EP0428781B1 - Track maintenance machine for distributing and profiling the track bedding ballast - Google Patents

Abstract

A mobile ballast regulating machine comprises a machine frame supported by undercarriages on the track for mobility therealong in an operating direction, a vertically adjustable ballast plow arrangement comprising a substantially vertical ballast damming wall extending transversely to the longitudinal extension of the machine frame to the opposite machine frame sides, a respective ballast guide plate associated with the damming wall at each machine frame side, each guide plate being adjustable to define a desired angle with the respective machine frame side, and a cover plate preceding the damming wall in the operating direction and connected to the damming wall, the cover plate extending substantially parallel to a plane defined by the track and immediately above the running surfaces of the rails, and the cover plate including opposite ends associated with the rails and extending in the direction of the longitudinal machine frame extension, each cover plate end projecting obliquely downwardly towards the base of the rail associated therewith along the field side thereof, and drives vertically adjustably connecting the ballast plow arrangement to the machine frame.

Description

The invention relates to a track construction machine for distributing and profiling the ballast ballast of a track, with a machine frame supported on rail bogies and a plow arrangement, which is height-adjustable and attached to it via drives, with a baffle wall that runs essentially vertically and transversely to the machine longitudinal direction, each at an angle in the area of a machine longitudinal side adjustable ballast guide plate is assigned to the machine longitudinal direction.

According to DE-OS 38 20 843, such a track construction machine, known as a ballast plow, for distributing and profiling the ballast ballast is already known. A plow arrangement with adjustable height is connected to a machine frame between the two rail carriages arranged at the ends. This plow arrangement consists of a vertical and transverse to the machine longitudinal storage wall on which upstream rail tunnels are attached to cover the two rails of the track. Middle and side plow plates are provided between the two rail tunnels and at the two ends of the dam wall. The ballast plow has a cross conveyor belt directly adjacent to the storage wall, which is followed by an inclined scraper and a sweeping brush. Immediately before the plow arrangement, which is height-adjustable by means of its own drives, transverse and height-adjustable flank plows are connected to the machine frame. With such a ballast plow, if the flank plows and the middle and side plow plates are in the appropriate position, excess ballast that is present can optionally be diverted to any area of the ballast bedding, with the ballast being dammed up and overflowing over the upper end of the ballast using the subsequent transverse conveyor belt in the flank area of the Ballast bedding is dropped.

It is also known - according to AT-PS 389 132 - a continuously movable track construction machine with tamping units, track stabilizers and plow arrangements. The latter are adjustably connected to the machine frame both in front of the tamping units and in front of the track stabilizers and ensure that the track is sufficiently ballasted in front of the immediately following work unit.

The object of the present invention is to create a track construction machine of the type described in the introduction with which the sleepers, in particular so-called block sleepers, can be ballasted at different heights.

This object is achieved in that the transverse baffle is connected to a cover plate arranged upstream thereof in the working direction, approximately horizontally or parallel to the track plane and directly above the top edge of the rail, the ends of which extend in the machine longitudinal direction downward in the region of the rail outside are bent over to the rail foot. Such a plow arrangement enables the two sleeper supports located in the area of the outside of the rail to be ballasted by means of pent-up ballast, without the ballast of the middle area of a block sleeper, which is required to have a lower ballast level. This means that there is no need to subsequently and laboriously remove the excess ballast in the middle of the sleeper in a particularly economical manner. The extent of the ballast can also be varied in a simple manner by appropriate height adjustment of the plow arrangement.

Thus, by using the plow arrangement according to the invention, there is the possibility, for example, of directly ballasting the track immediately in front of a tamping machine in the area of the sleeper supports, so that even with higher level corrections, sufficient ballast is available as part of the subsequent tamping.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the baffle wall has openings in the area immediately adjacent to the inside of the rail, the lower edge of which is formed by the horizontal cover plate. With these openings in the storage wall, the two sleeper support areas located on the inside of the rail can also be easily ballasted, the middle area of the track being further protected from undesired ballast supply by the cover plate arranged above it.

