US1131982A - Circuit-controlling device. - Google Patents

Description

F; J. AOKBRM AN. CIRCUIT CONTROLLING DEVICE. APPLICATIQN FILED DEC.9. 1913.

Patented Mar. 1 6, 1915.

' 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1. Y

I/NSLJLAT/ON MAGNE77ZABLE MAsNsf/ZABLE G MAG NET/ZAQLE I INVENTOR' wrmass: FIG. 2

I I M F. J. ACKERMAN.

CIRCUIT CONTROLLING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED DEG.9,1913.

Patented Mar. 16, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

INVENTOR I ,N\ Q. E Q T m Q Q w av L m @k ,4. u N w GQNWQ Q. x o Q \Q Q Q2 a 51 Q 5 1 R4 \a Q WWW ' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK J. ACKEBMAZN', OF- PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIG NO R TO THE UNION SWITCH 8a SIGNAL-COMPANY, OF SWISSVALE, TENNSY-LV'ANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA;

CIRCUIT-CONTROLLING- DEVICE.

I Specification of Letters Patent.

Original application filedltovember 11, 1912, Serial No. 730,543. Divided and this apiflication filed December 9, 1913. Serial No. 805,543.

To all 'wh om itmay concern 7 Be it known that I, FRANK J. AGKERMAN,

a citizenof the-United States, residing at M'y invention relatesto circuit controlling devices. Devices embodying my invention are particularly adapted for the control of railway traflic controlling devices, but their adaptation is not thus limited.

The present application-1s a division of my co-pending ap-plication'filed November 11, 1912, Serial No. 730,513, for Railway traffic controlling apparatus.

I will describe one form of circuit con trolling device embodying my invention,

showing its application to one form of'railway trafiic' controlling apparatus, and will then point out the novel features thereofin claims.

In the accompanymg drawings, Figure 1 1s a view showing 1n end elevation one form of circuit controlling device embodying'my' invention; Fig. 2'is a sectional view on the line II'II of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a diagram matic view showing-a railway traffic controlling device and one form of controlling apparatus and circuits therefor including the circuit controlling device-shown in Figs 1 and2z Similar reference characters'refer to similar partsin each ofthe severalyiews':

Referring first toFigs. 1 and"2,'the'device here shown; comprises apolarize'd relay having; magnets '7 7 and 77 and a' neutral relay having-magnets-85 and 85: The cores of these magnets are all mounted in' front and back plats 84: and*79' er non magnetic ma terialr The magnet'cores ofthe: polarized relay'are connected by "a'soft iron baclcstrap' 87 interposedlbetween thesback plate 7 9 and the magnet spools; and the-magnet cores of the neutral relay are similarly'connected by a soft'iron back str'ap 88 interposed between the front-plate :81 and the magnet spools. The magnet cores of the polarized relay are provided w-ithpole-picces 80 and 80 which are mounted on the cores and "are held in place by nuts 128 and 129. A polarized armature 821s pivotally mounted on'a pin 83' carried in a soft'iron head 90',"and is arone of ranged to oscillate between the pole-pieces 80 and The armature 82 is polarized in any Sllltfibl manner; as here shown, this polarization is accomplished by means of a permanent magnet 91 mounted in the plates 81 and 79 and passing through the head 90. The back strap 87 extends-downwardly and surrounds the permanent magnet 91, as shown in Fig. 2, and this magnet and thehead 90 "are held in place by nuts 92 and 93' screwed upon the threaded ends'of themagnet 91. Mounted upon the upper end of armature 82 is a bracket 94 of insulating ma-v terial'which carries contact fingers 95 and 96. Although I have herein shown only two fingers 95 and 96, it'is'understood that any desired number of fingers may be oper- Patented Mar. 16, 1915.

