US1153672A - Rail-clamp for traveling-bridges. - Google Patents

Description

R. E. BROWN & E. c. GAINES.

RAIL CLAMP FOR TRAVELING BRIDGES.

APPLICATION FILED IAY 6. I912.

PatentedSept. 14, 1915.

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RAIL CLAMP FOR TRAVELING BRIDGES. APPLICATION FILED MAY 6. 1912.

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B. E. BROWN & E. C. GAINES.

RAIL CLAMP FOR TRAVELING BRIDGES.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 6, 19|2.

1,153,672. I Patented Sept. 14, 1915.

4 SHEETSSHEET 3.

FIG. 4

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RAIL CLAMP FOR TRAVELING BRIDGES.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 6, I912.

Patentedsept. 14, 1915.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

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fj lag WITNESSES. ii fliIieu/ RAYMOND E. BROWN AND EDWARD ASSIGNORS TO HEYL & PATTERSON PORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

C. GAINES, 01E PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, INC., OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, A COR- RAIL-CLAMP FOR TRAVELING-BRIDGES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 14, 1915.

Application filed May 6, 1912. Serial No. 696,517.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, RAYMOND E. BROWN and EDWARD C. GArNEs, citizens of the United States, and residents of Pittsburgh, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Rail- Clamps for Traveling-Bridges clare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

ur invention relates to a rail-clamp device for traveling bridges.

The object of our invention is to provide a simple and eflicient means for holding traveling bridges securely in position when they are brought to a state of rest, and means for quickly disengaging the clamps from the rails so as to release the bridge where it is desired to move it to another position.

To these ends our invention comprises, generally stated, a traveling bridge having clamps in such position with reference to the rails so as to take hold thereof, an electric motor for operating said clamps to take hold of therail, a weight lifted by the operation of-said motor and connections operated by the movement of said weight forcutting in a resistance into the circuit of the motor so as to hold the weight in a predetermined elevated position, said weight descending with sufficient force to bring the clamps securelv into clamping position with the rails, and means for releasing the weight, the downward movement of said weight be ing controlled by the resistance set up by the armature of the motor traveling in the In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a view of a traveling bridge to which our invention is applied; Fig. 2 is an enlarged view of the lower portion of one of the legs of the bridge showing our invention applied thereto; Fig. 3 is a still larger view of a portion of the leg shown in Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a plan view of the clamps and the 02p erating mechanism; Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5 5 Fig. 5; Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic view of the switches and the circuit leading to the motor; and Figs. 7, 8 and 9 show a modified form of our invention.

' In the drawings the numeral 2 designates a suitable traveling bridge provided with legs 3 carried on the trucks 4 which move along the tracks 5. The bridge is provided and we do hereby dewith the cab 6 from which the operator controls the movement of the bridge, and the bridge may be further supplied with a clamshell bucket or other device for lifting material from one point and discharging it at another point. It has not been deemed necessary, however, to illustrate such clam-shell bucket, as it is not involved in our invention.

In Fig. 2 we have illustrated an enlarged view of the lower end of one of the legs of the bridge which consists of angle-bars and other shapes s0 connected as to give the proper strength and rigidity. A motor 7 is carried by the leg, and the motor-shaft has the pinion 8 which meshes with the large gear-wheel 9 on the shaft 10. This shaft 10 is mounted in suitable bearings 11. The shaft 10 is provided with the threaded portions 12 at the opposite ends thereof, and said threaded portions are engaged by the threaded members 13. The nuts 13 as indicated in Fig. 4 have the lugs 14 to which are pivoted the bell-cranks 15. The bellcranks 15 are pivoted at 16 to the frame and their opposite ends are pivoted as at 17 to the clevises 18. The clamping levers 19 are held at their upper ends between the clevises 18 by means of the pins 19' passing through said clevises and said levers. The inside levers 20 are connected to the levers 19 by the links 21 and the upper ends of the levers 20 are secured by pins 21 in the clevis-member 22. The clevis-member 22 has the opening 24 through which the shaft 10 passes. The lower ends of the levers 19 and 20 have hardened steel inserts 25 where they engage the heads of the rails.

On the shaft 10 and therewith is the drum 26 cable 27 winds. around the sheave 29. The cable 27 then passes around the sheave 30 on the weight 31.- The weight 31 moves up and down on the guide rods 32.

In the path of the movement of the weight 31 is the idle-roller 33 on the arm 34; Pivoted to the arm 34 is the rod 35 which is connected to the switch arm 36 pivoted at 37 to the frame 38. A spring'39 is connected to the arm 34 and to the frame 38 to hold said arm normally in the position shown in Fig. 3. The arm 36 is adapted to engage the contact 40 to which the wire adapted to rotate around which the This cable 27 passes up 28 and around the sheave- 41 leading to the traversin motor 42 of the bridge through switch 0, that is, the motor which gives the power for moving the bridge along the rails. At the same time, the engagement of the weight with the roller 33 operates the crank-arm 43 and through the link 14, the switch-arm 47 is operated by which the Wire 48 connects to the motor 7. The buffer-springs 49 are carried by the guide-rods32, and said buffersprings are interposed between the weight and the collars 50. In this way when the weight is raised the buffer-springs act to take the jar when the collars 50 come in contact with the frame.