According to a further embodiment of the invention, two distributor pants enclosing the openings are fastened to the rear of the storage wall, the lower end region of which is opposite the openings and is designed to run parallel to the track plane. With such distributor pants arranged on the rear side of the storage wall, the ballast displaced from the cover plate into the openings as a result of the dynamic pressure can be supplied in a targeted manner to the sleeper support area adjacent to the inside of the rail. The amount of ballast can be regulated in a simple manner by appropriate height adjustment of the plow arrangement or the distribution pants.

According to a further advantageous variant of the invention, the cover plate has one in the area directly adjoining the inside of the rail Opening, with distribution pants surrounding these openings being attached to the underside of the cover plate. As a result of these openings located directly in the cover plate, the ballast automatically flows into the subsequent distributor pants to the sleeper support located on the inside of the rail due to the force of gravity.

Another variant of the invention is that the cover plate is connected on its underside to two rail tunnels which run in the longitudinal direction of the machine and are provided to cover the rails. This constructive solution also enables the use of plow arrangements that are already in use, the curved design of the two ends of the cover plate running in the longitudinal direction of the machine that is mentioned in the main feature of the invention being replaceable by the respective outer wall of the two rail tunnels.

According to a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the cover plate with its end opposite the storage wall is bent at an angle downwards in the direction of the sleepers and the lower end of the cover plate is arranged below the lower edge of the rail. By means of a cover plate designed in this way, excess ballast present in the middle of the track can be removed in an advantageous manner, so that the correct lowering of the ballast level between the two blocks of a block sleeper can be checked and possibly also produced.

According to a further embodiment of the invention, a ballast transport device which can be displaced by a drive in a working movement transverse to the machine longitudinal direction is provided above the cover plate and immediately in front of the storage wall. In case that Excess ballast can only be picked up from one of the two flanks, the ballast transport device can transfer a part of the ballast that is stowed in a lateral end region of the plow arrangement to the opposite side. Even in the event of a transverse inclination of the track, an undesired flow of ballast in the direction of the lower rail can be avoided with such a transport device.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the ballast transport device located above the cover plate is designed as a conveyor chain which can be deflected around two deflection rollers, each located in the area of a machine longitudinal side, with axes of rotation extending in the machine longitudinal direction, with ballast driving elements projecting therefrom. Such a conveyor chain enables targeted ballast distribution with little design effort, which means that even in the event that excess ballast is only present on one longitudinal side of the track, even ballast distribution over all four sleeper support areas is possible. For this purpose, it is particularly advantageous if, according to a further variant of the invention, a lower belt of the conveyor chain adjacent to the cover plate is arranged parallel to the cover plate and the drive is optionally designed to be acted upon in both directions of rotation.

An advantageous further development of the invention consists in that the conveyor chain is connected to the machine frame by means of its own drives independently of the baffle wall, the rail tunnels and the cover plate connected to them in a height-adjustable manner. Thanks to this independent height adjustment, the ballast cross transport can be quickly adjusted by the leveling chain in coordination with those accumulated in the flank area Gravel quantities possible.

Another advantageous embodiment of the invention provides that the end wall is connected in its end region to a ballast guide plate which can be pivoted about a vertical axis. This means that the ballast required for the ballast sleeper can be easily removed from the flank area, with an automatic transverse displacement of the ballast onto the cover plate can be achieved by appropriately tilting the ballast guide plate.

According to another embodiment of the invention, each ballast guide plate pivotably connected to the baffle wall is preconfigured or assigned a side plow that is adjustable in height and in the transverse direction. With this, the ballast required for the ballast ballast can also be shifted from the lateral end area of the ballast bedding towards the higher-lying ballast guide plate and from there again towards the cover plate.