ated bythe polarized armature 821 The fingers 95 and 96 are riveted in slots in suitable blocks 97 and 98*secured' to'the bracket 94: byscrews 99. The upper ends'of these fingers engage with contacts-100, 101, 102 and 103- which are mounted in a suitable blocklO ofinsulating material carried by upwardlyreaching arms of front plate 84-. It will be seen that when the armature 82 rests against pole-piece" (the'positiorr byme'ans of wires 132 and-133 respectively,

with terminal posts 134 and 135 respectively, which} posts-aremounted in a block 136 of'iinsulatingmatrial carried by arms 13'? projecting fOIWaIdlYfIOIH front plate .84:; Secured to the armature 82 "is an up wardly extending locking segment 34, the upper edge of whichis provided with a dog 35 by means of which the armaturemay be mechanically locked ineitlier of its extreme positions,that' is, against either of the polepieces- 80 or 80, as hereinafter explained.

The-magnets and 85 of the neutral relay are provided with pole-pieces 36 (only which is shown) located at the opposite end of the magnet from the pole-pieces 80 and 80 of the polarized relay. These pole-pieces 36act upon a neutral amature 37 carried on the vertical arm of a bentlever 38, which lever is pivoted at 39to' suitable arms 44 extending upwardly from the back plate 79. Mounted upon this lever 38 by means of insulating studs 46 are one or more contact fingers, one only of which, 45, appears in the accompanying drawings, and

the lower end of which co-acts with a contact block 47 mounted on a block 48 of insulating material, which latter is supported by suitable lugs on theback plate 7 9. Con- 10 tact 4547 is closed when the relay 8585' is energized and open when the relay is deenergized. A horizontal arm 150 of lever 38 extends along the top of the device and coacts with the dog 35 to control the movements of armature 82. This arm 150 is guided to move vertically by a suitable slot in a lug 140 formed on the upper edge of the front plate 84. When relay 8'585 is deenergized, the end of arm 150 rests by gravity in the bottom of the slot in lug 140 and on one side or the other of the dog 35, so that the armature 82 is then looked in whichever position it occupies. But when the relay 85 is energized thereby attracting armature 37, the arm 150 is raised sufliciently to allow dog 35 to pass under it, and the polarized armature 82 may then be reversed.

The permanent magnet 91 is provided with a winding 89 for the purpose of maintaining and reinforcing the flux of this magnet. This winding may be energized at times in a manner such as will hereinafter appear.

Referring now to Fig.3, A designates a railway switch which is actuated by an electric motor D. through the medium of a suitable actuatingmechanism F. P designates power mains comprising wires 11 and 12, which mains are supplied with current from a battery 10, and from which mains current is supplied tothe motor D by means of a suitableoperating circuit. This operating circuit is controlled directly by a circuit controlling device G, which device is the same as that shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and hereinbefore described. This device G is preferably located adjacent the switch A and is provided with a control circuit which includes 7 contacts operated by a manually operated lever C, usually one of a plurality of levers in an interlocking machine.

The switch operating mechanism F which I havehere shown maybe briefly described as follows: Operatively connected withthe armature 13 of motor D is a screw 15 which co-acts with a longitudinally movable nut 16. This nut is rigidly connectedwith a plate 18 provided with a cam slot 20, which latter co-acts with a roller 17; this roller drives a bar 19 connected with the movable rails of a switch A. *The plate 18 carries four earns 30, 31, 54 and 57, which actuate respectively circuit controlling contacts 32, 33, 52 and 53 for purposes hereinafter explained.

- The lever O is of a usual and well known type comprising an oscillating shaft 7 O which operates contacts 21, 22, 25 and 26. The contacts 21 and 22 constitute-a polechanger for reversing the direction of current in the polarized relay windings of the circuit controlling device G as hereinafter n explained. The movements of the shaft are as usual governed by return indication devices K and K each of which comprises a segment 27 fixed on the shaft 70 and provided with a dog 28 which engages with a 7'5 latch 29 operatively connected with the armature of an electromagnet N or B. Each of these electromagnets-is provided with a separate indication circuit extending from the lever O to the switch A, which circuits so are explained hereinafter. The contacts 25' and 26, which serve to control these indication circuits, are not moved during the first portion of the movement of the shaft 7 0 up to the point at which it is stopped by the dogs 28 but during the remainder of the movement of the shaft the contacts 25' and 26 are reversed in position. This operation of contacts 25 and 26 is obtained, as here shown, by mounting the contacts loosely on the shaft 70, and by moving them by pins 73, 74, 75. and 76 carried by disks 71 and 72 fastened to the shaft 7 0.