When our invention is in use, and it is desired to release the clamps from the rails so as to permit the bridge to be moved, the parts will be in the position indicated in Fig. 3. The operator through a suitable treadle or lever in the cab 6 closes a suitable switch C (shown in Fig. 6) to the motor 7 and the shaft 10 is rotated. The rotation of the shaft 10 with its threaded portions 13 in engagement with the nuts 14 causes said nuts to move and operates the bell-crank 15, moving them in the direction so as to move the levers 19 to the positions indicated in dotted lines Fig. 5, thereby releasing the bridge from the rails. At the same time the rotation of the shaft 10 through the cable 27 lifts the weight 31. As the weight 31 ascends, its bevel portion 31 comes in contact with the roller 33 and through the mechanism described opens the switch K and closes the switch K. The closing of the switch K permits the operationof the traversing motor 12 by means of the controller 0 and the opening of the switch K causes the solenoid switch A to open by which means the resistance R is inserted into the motor circuit. This stops the motor 7, but passes sufiicient current through it to sustain the weight and hold the clamps released as long as the operating treadle in the cab is held down. WVhen the operator releases the treadle the line current is cut off and the weight lowers driving the motor on dynamic brake resistance R at a constant speed until the jaws 19 and 20 again grip the rails. This all appears clear from the diagram shown in Fig. 6. This lowering of the .weight reverses the movement of the shaft 10 and the threaded portions 13 acting through the nuts 14 operate the bell-cranks 15, so as to move the clamping jaws in the position indicated in full lines Fig. 5. It is apparent that the outer clamping levers 19 will first take hold of the rail and they will act through the connecting links 21 to draw the inner clamping levers 20 into engagement so as to securely clamp the bridge to the rails. In this way I provide for a clamping device which is released by the motor and when the weight descends, it is autoand controller matically clamped so as to secure the clamps in their clamping position.

In Figs. 7, 8 and 9 we have shown a modified form of our invention in which the device is a hand operated one. The handwheel 60 is mounted on the screw shaft 61. A ratchet-wheel 62 is carried by the shaft 61. The nuts 63 on the screw-shaft 61 engage the upper ends of the clamping levers 61 which have the jaws 65 to engage the rail 66. The screw-shaft 61 also carries the drum 67 to receive the cable 68 which passes under the sheave 69 up over the sheave 70 and down around the drum 71 on the weight 72 up over sheave 70 and back again to drum 71 to which said cable is secured. A pawl 73 engages the ratchet-wheel 62 said pawl being carried by the shaft 74 mounted in the frame. A lever 75 pivoted at 76 has the link 77 at one end which is connected to the lever 78. This lever 78 is secured to the rock-shaft 74. The opposite end of the lever 75 is connected to the core-piece 79 of the solenoid 7 9'. When it is desired to release the clamps, the wheel 60 is turned in the direction of arrow and the weight 72 is elevated. The pawl 73 holds it in its elevated position. When the solenoid is charged the lever 75 is moved and through the'link 77 and lever 78 the pawl 73 is freed from the ratchet-wheel 62 and the weight is free to descend and clamp the shoes by the rotation of the screw shaft 61.

What we claim is:

1. In a rail clamping device for traveling bridges, the combination with a frame, of an electric motor, a shaft driven thereby,

weight-applied clamping devices, connec-,

tions between said shaft and clamping devices, and means for operating said clamping devices by making and breaking the circuit to said motor.

2. In a rail clamping device for traveling bridges, the combination with the frame, of an electric motor, a shaft driven thereby, clamping devices, a weight connected to said shaft, and means for breaking the circuit to said motor whereby said weight is lowered to apply said clamping devices, and means for raising said weight by making the circuit to said motor whereby said clamping devices are released.

3. In a rail-clamp device for traveling bridges, the combination with the frame, of an electric-motor, a shaft driven thereby, clamping devices, means for operating said clamping devices by the rotation of said shaft, a weight elevated by the rotation of said shaft in releasing said clamps, and means operated by the movement of said weight and inserting resistance into the motor circuit, whereby said weight is held in its elevated position.

4. In a rail-clamp device for traveling bridges, the combination with the frame, of

clamping devices by the rotation of said shaft, 2. Weight-elevated by the rotation of said shaft,'means operated by the movement of said weight adapted to insert a resistance into the motor circuit, whereby said -weight is sustained, means for cutting off the current to motor to allow the weight to fall, means for short circuiting the motor through resistance, and setting the clamps tightly against the rail.

5. In a rail-clamp device for traveling bridges, the combination with the frame, of a motor, a screw-shaft driven thereby, a threaded member engaged by said shaft, a bell-crank connected to said threaded member, clamping-levers, and connections between said bell-crank and said clampinglevers.

6. In a rail-clamp device for traveling bridges, the combination with the frame, of a motor, a screw-shaft driven thereby, a threaded member engaged by said shaft, a bell-crank connected to said threaded member, a clamping-lever connected to said bellcrank, a second clamping-lever, and 'a-link connecting said clamping-levers.

In testimony whereof, We the said RAY- MOND E. BROWN and EDWARD C. GAINES' have hereunto set our hands.

RAYMOND E. BROWN. EDWARD C. GAINES. Witnesses:

ROBERT C. ToT'rEN, JOHN F. WILL.

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