Another advantageous embodiment of the invention also consists in the fact that on the rear of the dam wall, which is height-adjustable via its own drives, two wheel flange rollers are attached, which are height-adjustable with the aid of drives with respect to the dam wall. With the help of these flanged wheels, the dam wall or the entire plow arrangement can be adjusted in height for an optional change in the amount of ballast to be thrown into the sleeper compartments in the area of the tamping supports.

Finally, a further advantageous embodiment of the invention is that the plow arrangement with the baffle, the cover plate and the conveyor chain a tool frame having a tamping and a track-lifting straightening unit of a continuously movable tamping machine is arranged upstream in the working direction, the tool frame and the plow arrangement being arranged on a common, preferably articulated, machine frame. A combination tamping machine of this type can be used in a continuous work approach with high performance and economy, the ballasting of the track and its position correction can be carried out in a single workflow.

The invention is described in more detail below with reference to several exemplary embodiments shown in the drawing.

• Fig. 1 eine Seitenansicht einer kontinuierlich verfahrbaren Gleisstopfmaschine mit einer dem Stopfaggregat vorgeordneten, erfindungsgemäß ausgebildeten Pfluganordnung zum Einschottern von Schwellen eines Gleises,
• Fig. 2 eine vergrößerte Seitenansicht der Pfluganordnung mit einer höhenverstellbaren Förderkette,
• Fig. 3 eine im Vergleich zu Fig.2 verkleinerte Draufsicht auf die Pfluganordnung gemäß Fig.1 und 2,
• Fig. 4 eine Frontansicht der Pfluganordnung gemäß Pfeil IV in Fig.3,
• Fig. 5 eine vergrößerte Teil-Draufsicht auf ein weiteres Ausführungsbeispiel einer erfindungsgemäß ausgebildeten Pfluganordnung,
• Fig. 6 einen Teil-Querschnitt gemäß Pfeil VI in Fig. 5,
• Fig. 7 eine räumliche Darstellung eines weiteren Ausführungsbeispieles einer erfindungsgemäß ausgebildeten Pfluganordnung und
• Fig. 8 eine schematische Seitenansicht einer weiteren, mit einer erfindungsgemäßen Pfluganordnung ausgestatteten Gleisbaumaschine.

Show it:

• 1 is a side view of a continuously movable track tamping machine with a plow arrangement upstream of the tamping unit and designed according to the invention for ballasting sleepers on a track,
• 2 is an enlarged side view of the plow arrangement with a height-adjustable conveyor chain,
• 3 shows a plan view, reduced in comparison to FIG. 2, of the plow arrangement according to FIGS. 1 and 2,
• 4 shows a front view of the plow arrangement according to arrow IV in FIG. 3,
• 5 is an enlarged partial top view of a further exemplary embodiment of a plow arrangement designed according to the invention,
• 6 shows a partial cross section according to arrow VI in FIG. 5,
• Fig. 7 is a spatial representation of another Embodiment of a plow arrangement designed according to the invention and
• 8 shows a schematic side view of a further track construction machine equipped with a plow arrangement according to the invention.

A track construction machine 1 which is designed as a tamping machine in FIG. 1 has an articulated machine frame 4 which is supported on a track 3 by means of several bogie undercarriages 2 and can be moved continuously in the working direction shown by an arrow 6 with the aid of a travel drive 5. A tool frame 7 is connected to the machine frame 4 in the middle in a longitudinally displaceable manner, and its rear end in the working direction can be supported directly on the track 3 via a running gear 8. On the tool frame 7, which is cyclically longitudinally displaceable relative to the machine frame 4 via a separate drive, a height-adjustable two-sleeper tamping unit 9 and a height and side-adjustable track-lifting-straightening unit 10 for the track position correction are arranged. Measuring wheels 11 connected to a reference system are provided to determine the difference between the actual track position and the desired position. Immediately in front of the last bogie undercarriage 2, a sweeping device 13 which is height-adjustable via a drive 12 is connected to the machine frame 4. This sweeping device 13 has a sweeping brush 14 which can be rotated by a drive and to which a transverse conveyor belt 15 is arranged upstream.

