrust supports of the rail and / or support rod is formed by a wedge surface which merges into a support surface which is essentially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the support rod and which support surface cooperates with the thrust support of the rail in the adjacent position of the rail. By supporting the support rods on the sleepers or on the base plates, an exact guidance of these support rods is ensured, and by arranging thrust supports on the support rod or on the movable rail, an actuator can be realized at the same time, which in its respective end position Securing the movable rails against horizontal forces. Simultaneously with this protection against horizontal forces occurring, in particular, when switches are being driven at high speed, the adjustment can be carried out by selecting the surfaces of the thrust supports that come into contact with one another in such a way that the adjustment is carried out on a plurality of partial regions of the movable rails lying alongside one another in the longitudinal direction of the rail is carried out while maintaining the required large radius of curvature, so that the Accessibility at high speed is ensured. The support that occurs in the end position is ensured by the essentially parallel support surfaces that come into effect in the end position and, after running up, it becomes the one that adjoins the inclined surfaces Rail longitudinal direction essentially parallel support surfaces ensures a defined adjustment path for the adjustment of the movable rails, and this even if, for example, due to temperature fluctuations, length changes in the support rod or the movable rail result. Such changes in length due to temperature fluctuations are particularly important because of the portion of the tongue rail of a high-speed switch that can be moved over a large rail length.

In order to reduce the frictional losses on the thrust supports, the design can advantageously be such that one of the two interacting thrust supports has a role. The wedge surfaces themselves can be formed by flat wedge surfaces, it naturally being conceivable to design the wedge surfaces as curved surfaces, in particular as concave curved surfaces.

In particular due to the large curve radii for high-speed turnouts and the fact that the sliding section of the movable rails is correspondingly long with such large curve radii, the design is advantageously made such that thrust supports of the support rod (s) and / arranged in the longitudinal direction or the movable rail parts have different heights and / or inclinations of the wedge surfaces. In the case of the use of conventional turnout actuators, three or even four turnout drives of conventional design would be required with such designs for high-speed turnouts, the coordination and interrelated control of which would be associated with a considerably higher expenditure and, at the same time, only in the case of temperature fluctuations and corresponding changes in length with corresponding play could attack the tongue rails.

Advantageously, the design is such that each support rod and each rail have at least three thrust supports, whereby longer, movable rail sections can be shifted to a precisely defined extent and the desired curve radius can be set exactly. The rails themselves can be connected to one another in a conventional manner by tie rods, so that the displacement of one of the movable rails in the direction of contact with a rigid switch part simultaneously displaces the opposite, movable rail while maintaining a predetermined distance from the opposite, rigid switch part. In principle, separate support rods can be provided for each movable rail, the drive having to be out of phase in such a way that for the purpose of moving a rail in contact with a rigid switch part, the opposite rail to be lifted off the rigid switch part is first released from its locking position .

The design can also be realized in a particularly simple manner so that thrust supports are arranged on both sides of a support rod, the support surfaces of which are essentially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the support rod and are offset in the longitudinal direction of the support rod. With such a design, it is possible to use only one support rod to simultaneously move a movable rail against a rigid switch part and to lift an opposite, movable rail from the rigid switch part, for which purpose the design can be made in a particularly simple manner so that the thrust supports are attached Attack coupling members of mutually assigned movable rails. However, the design can also be such that the thrust supports connected to a support rod have cranked strips which extend transversely to the longitudinal axis of the support rod and the strips of which extend towards and away from the thrust support Flanks with at least one counter-stop, in particular a roller, interact with the thrust support of the rail. Even with such a design, it is possible to make the simultaneous adjustment of two movable rails with only one support rod in such a way that one rail comes into contact with a rigid switch part and the other rail is lifted from such a system to rigid switch parts .

In addition to the support surfaces of the thrust support, which are essentially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the rail, further support between the thrust supports can be achieved in a simple manner by arranging stops for supporting the movable rail in contact with rigid rail parts between thrust supports of a support rod and / or a rail , which disengage when the support rods are displaced in the longitudinal direction thereof, the displacement path of the movable rails being released.

The safety and control devices required for the position control can be designed in a simple manner in such a way that the support rods with devices for detecting the position of the support rods, such as e.g. electromagnetic limit switches or inductive proximity switches.

In a preferred manner, the procedure according to the invention is such that the support rod (s) is (are) displaceably guided in guides connected to the sleepers or base plates and extending in the longitudinal direction of the rails, for example angle profiles, the angle profiles advantageously being welded to the base plates could be. In addition to supporting and guiding the support rods, such angle profiles also serve to additionally absorb the transverse forces.

