US2045291A - Car door - Google Patents

Description

E. G. BUSSE June 23, 193s.

CAB DOOR Filed June 24, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN1/Mraz Edv/'f7 ase .47' RNEY Patented June 23, 1936 PATENT OFFICE CAR DOOR Edwin G. Busse, Chicago, Ill., assignor to Chicago v Railway Equipment Company, Chicago, Ill., a

corporation of Illinois Application June 24, 1933, serial No. 677,367

14 Claims.

The invention relates to door construction particularly of the type used on railway box cars, and the invention consists in a novel frame and panel construction.

There are a large number of freight cars in use in which the door paneling is made of wood surrounded by a steel frame of standard commercial rolled sections, usually Z-bars or angle irons. The wood panels in these doors rot relatively quickly due to their exposure to the weather and the entrance of moisture between the wood and steel framework. In order to maintain the doors waterproof, it is customary to replace the wooden paneling every four to eightxyears, depending upon various conditions of service, maintenance and weather.

There is a growing tendency to use all steel doors on freight cars, and many combinations of paneling and framing members have been placed upon the market. Some of these all steel door structures can only b e produced by utilizing expensive forming dies, which vincreases ythe rst cost of the doors and makes it diiiicult or impossible for a railroad to repair such doors except by obtaining parts from the manufacturer which, of course, involves undesirable delay and expense.

The main object of the present invention is to provide a door paneling which may be formed readily in any well equipped metal works shop, such as is maintained by railroads generally, and may be readily applied to an angular framework such as has been commonly used in doors having wooden panels or bodies. Obviously, such a renewable metal paneling should be free of irregular and complicated formations.

It is highly desirable to keep the Weight of doors of the type described to a minimum and yet the doors must be rigid enough to withstand forces applied thereto in service and it is a further object of the invention to provide a simple, `easily formed and assembled panel structure which will possess the necessary rigidity and yet not be unduly heavy.

It will be understood that the construction described below is not necessarily limited to replacement of old wooden panels but may be utilized in new door construction.

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate structures in which the above described objects are attained Y Figure 1 is a side elevation of a railway car side ydoor embodying kone formof the invention with parts broken away in 'order to more rclearly show other features. y

Figures 2 and 3 are respectively horizontal and (Cl. 18S- 46) vertical sections taken on the corresponding section lines of Figure 1 and drawn on a larger scale.

Figures 4 to 10, inclusive, are fragmentary sections illustrating details of modified panel construction.

The door frame is rectangular and'consists of four Z-bars I, 2, 3 and 4 secured together by gussets 5 at the corners of the frame. The web 6 of `each Z-bar is disposed perpendicularly of the general plane of the door; the flanges 1 at the outer face of the door are turned inwardly, and the flanges 8 at the inner face of the door are turned outwardly.

The door body consists of a plurality of relatively long panels 9 extending from side to side of the door, each comprising a rectangular plate with its marginal portions I0 flanged inwardly at right angles to the body of the plate. The flanged portions I0 of each panel abut the corresponding langes of the adjacent panels and the uppermost and lowermost flanges II and I2 abut the Webs 6 of the upper and lower Z-bar frame members I and 2, respectively. The ends of the flanges I0, II and I2 preferably abut the webs I3 of the upright side Z- bar frame members 3 and 4.

By means of modern welding equipment, th parts of the door may be securely assembled with each other by spaced lines of welding, continuous or intermittent, as indicated at W, W and W, and this manner of welding the panel sections to each other and to the Z-bar framing provides ample rigidity to the construction. The door body is reinforced by a series of transversely extending elements IIl--I having a thickness equal to twice that o-f the body panels and united by the lines of welding W-W spaced transversely of the general plane of the door, and the door body or panel assembly is similarly united with the Z-bar framing by the lines of welding W" also spaced transversely of the plane of the door. The welding of the ends of each pair of flanges Ill-I0 to the webs I3 of the vertical Z-bars ties the inner and outer edges of these vertical webs to the intermediate portions of the plate panels and, in effect, forms a beam or girder extending from side to side of the door and having a depth corresponding to the depth of the Z-bar. This effect is produced without the addition of reinforcing angles or other structural shapes to the plate body, which would increase the expense and weight materially and provide numerous'crevices for the admission of moisture and dirt tending to corrode and weaken the steel structure. 'Ihe construction also eliminates the requirement of expensive dies for distorting the panels into reinforcing formations.

