US1703049A - Car coupling - Google Patents

Description

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'Feb. 19,1929.

CAR COUPLING Filed Dec. 29, 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet Feb. 19, 1929.

J. c. WHITRIDGE cm courflme.

Filed Dec. 29, 1,926 2 sheets-sheet 2 Patented Feb. 19,1929.

1,703,049 PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN G. WHITRI'DGE, or "COLUMBUS, 01110, ASSIGNOR TO THE BUCKEYE s'rEELcAs'r mos COMPANY, OF COLUMBUS, OHIO.

I CAR COUPLING.

Application filed December 29, 1926. Serial No. 157,724.

This invention relates to the buffer ele' ments of automatic car couplings and has for its objects the provision of a structure which will furnish a bufiing surface of. greater area than has been heretofore attained and also reenforce eitherthe guard arm or the knuckle side of the head or both sides of the head of the coupler. The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings and will be here.- inafter fully set forthand particularly defined.

In thedrawings, Figure 1 is a top plan view of a car coupling showing one embodiment of the invention,

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the coupling head with the buffer or strike plate in section,

Figure 3 is a' bottom plan view, I

Figures 4, 5 and 6 are views correspond ing to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, respectively, but showing another form of the invention.

Referring more specifically to the drawings, 1 designates the head of an automatic coupling, and 2 designates a portion of the draft rigging in which the shank 3 of the coupling is mounted in the usual manner. The draft rigging carries a striking plate 4 which may be mounted in any approved manner but preferably has its front formed on a simple curve whereby it presents a convex surface 5 from end .to end. The coupler head is formed with the usual buffing surface, as 6, on the rear wall of the lock housing. I

According to the present invention, ribs 7 are formed on the exterior of the guard arm side and the knuckle side of the coupling head, and these ribs, at their rear ends, merge into laterally extending bufling shoulders 8 at the sides of the shank 3 of the coupling. said shoulders presenting concave surfaces to the convex surface of the striking plate 4. The ribs 7 extend generally longitudinally of the coupling head but converge slightly rear wardly and the striking shoulders 8 are slightly in the rear of the striking surface 6,

and it will be noted that the ribs not only.

sustain the striking shoulders 8 but also reenforce the guard arm and the knuckle housing so as to resist deformation and fracture thereof. The invention also provides a broad rib or reenforcing plate 9 on the bottom of the coupling head at the center thereof which terminates in a striking surface 10.

It will be observed that the area covered vertically by the ribs 7 is thatincluded within the usual lines of the head so that the form of the invention which has been described may be said to retain the general standard of the automatic coupler. In the form shown in Figures 4, Sand 6, the central rib 71 corresponds in all respects to the central rib 7 of the bottom of the rib or reenforcing plate 100, the striking area of said housing and said rib or plate being extended laterally to merge into the shoulders 80, as shownclearly in Figs. 45 and 6, so that there is a continuous uninterrupted striking surface the full width of the structure. N I-Ieretofore, the rear wall of the lock-housing was the only buifingsurface on the head and the striking casting, consequently, received bufling forces only at a point above the level of the coupler shank. The buffing surfaces of the coupler and the striking casting were parallel with each other and at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the car. It

hasalso been the practice to arrange draft stops and gear travel. on new cars so that, under conditions of buff with maximum gear travel, there would. be a small amount of clearance between the rear of the lock housing and the front of the striking casting. In

service, due to wear and unavoidable defor-- mation of the draft elements this clearance margin is gradually eliminated with theresult that a certain portion of the bufling forces are dissipated through a blow of the coupler horn or lock housing against the striking casting.

In switching cars on tangent tracks with the coupler in a central position and the knuckles open, the sidewalls of the lock housing which transmit the buffing forces to the striking castin g are able to perform this duty the ca )acit i oi the draft 'eai' the guard arm oi the coupling with the open knuckle and the these di'lliculties and avoids the describeddamages.

Having fully described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is 1; The con'ibination with a striking plate, of the coupling head of an automatic car cou- )lingprovided on its lateral sides respectively with laterally projecting longitudinally extendingribsteri'ninating at their rear ends in. lateral vertically extending buliing. shoulderscooperable with said strikil'ig plate.

2. ln' builing means for car couplings, the COIIllJlDalQlODM/l thastriking plate of an automatic coupling head provided at its rear end on its lateral sides withlateral bufi'er shoulderscooperable with said striking plate, vertically spacedlaterally projecting ribs on the couplinghead at' respective sides oi the rear portionthereof'andprojecting respectively'in opposite directions'rrom said head, saidribs being disposed between the body o-fthe coupling head an dsaid. shoulders amlreiniiorcing the latter, alock housing rising from the coupling head and providing a vertical buliing face between said buffershoulders cooperable with said strikingplate, and'a member on the bottom of the coupling head aiiording a buffingilace between said buffer shoulders cooperable with said striking plate.

'3. 1nbuilingi'ineans for car couplings, the combination with a striking plate, of the coupling'head of anautoniatic coupling provided with a lateral verticalbullershoulder at'its rear end at each lateral side ol'thie coupler shank coop'era-ble with saidstriking plate; a lock housingrising' from the coupling head and attending a bufler face between= said shoulders cooper-ablewith said striking plate, the upper end'oi thever-tical shoulder being on a plane with the'top o't' ithe lock housing andn'ierged'witlrthe rear wall of said housing, and vertically spaced ribs on the lateral sides of 'the head'and converging rearwardly to merge" into and reenforce the respective buffer shoulders. v

In testimony whereof, Ihave signed this specification J G. lVl-IITRIDGE.

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