The control circuit for the windings of polarized relay 77-77 is as follows: from positive main 11 throu h wire 40, contact 21, wire 42, windings 7 and 77, wire 106,

contact 45-47,' wire 41, contact 22, wire 43,

to negative main 12. It will be seen that this circuit includes contact 45-47 which 100,

is operated by the neutral magnet 85-85, and that therefore this circuit is closed 0111 when the neutral magnet is energized. will be seen also that this control circuit includes the pole-changing contacts 21 and 22, and that, therefore, the direction of current through the polarized relay windings depends on the position of lever C.

The windings 85 and 85 of the neutral relay are connected in series, and are provided with terminals 50 and 51. Terminal 50 is connected with control wire 41, and terminal 51 is connected with either the positive or the negative power main 11 or 12 by contacts '52 and 53. When contact 53 is closed, as shown in the drawing, this tor minal'51 is connected with the negative main 12 through resistance 116, contact 53 and wires 111 and 59. 'When the switch A is reversed so that contact 53 is open and contact 52 is closed, the terminal 51 will be connected with the positive main 11 through resistance 114,- contact 52 and Wires 58 and 109.

It will be seen, therefore, that relay 8585 will be energized or not according as its two I terminals are connected with power'mains of different polarity or with the same power main.

In Fig. 3 I have shown the switch A in what I shall herein term'the normal position, and the other parts in the positions corresponding to this position of the switch. With the parts in such positions, both terminals of neutral relay Bio -85 are connectthe shaft 70 of lever C is rotated in the direction of the arrow until the dog 28-of indication device K engages latch 29. This movement reverses the position of pole changing contacts 21 and 22, thereby connecting wires 41 and 42 with the positive and negative mains 11 and 12 respectively. Terminal 50 of neutral relay 85--85,-lbeing connected with wire 41, is now connected with the positive main 11; and since the other terminal 51 of this relay is connected with the negative main 12, current now flows through windings 85 and 85 so that the neutral relay isenergizedthereby raising-the arm 150 out of the path of dog 35 and closing contact 45. The closing of contact 45 closes the circuit through the windings of polarized relay 7777*, and since the pole; changing contacts 21 and 22 are reversed, the current flowing through the polarized relay is now in such direction as to reverse of armature 82 reverses contacts 95 and 96, the position of armature 82. The reversal so that operating current is supplied to the motor D through the following circuitfrom positive main 11 through wire 60, winding 89, wire 62, contact 95, wire 65, motor armature 13, wire 66, contact 96-, wire 67, contact 33, wires 68 and 69, motor field winding 14, wire 59 to negative main 12.