In order to be able to reduce the sliding friction and to keep the dimensioning of the drives small, in particular in the case of long support rods such as appear necessary for turnout drives which are designed for extremely large curve radii, the design according to the invention is advantageously made such that the support rod (s) in the guides are (are) supported on rollers and / or resiliently. Such a resilient support ensures in particular that, in the case of badly stuffed tracks and thus in the case of non-aligned upper edges of the sleepers, reliable guidance of the support rods is ensured even over great lengths.

The invention is explained in more detail below on the basis of exemplary embodiments schematically illustrated in the drawing. 1 shows a changeover device according to the invention for the movable tongue rails of a switch; 2 shows another embodiment of a changeover device according to the invention for movable tongue rails of a switch; 3 shows a changeover device according to the invention for movable stock rails of a switch; 4 shows a first embodiment of a support rod with thrust supports arranged on both sides on an enlarged scale compared to the previous figures, and FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of a double thrust support arrangement in a representation analogous to FIG.

In Fig.1 are rigid and the like with thresholds not shown with the interposition of base plates or the like. fix screwed jaw rails with 1 and 2 and movable tongue rails with 3. To change over and support the tongue rails 3, support rods 4 are provided, which are arranged in the longitudinal direction of the linearly running stock rail 1 and are guided in schematically indicated guides 5, for example fixed on sleepers. Drives 6 are provided for actuating the support rods 4 for converting the tongue rails, which can be formed, for example, by electric lifting motors or hydraulic cylinders. To adjust and support the tongue rails, the support rods 4 have thrust supports 7, each of which has a wedge surface 8 which merges into a support surface 9 which is essentially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the support rods 4. The thrust supports 7 interact with their wedge surfaces 8 or their support surfaces 9, which are essentially parallel to the support rods 4, with thrust supports 10 provided on the tongue rails 3. The tongue rails are connected to one another via schematically indicated tongue connections 11. In Figure 1, tongue supports 12 between the stock rails 1 and 2 and the tongue rails 3 are also indicated.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the two support rods or thrust supports 4 are acted upon by the drives 6 in each case in the same direction, whereby to change the position shown in FIG. 1, a movement of the push rods 4 just formed and moving only in the longitudinal direction occurs the arrow 13 is indicated. When the push rods 4 move in the same direction and at the same time, the secured position is first released by the push supports 10 of the tongue rail 3 resting against the stock rail 1 disengaging from the surfaces 9 running parallel to the push rod 4, whereupon the push rods are displaced further 4, in the direction of arrow 13, the wedge surfaces 8 of the thrust supports 7 assigned to the second tongue rail 3 engage with the thrust supports 10 of this tongue rail and, by means of the tongue connections 11, bring about a changeover of the switch. The locking in the end position takes place in turn by the surfaces 9 resting on the thrust supports 10 in the end position of the push rods 4. In order to take into account the curvature behavior of the tongue rails with push rods 4 arranged essentially parallel to the stock rail 1, these are on the tongue rails 3 provided with the thrust supports 7 cooperating thrust supports 10 with different dimensions and the thrust supports 7 have differently inclined wedge surfaces 8 according to the curvature behavior of the tongue rails 3 and at different distances from the push rods 4 parallel support surfaces 9.

With an appropriate arrangement of the thrust supports 7 on the push rods 4, an opposite direction of movement of the push rods when converting and locking the tongue rails is also conceivable. To reduce the friction of the thrust supports 10 on the wedge surfaces 8 during the changeover, rollers can be provided in the area of the contact surface of the thrust supports 10, for example, wedge surface profiles deviating from a straight wedge surface 8 can also be selected for easy rolling of such rollers. Furthermore, the thrust supports 10 can be designed to be chamfered at least over a partial area with an inclination designed in accordance with the thrust support interacting therewith.

In the representation according to FIG. 2, the reference symbols of FIG. 1 have been retained for the same components. To change over the tongue rails 3, support rods extending essentially in the longitudinal direction of the stock rail 1 are again provided, wherein in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 these support rods are of split design and the parts of the support rods are designated by 14 and 15, respectively. On the support rods 14, 15, in turn, thrust supports 7 with wedge surfaces 8 and essentially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the support rods 14, 15 are provided support surfaces 9 which cooperate with thrust supports 10 for an adjustment and locking of the tongue rails in each case in a position in contact with the stock rails. The drive in the embodiment according to FIG. 2 is shown schematically by an approximately central length of the entire support rods 14, 15 indicated engine 16 is formed, further gear 17 are indicated. The conversion of the rotary movement of the motor to a purely translatory movement of the support rods 14, 15 takes place, for example, via toothed racks 18, by means of which the support rods 14, 15 are connected to one another.

Instead of the drives shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, other known drives can be provided, for example, instead of the drives 6 of FIG. 1, a common drive for a translational movement of the support rods 4 is conceivable, in which the support rods are coupled to one another. It is furthermore conceivable to use angle levers for transmitting an adjustment movement of a drive into a purely translatory movement of the support rods, these angle levers having suitable link guides or recesses in a manner known per se. This angle lever or the like on turntables. be provided, which are coupled, for example, to a conventional switching device for switches arranged transversely to the longitudinal direction of the rails.