The track construction machine 1 for distributing and profiling the ballast ballast and for stuffing the track has a plow arrangement 17 fastened in height to the machine frame 4 by means of a drive 16 directly behind the front bogie undercarriage 2.

This is equipped with a vertical baffle wall 18 running transversely to the longitudinal direction of the machine, with laterally arranged ballast guide plates 19 that can be adjusted at an angle to the longitudinal direction of the machine, and rail tunnels 21 covering the rails 20. The baffle wall 18 is directly upstream of a height-adjustable ballast transport device 22 for the transverse transport of ballast. In the working direction in front of the plow arrangement 17 there are height and side adjustable side plows 23.

As can be seen in particular in FIGS. 2 and 3, the transverse baffle wall 18 is connected to a cover plate 24 arranged upstream thereof in the working direction, approximately horizontally or parallel to the track plane and directly above the top edge of the rail. Likewise, the two rail tunnels 21 running parallel to one another are connected to one another by the cover plate 24. On the back of the baffle wall 18, which is height-adjustable via the drives 16 along guides 25, two flanged rollers 26 are fastened so as to be pivotable about an axis running transversely to the machine longitudinal direction. These flange rollers 26 can be adjusted in height independently of the baffle wall 18 by means of drives 27. The ballast transport device 22, which is arranged directly upstream of the baffle wall 18 and is designed as a conveyor chain 28, is connected to the machine frame 4 via a parallelogram linkage and is height-adjustable by means of two drives 29.

As can be seen in particular in FIG. 3, each ballast guide plate 19 that is pivotally connected to the baffle wall 18 about a vertical axis 30 is preconfigured or assigned a side plow 23 that can be adjusted in height and across (in FIG. 2, the ballast guide plates 19 and the side plows 23 are the better ones Not shown for the sake of clarity). On the back of the storage wall 18 there are two distribution pants in the area of the inside of the rail 31 attached, the lower end of which is parallel to the plane of the track.

As can be seen in FIG. 4, the storage wall 18 has openings 32 in the area immediately adjacent to the inside of the rail, the lower edge of which is delimited by the horizontal cover plate 24. The distributor trousers 31 attached to the rear of the storage wall 18 enclose these openings 32 or, in other words, the distributor trousers 31 are connected to the storage wall 18 in the edge region of the openings 32. The ballast transport device 22 located above the cover plate 24 is designed as a conveyor chain 28 with ballast driving elements 33 protruding therefrom. A deflection roller 34 with an axis of rotation extending in the longitudinal direction of the machine for deflecting the conveyor chain 28 is provided in each case approximately above a rail 20. The ballast transport device 22 has a drive 35 by means of which the conveyor chain 28 can optionally be driven in both transverse directions. At least the lower flange 36 of the conveyor chain 28 adjacent to the cover plate 24 is arranged parallel to the cover plate 24 regardless of its height. A threshold 37 connected to the two rails 20 is designed as a so-called block sleeper with two concrete blocks 39 spaced apart from one another by a steel support 38 and each connected to the rails 20. If a block sleeper 37 of this type is ballasted in accordance with the regulations, the ballast bed level between the two concrete blocks 39 is approximately 7 cm below the lower edge of the rail. The lower end region of the two distributor pants 31 located on the inside of the rail approximately covers the region of the threshold 37 delimited by the rail 20 and the inner end of the concrete block 39.