This current passes through winding 89 in v such direction as to reinforce the flux of 45' the permanent magnet 91, thereby assuring that the flux of this magnet shall be main tained. Winding 89 is preferably of low resistance so that it will not greatly reduce the motor current. The motor D is operated by this current in such direction as to actuate the mechanism F to move switch A to the reverse position. As soon as the motor has moved the plate 18 a short distance, contact 52 is closed, so that terminal 51 of the neutral relay is then .connected with both the positive and negative power mains through contacts 52 and 53 respectively, but this does not denergize the neutral relay 8585**. A circuit is then closed from positive main 11 through wires 109 and 58, contact 52, resistance 114, resistance 116, contact 53, and wires 111 and 59 to-negative main 12, but the current in this circuit is small owing to resistances 114 and 116, hence this circuit does no harm. When the movement of the switch A" to the reverse position has been completed and the switch rails have been loekedrby the end portion of cam slot 20, contact 33 is reversed in position by dog 31, thereby. opening the motor operating circuit; at the same time contact 53 is reversed by dog 57 thereby disconnecting terminal 51 from the negative main 12 and leaving it connected only with the positive main 11 through contact 52. Both terminals of the neutral relay windings are then connected with the positive main 11, so that no current flows through these windings and the-relay therefore opens. Lever 38 falls,'thereby locking polarized armature 82 in the position which it now occupies and opening contact 45 which opens the control circuit of the polarized relay so that this relay then becomes denergized. It will be seen therefore that as soon as a niovement of the switch has been completed, the consumption of current by the controlling device G ceases. The reversal of contact 33 closes an indication cir. cuit through magnet R as follows-from positive power main 11 through wires 109 and 110, contact 33,'wire 107, contact 25, wire 55, magnet R and wire 56, to negative power main 12. Current in this circuit energizes magneVR which raises its armature, thereby raising latch 29 out of the path of dog 28, so that the movement of the lever C may then be continued 'to the end of the stroke. During this last portion of the movement of the lever, contact 25 is reversed thereby opening the circuit of magnet R, and contact 26 is also reversed thereby closing at that point the circuit for magnet N, so that the circuit for this magnet may be closed at the switch after the latter hasagain been moved to its normal position.

The movement of switch A from its reverse position to its normal position would be similar to that just described. For such movement the direction of the control current through the. polarized relay winding'is again reversed'by contacts 21' and 22, and

' contacts and 96 are then moved back to.

the position shown in the drawing. A

motor operating circuit is 'then' closed through motor D as followsfrom positive power main l-lthrough wire 60, winding 89, wires 62 and 64, contact 96, wire 66, motor armature 13, 'wire 65, contact 95, wire 112, contact 32, wires 113 and 69, field winding 14, wire 59 to negative power'main 12. This current passes through armature One important feature of a circuit controlling device embodying my invention is that no current is consumed thereby except when the switch A is being moved. But in spite of this, if the lever 38 is raised by hand and the polarized armature shifted to energize the motor to move the switch A to the position opposite to that corresponding to the position of the control leverC, then when the parts are left to themselves the circuit controlling device G will automatically operate to bring the switch back to the position corresponding to the position of the control lever. For example, referring'to Fig. 3, with the parts in the positions shown, if lever 38 is raised by hand and the armature 82 shifted to the opposite position, contacts 95 and 96 will close the motor circuit'and the switch A will be moved toward the reverse position. If after the switch operating mechanism has been moved far enough to-close contact 52, the parts are left to themselves, the neutral relay 8585 will be energized bee, use its terminal is connected with negative main 12 and its other terminal 51 is then connected With positive main 11. Hence, armature 82 Will be unlocked and the direction of current through the polarized winding is such that this armature Will be returned to the position shown in the drawing, thereby shifting contacts 95 and 96 to cause the motor to return the switch to the normal position.

Although I have herein shown and described only one form of circuit controlling device embodying my invention, it is understood that various changes and modifications may be made therein within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention. Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In combination, a polarized relay comprising a polarized armature, an electromagnet and a neutral armature controlled thereby, and means controlled by said neutral armature for mechanically locking the polarized armature when the electromagnet is denergized and for unlocking the polarized armature when the electromagnet is energized.

2. In combination, a polarized relay comprising a polarized armature, an electro- 4. In combination, a polarized relay comprising a polarizedarmature adapted to occupy one position or another according to the direction of current through the relay winding, an electromagnet, and an armature controlled thereby and adapted to lock the polarized armature in either of its two said positions.

5. In combination, a relay comprising a winding and a polarized armature, an electromagnet and a neutral armature controlled thereby, means controlled by said neutral armature for mechanically locking the polarized armature, and a contact controlled by said neutral armature for controlling the supply of current to said wind- In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

FRANK J. ACKERMAN.

Witnesses:

V. H. RAGLAND, F. W. Errs.

Images