FIG. 3 shows a changeover device for a monorail deflection device with a movable stock rail. The movable sections of the stock rail are designated 19 and the rigid intermediate rails fixedly attached to sleepers or base plates, not shown, are designated 20 and 21, the intermediate rails 20 representing parts of the stock rails and the intermediate rails 21 as parts of the tongue rails in comparison with 1 and 2 can be seen. Connection rails 22 are also shown. The movable sections of the stock rails 19 are connected to one another via connecting rods 23 similar to the connecting rods 11 of FIGS. 1 and 2. In order to convert or lock the stock rails 19, support rods 24 are again provided in the longitudinal direction, which are indicated schematically and again are guided and supported with 5 designated guides. Electric lift motors or hydraulic cylinder-piston units 25 are again provided as the drive. The support rods 24 in turn have thrust supports 7 with wedge surfaces 8 and support surfaces 9 running essentially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the support rods 24. The thrust supports 10 of the movable parts of the stock rails 19 interacting with the thrust supports 7, like the individual thrust supports, are designed differently from one another in accordance with the curvature behavior of the stock rail 19.

To support the respective end position of the movable stock rails 19, stops 26 are further provided on the intermediate rails 22 and stops 27 on sleepers or base plates in a manner not shown. When changing the switch, the drives 25 are controlled so that first the lock achieved by the interaction of the thrust supports 10 with the support surfaces 9 is released, whereupon a shift of the support rods 24 by a cooperation of the wedge surfaces 8 with the thrust supports 10 Stock rails in the other end position. For such a conversion of movable stock rails, large forces are transmitted to them, so that a correspondingly stable and massive design of the support rods 24 must be provided with a corresponding drive.

In FIG. 4, a tongue rail 28, which rests on a stock rail 29, is shown in an enlarged representation compared to the previous figures. With the tongue rail 28, a thrust support 30 is connected, in which rollers 31 are mounted, which cooperate with thrust supports 32 of a support rod 33 that is movable only in the longitudinal direction of the rail. The thrust supports 32 in turn have inclined wedge surfaces 34 and support surfaces 35 running essentially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the support rod 33.

In the position shown in FIG. 4, the tongue rail is locked by the interaction of the support surface 35 facing the rail with a stop surface 36 provided in the plane of the roller 31. The support rod 33 is opened or switched when the support rod 33 moves in the direction of arrow 37 first unlocking the abutting surfaces 35 and 36, whereupon the roller 31, which is more distant from the tongue rail 28, comes into engagement with the outer wedge surface 34 and thus pulls the tongue rail 28 away from the stock rail 29. To support the tongue rail 28 over its entire length, a plurality of thrust supports are arranged on the support rod 33 in the longitudinal direction analogous to the preceding figures. In such an embodiment of a double thrust support arrangement, a coupling of the tongue rails, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, can be omitted, since not only a changeover and locking via the thrust supports but also an opening of the thrust support arranged on the other side of the support rod corresponding tongue rail. With a corresponding stability of the support rod and in the presence of a correspondingly powerful drive, the formation of a support rod with thrust supports 32 arranged on both sides of the same can also interact with a connecting rod or tie rod between the tongue rails, so that the conversion of both tongue rails with a single support rod is sufficient which can be found. For this purpose, the thrust support 30 shown in FIG. 4, which is connected to the tongue rail 28, is designed as a tongue connection, as was designated 11 in FIG. 1, for example.

In the embodiment according to FIG. 5, the tongue rail 28 is again shown in contact with a stock rail 29 and connected to a thrust support 38. The thrust support 38 has rollers 39 and 40, which in an extension 41 of the Thrust support 38 are mounted and encompass a bar 42 which is connected to a thrust support 43 connected to the support rod 33. The strip 42, which extends, for example, outside the plane of the support rod 33, has a first wedge surface 44 which merges into a first support surface 45 which is essentially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the support rod 33 and with which the roller 39 interacts, and a second wedge surface or inclined surface 46, which merges into a second support surface 47. When the support rod 33 moves in the direction of the arrow 37 for opening or switching the tongue rail 28, the roller 39 first comes out of engagement with the support surface 45, whereupon the tongue rail 28 of is caused by a cooperation of the roller 40 with the second wedge surface 46 of the strip the stock rail 29 is lifted off. To guide the support rod 33, a guide 48 is indicated which is connected to sleepers, not shown, which has guide rollers 49 for smoothly sliding the support rod 33, further guide rollers 50 being indicated to improve the guide. Analogously to the embodiment according to FIG. 4, a support rod with thrust supports can be dispensed with in the embodiment shown, in the event that such a thrust support is assigned to each tongue rail, on connecting rods or tie rods between the tongue rails. But it can also be found with a single support rod of this type for switching the switch, if a connection between the two tongue rails is provided, since even in the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, through the design and arrangement of the wedge surfaces and support surfaces during a shift the support rod both a changeover movement and a simultaneous opening movement is achieved.

