GB1140276A - Electric current collector - Google Patents

Abstract

1,140,276. Current collectors. E.M.S. ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS Ltd. 19 Sept., 1967 [1 Oct., 1966], No. 43950/66. Heading H2E. In a current collector for supplying electrical apparatus on a mobile carrier from a bare overhead conductor, a swivellable shoe is supported at one end of an arm, the other end of which is pivotally connected to a rotatable hub through a resilient body of insulating material which, in use, biases the shoe against the conductor. As shown, a hub 113, pivotally mounted on a bracket 112 which is secured to a mobile carrier (not shown), is integral with a longitudinally split cylindrical housing 18. Two parallel arms 22, 23, are connected at one end by screws 30 to an assembly which includes a rubber annulus 24, the assembly being rotatable in the housing 18 about the axis of the screws 30, and lockable in a desired angular position therein by a clamping screw 20 which engages a tangential extension 19 on the housing 18 and a threaded hole in the hub 113. At their other ends arms 22, 23 are united by a clevis 39 which is pivotally connected to a vertical tube 38. A third arm 31, below and parallel to arms 22, 23, is pivotally connected near one end through resilient bushings to base lugs on housing 18, and near its other end to a bifurcated end of tube 38. A conductive shoe 60 having a grooved upper edge to receive an overhead conductor (not shown) is secured by washers 61 and bolts 63 in a generally troughshaped insulating moulding 49 which is secured in a U-section support bracket 46 by bolts 47 and nuts, the bolts passing through spacing bushings 48 in converging slots 54, 55 in moulding 49 to enable the latter to tilt to align shoe 60 in parallel with the conductor. Bracket 46 is swivellably mounted on a stub shaft 43 which is a force-fit in tube 38, and electrical connection is made to shoe 60 via a tab 64, an insulated conductor 66, and a connector 67 on the mobile carrier. In use, shoe 60 is upwardly biased against the overhead conductor by the rubber annulus 24. Excessive pivoting of the hub is restrained by the engagement of an end 78 of arm 31 in a bifurcation 77 in the upturned end 76 of a stop plate 74; and the other end 83 of arm 31 co-operates in a similar way with a stop plate 81 to restrain undue swivelling of support bracket 46.