In work, the plow arrangement 17 is lowered onto the rails 20 while the drives 16 are loaded and the flanged rollers 26 are supported. Likewise, the two side plows 23 are brought into their working position. With continuous work of the track construction machine 1 with cyclic tamping of the sleepers 37 by the tamping unit 9, the sleeper compartments located between the concrete blocks 39 on one and the same longitudinal side of the track are continuously ballasted, so that sufficient ballast is available for the immediately following tamping even with larger track position corrections. By appropriate positioning of the side plows 23 and inclination of the ballast guide plates 19, excess ballast located in the side region of the ballast bed is transported in the direction of the dam wall 18. The ballast accumulated in this area automatically causes the underlying threshold specialist areas located below it to be ballasted. The excess ballast that is still present after this first ballast is conveyed to the two distributor pants 31 as a result of the dynamic pressure on the cover plate 24 and finally through the two openings 32 of the dam wall 18. In this way, the ballast of the sleeper compartments located on the inside of the rail is also carried out in the area of the concrete blocks 39 or the sleeper supports.

In the event that too little or no excess ballast is present in one flank area, there is the possibility, by lowering the ballast transport device 22 and correspondingly loading the drive 35, of the excess ballast pent up on one side of the plow arrangement 17 to the opposite opening 32 or to transport the sleeper compartment located on the outside of the rail. By the cover plate 24 located on the two rail tunnels 21 reliably prevents undesired deposition of the excess ballast in the middle area of the sleeper. To selectively change the desired ballast height, the two drives 27 are acted on, as a result of which the distance between the upper side of the threshold and the lower edge of the baffle wall 18 or the distributor pants 31 can be varied.

A plow arrangement 40 shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 with a baffle wall 41, a ballast transport device 42 and rail tunnels 43 has a cover plate 44 connecting them to one another, which is provided with openings 45 in the region on the inside of the rail. Distribution pants 46 enclosing these openings 45 are fastened to the underside of the cover plate 44. In this variant of the invention, the ballast accumulated by the ballast guide plate 47 and the baffle 41 falls partly into the sleeper compartments 48 on the outside of the rail and partly via the distributor pants 46 also into the sleeper compartments 49 of the block sleepers 51 located on the inside of the rail and delimited by the concrete blocks 50.

A plow arrangement 52 shown in FIG. 7 with a baffle wall 53 and pivotally attached to this ballast guide plates 54 has a specially designed cover plate 55. The ends 56 of this cover plate 55 which run in the machine longitudinal direction are each bent downward in the region of the outside of the rail in the direction of the rail base, so that no rail tunnel is required to keep the ballast from the rail. These downwardly bent ends 56 are comparable in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 to 6 with part of the wall of the rail tunnel located on the outside of the rail. On her the dam wall 53 opposite end, the cover plate 55 is bent downwards in the direction of the sleepers 57, the lower end 58 being arranged below the lower edge of the rails 59. In this way, if there is too much ballast in the middle of the threshold area, it can be transported in the direction of the openings 60 arranged in the baffle wall 53 and the distributor pants attached to the rear of the baffle wall 53 (see arrows). Vertical webs 61 connected to the cover plate 55 prevent the ballast from flowing undesirably onto the rails 59.

Another track construction machine 62, shown in FIG. 8 and designed as a ballast plow, with a machine frame 63 and running gears 64 can be moved continuously in the direction shown by an arrow with the aid of a drive 65. In front of the front undercarriage 64 there is a height-adjustable plow arrangement 66 designed according to the invention with an independently adjustable height ballast transport device 67. At the rear end of the machine frame 63, a height-adjustable sweeping brush 68 with a cross conveyor belt 69 is provided. With this track construction machine 62, the track 70 can be ballasted in the area of the sleeper supports located on the track side and to be stuffed, while the middle area of the track is not ballasted by the cover plate. The subsequent rotating sweeping brush 68 removes ballast lying on the sleepers.

Of course, within the scope of the invention, normal sleepers having a cross-section that is approximately constant over the entire length can also be ballasted.