The use of changeover devices for a switch with support rods running in the longitudinal direction of the rails and only moving in translation is in accordance with the present invention particularly advantageous for turnouts with large bows, in which several closures of conventional design would have to be provided. By means of the changeover device according to the invention, it can be found that the support rods associated with movable rails are adjusted and secured, and a targeted support and adjustment of the curvature of the movable parts of the switch by a desired number of appropriately designed thrust supports on these support rods, which are dimensioned accordingly Interact stops on the movable switch parts can be achieved in a simple manner. Furthermore, there are the advantages that no closure fields are required for the provision of separate closures, that no parts protrude into the ballast bed, and that when using drives, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, no lateral drives and drive bearings are provided Need to become. Furthermore, the changeover and locking of the end positions of the movable rail parts via the thrust supports, which have the wedge surfaces and support surfaces which run essentially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the support rods, enable the tongue opening to be reduced to a minimum and the narrowest passage to be guaranteed at all times. When using the changeover device for changing over a tongue device in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the tongue is clamped between the thrust supports by means of the connecting rods each time with a suitable arrangement of the stops on the tongue rails, whereby twisting or twisting of the tongue rails is excluded and the correct installation of the tongue rails at every point and the exactness of the running edge course is always guaranteed.

Claims (10)

1. Shift device for movable parts (3, 19, 28) of a rail switch in the deflection region of a switch, in particular tongue rails, monorail deflection device or movable stock rails, in which device the movable rails can be brought to rest on rigid switch parts (1, 2, 20, 21, 29), the movable rails (3, 19, 28) being supported in their resting position by support rods (4, 14, 15, 24, 33) which run in the longitudinal direction of the rails and are guided on the sleepers or bearing plates so as to be displaceable in the longitudinal direction of the rails, characterised in that the support rods are constructed as actuator for the shift and have slide supports (7, 32, 43) which interact with slide supports (10, 30, 38) of the movable rails (3, 19, 28) for displacing the rails, and in that at least one of the mutually interacting surfaces of the slide supports of the rail and/or the support rod is formed by a wedge surface (8, 34, 44, 46) which merges into a support surface (9, 35, 45, 47) which is essentially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the support rod (4, 14, 15, 24, 33) and which support surface interacts with the slide support (10, 30, 38) of the rail in the resting position of the rail.
2. Shift device according to Claim 1, characterised in that one of the two mutually interacting slide supports (30, 38) has a roller (31, 39, 40).
3. Shift device according to Claim 1 or 2, characterised in that each support rod (4, 14, 15, 24) and each rail (3, 19) have at least three slide supports (7) in each case.
4. Shift device according to Claim 1, 2 or 3, characterised in that slide supports (32) are arranged on both sides of a support rod (33), and their support surfaces (35) which are essentially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the support rod are arranged offset in the longitudinal direction of the support rod.
5. Shift device according to Claim 1, 2 or 3, characterised in that the slide supports (43), which are connected to a support rod (33), have bent strips (42) which extend transversely to the longitudinal axis of the support rod and whose flanks (44, 46) facing towards and away from the slide support interact in each case with at least one counter-stop, in particular roller (39, 40), of the slide support (38) of the rail (28).
6. Shift device according to Claim 4 or 5, characterised in that the slide supports (32, 43) engage on coupling members of mutually assigned movable rails.
7. Shift device according to one of Claims 1 to 6, characterised in that slide supports (7, 10, 30, 32, 38, 43), arranged in the longitudinal direction, of the support rod(s) (4, 14, 15, 24, 33) and/or of the movable rail parts (3, 19, 28) have a different height and/or inclination of the wedge surfaces (9, 35, 44, 46).
8. Shift device according to one of Claims 1 to 7, characterised in that stops (27) for supporting the movable rail (3, 19) resting on rigid rail parts (1, 2, 20, 21) are arranged between slide supports (7, 10) of a support rod (4, 14, 15, 24) and/or of a rail (3, 19), which stops become disengaged when the support rods (4, 14, 15, 24) are displaced in their longitudinal direction, the displacement path of the movable rails (3, 19) being cleared.
9. Shift device according to one of Claims 1 to 8, characterised in that the support rod(s) (4, 14, 15, 24, 33) is (are) guided so as to be displaceable in guides (5, 48), in particular angular profiles, which are connected to the sleepers or bearing plates and extend in the longitudinal direction of the rails.
10. Shift device according to Claim 9, characterised in that the support rod(s) (33) is (are) supported in the guides (48) in a sliding and/or resilient manner via rollers (49, 50).

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