RU2213670C2 - Overhead contact wire with wear indicators - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: transport engineering. SUBSTANCE: invention relates to overhead contact wires used to transmit electric energy to electrified ground vehicles and it be used to reveal critical wear of contact wire. Overhead contact wire with wear indicators is made in form of current-conducting core made of nonferrous metal which had catch head, neck and base. Wear indicators are arranged in base being made of steel wire with light-absorbing or light- reflecting or luminescent coating and located at boarder of core critical wear. EFFECT: visual determination of critical wear of contact wire. 1 dwg

Description

 The technical solution relates to suspended contact wires, which serve to transfer electric energy to ground electrified vehicles, and can be used to determine the critical wear of the contact wire.

 Known contact wire described in the book Afanasyev A.S. "Contact and cable networks of trams and trolleybuses", M .: Transport, 1979, p.20, 21.

 This wire is made in the form of a conductive core made of non-ferrous metal, having a gripping head, neck and base, and a steel core located inside the core, the rectangular core being located vertically, capturing the lower part of the core core, called the zone of active wear of the core core, which is in direct contact with current collectors of rolling stock.

 During the operation of the contact wire, the lower part of the core base is abraded, that is, the area of the active wear zone of the core core decreases and the steel core exits outside, which leads to the need to replace the contact wire.

The steel core in this known wire cannot be used as a signal conductor of critical 30 percent wear of the base of a conductive core, since:
- the core is located in the zone of active wear of the core core and therefore the core goes out before 30% wire wear occurs, that is, the reason is used irrationally;
- when visually checking the degree of wear of the contact wire, which is usually carried out at night, illuminating the wire with electric light, the steel core will not stand out against the background of the wire core, since the light reflection coefficients of the core material and the material of the conductive core are close in value.

 The closest in technical essence to the claimed contact wire is a contact wire with signal conductors, described in the article by Yoshida T. "Method for determining the critical wear of a contact wire" published in the journal "World Railways", 1999, 6, p.46, 47.

 This wire is made in the form of a conductive core of non-ferrous metal having a gripping head, a neck and a base, in which two signal conductors are placed, covered with a vinyl sheath and located parallel to each other above the critical wear line of the core base, while both signal conductors are short-circuited on one at the end of the contact suspension section, and at the other end, a measuring device with a timer and a microprocessor is mounted.

 The use of such a measuring complex - a contact wire with signal conductors and a measuring device allows you to automatically measure and determine the degree of wear of the contact wire, including critical wear, in which the core area decreases by 30%.

 The introduction of such a measuring complex requires large capital investments, but at the same time, in operating conditions, the integrity of the signal wires can be violated due to excessive tension of the contact wire during installation or due to temperature deformations, that is, the reliability of such a wire, and therefore the entire complex as a whole, is small .

 The aim of the present invention is to provide a simple, reliable and inexpensive contact wire with signal conductors critical wear of the contact wire.

 To achieve this goal in the inventive pendant contact wire with signal conductors made in the form of a conductive core of non-ferrous metal having a gripping head, a neck and a base in which the signal conductors are located, according to the invention, the signal conductors are made of steel wire with light-absorbing, or reflective, or luminescent coating and are located on the border of critical wear of the core.

 The implementation of the signal conductors of steel wire allows you to increase the reliability of the wire at high tension and significant electrical loads associated with heat generation.

 The use of signal conductors with a light-absorbing, or reflective, or luminescent coating allows you to visually determine the critical wear of the contact wire, since the signal conductors when they are illuminated against the background of the conductive core appear black (with a light-absorbing coating) or shine (with a light-reflecting coating), or glow (when luminescent coating), that is, they are easily distinguishable, and it is impossible to miss the moment of critical wear of the wire. Black nickel can be used as a light-absorbing coating, shiny nickel can be used as a reflective coating, triple molybdate with various rare-earth elements is used as a luminescent coating.

 The location of the signal conductors at the critical wear line of the core allows the contact wire to be operated up to its 30% wear, which is determined by the moment the signal conductors exit.

 When conducting a search on the sources of patent and scientific and technical information, no solutions were found containing the totality of the proposed features, which allows us to conclude that the criteria of "novelty" and "inventive step" are met.

 The design of the inventive contact wire is illustrated in the drawing, which shows a section of a wire with signal conductors.

 The conductive core 1 made of copper has a gripping head 2, a neck 3 and a base 4. Two parallel signal conductors 5 with a light-absorbing coating 6 are located on the critical wear border 7 of the core 4 of the core 1. Black nickel is used as the coating 6.

 The diameter of the steel conductors 5 is 0.25 mm, and the coating thickness is 10 μm.

 The contact wire operates as follows.

 When the wire is connected to the electric network, the current flows both through the copper conductor 1 and through the conductors 5. Current collectors (not shown in the drawing) installed on vehicles slip on the wire and abrade the base 4.

 The attendants conduct a regular visual inspection of the contact wires, checking their condition, for which usually at night (the time of least load of the line) the base surface of the 4 contact wires is illuminated from below with an electric lamp. With a critical 30% flat or lateral wear of the wire, the conductors 5 go outside and when electric light hits the surface of the black nickel coating 6, the signal conductor will look black against the background of the red copper core 1. Due to the contrast of the colors of the materials of the core 1 and the coating of 6 conductors 5, the maintenance staff can easily determines the moment of critical wear of the contact wire.

 The use of the proposed contact wire due to the presence of steel conductors in it also allows you to save the sagging of the wire within normal limits, which makes the current collector high-quality and reliable, that is, without sparks, which reduces wire wear.

Claims (1)

 A suspended contact wire with signal conductors made in the form of a conductive core of non-ferrous metal having a gripping head, a neck and a base in which signal conductors are located, characterized in that the signal conductors are made of steel wire with light-absorbing, or reflective, or luminescent coatings and located at the critical wear line of the core.