Claims (14)

1. A track-maintenance machine for spreading and profiling the bed ballast of a track, with a machine frame (4; 63) supported on rail bogies (2; 64) and a plough arrangement (17; 40) attached to the machine frame (4; 63) vertically adjustably by drive units (16), and with a pusher plate (18; 41; 53) which extends substantially vertically and at right angles to the longitudinal direction of the machine and which is associated with a ballast-deflector plate (19; 47; 54), which can be set at an angle to the longitudinal direction of the machine in the region of one longitudinal side of the machine in each case, characterized in that the transversely extending pusher plate (18; 41; 53) is connected to a cover plate (24; 44; 55) located ahead of the pusher plate (18; 41; 53) in the direction of working, approximately horizontal and parallel to the plane of the track and immediately above the top of the rails, with the ends (56) of the cover plate which extend in the longitudinal direction of the machine each being angled downwards in the region of the outside of the rail towards the foot of the rail.
2. A machine according to Claim 1, characterized in that the pusher plate (18; 53) has openings (32; 60) in the region immediately adjoining the inside of the rails, with the bottom edge of these openings formed by the horizontal cover plate (24; 55 ).
3. A machine according to Claim 2, characterized in that two chutes (31) surrounding the openings (32) are attached to the back of the pusher plate (18), with their bottom end areas opposite to the openings (32) extending parallel to the plane of the track.
4. A machine according to Claim 1, characterized in that the cover plate (44) has an opening (45) in each of the areas immediately adjacent to the inside of the rails, and chutes (46) surrounding these openings (45) are attached to the underside of the cover plate (44).
5. A machine according to one of Claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the underside of the cover plate (24) is connected to two rail tunnels (21) extending in the longitudinal direction of the machine and provided for masking the rails (20).
6. A machine according to one of Claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the cover plate (55) is constructed with its end opposite to the pusher plate (53) angled downwards towards the sleepers and the lower end (58) of the cover plate (55) is located below the bottom edge of the rails.
7. A machine according to one of Claims 1 to 6, characterized in that a ballast conveyor (22) which can be propelled by a drive unit in a direction of operation extending transversely to the longitudinal direction of the machine is provided above the cover plate (24) and immediately in front of the pusher plate (18).
8. A machine according to Claim 7, characterized in that the ballast conveyor (22) located above the cover plate (24) is in the form of a chain conveyor (28) running round two conveyor pulleys (34) - in the region of one longitudinal side of the machine in each case - with axes of rotation extending in the longitudinal direction of the machine, with ballast flights (33) projecting from the chain (28).
9. A machine according to Claim 8, characterized in that a bottom belt (36) of the chain conveyor (28) close to the cover plate (24) is arranged parallel to the cover plate (24) and the drive unit (35) is designed to be optionally operable in both directions of rotation.
10. A machine according to one of Claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the chain conveyor (28) is connected to the machine frame (4) by separate drive units (29) so as to be vertically adjustable independently of the pusher plate (18), the rail tunnels (21) and the cover plate (24) connected to these.
11. A machine according to one of Claims 1 to 10, characterized in that the end areas of the pusher plate (18) are connected to ballast-deflector plates (19) which can be pivoted about a vertical axis (30).
12. A machine according to Claim 11, characterized in that each ballast-deflector plate (19) pivotably connected to the pusher plate (18) is preceded by, and works in conjunction with, a vertically and transversely adjustable shoulder plough (23).
13. A machine according to one of Claims 1 to 12, characterized in that two flanged rollers (26) are mounted on the back of the pusher plate (18), which is vertically adjustable by means of independent drive units (16), the flanged rollers (26) being made vertically adjustable in relation to the pusher plate (18) by means of drive units (27).
14. A machine according to one of Claims 1 to 13, characterized in that the plough arrangement (17) with the pusher plate (18), the cover plate (24) and the chain conveyor (28) is located ahead of an equipment frame (7), carrying a tamping unit and track-lifting and aligning unit (9, 10), of a continuously operable track-tamping machine in the direction of working, the equipment frame (7) and the plough arrangement (17) being located on a common machine frame (4), preferably of articulated construction.

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