All of the plate bending can be handle by a bending brake or other simple equipment. Preferably the panels are interchangeable and may be stocked in quantities at the railroad repair shops or, indeed, one or more plates may be replaced by bending up flat sheets. The paneling may be substituted for wooden panels without any other change in the door construction and the door thereby produced would not suffer in comparison with steel doors being produced and involving more diicult and complicated and even heavier construction. The panel members may be assembled with each other prior to their application to the door, the uniting of the inner and outer portions of the panel flanges producing a series of girders extending across the door, each girder having an effective depth corresponding to the full width of the flanges. The door body assembly may oe applied to the frame without any punching of holes for rivets or bolts.

The door may include customary accessories, such as the top hangers H, spark and weatherprcoiing side strips S, and horizontal lower bars forming with the web and inner flange of the Z-bar a housing for a guide rail at the bottom of the door which, if desired, may also be used as a track for a supporting door or ball bearing.

The simple form of the invention illustrated in Figures 1, 2 and 3 is subject to variation without departing from the spirit of the invention, and various suggestive forms of such variations are shown in the remaining gures.

In Figure 4, one inturned marginal portion I5 of each panel i6 is ilanged downwardly as at Il andV overlies the adjacent edge of the upper inturned portion i3 of the next lower panel I9, forming a Z-shaped plate member. This providesa vertical reinforcement of the double rib -l at the inner side of the door and spaced from the cuter face formed by the bodies IG-IS of the panels. X-X indicates the spaced lines of welding corresponding to W-W in the structure previously described.

YIn Figure 5, the lower marginal portion of the panel 2&3 is flanged inwardly at 2 l, downwardly at 22, and the Z-shaped member thus formed is supplemented by another flange at 23 to cooperate with the upper portion of panel 24 to form a box section 25 which provides even greater rigidity at the connection between the two panels. The 4welded joints are indicated at Y-Y.

Figure 6 illustrates a similar construction in which a downturned flange 35 is provided at the outer end of the out-turned flange 23', the welded joint being indicated at Z and Z.

In all of the above described structures, the body of the panel is a flat plate and the flanged connecting portions are relied upon to provide all of the necessary reinforcement other than that afforded by the door frame. If desired, the plates may be bent intermediate their marginal portions as indicated in Figure '7, in which a U- shaped offset 26 provided between the upper and lower anges 21 of the panel substantially increases the rigidity of the latter. The offset 26 lies in the general plane of the door framing 28.

In Figure 8, a similar offset 29 is provided but projects outwardly beyond the plane of the door framing 38 giving a greater over all dimension between the outermost and innermost elements of the panel.

Figure 9 illustrates a construction in which each panel includes a plurality of oiset portions 3| and a box section 32 is formed by the cooperating marginal portions of adjacent panels. The door bottom commercial rolled structural shape is an angle iron 35 and the lowermost offset portion 3| of the lower door panel is secured to the edges of the flanges of angle iron 3| along lines spaced transversely of the door body to form a box section bottom member. Except for the frame bottom member 35, the door frame is preferably of Z bars as previously described.

In Figure l0, the marginal portions of the panels are bent to form V-sections 33 and a relatively narrow channel-like plate 34 overlaps the V-section marginal pgrtions of adjacent panels and is welded to each of them at spaced points as indicated at T and T'.

These and other variations in the formation of the plates may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and all of these constructions attain to various degrees the objects set forth in the introductory portion of the specification, and I contemplate exclusive use of these and other modifications which come within the scope of my claims.

What is claimed is:

l. In a railway car door, a frame of commercial rolled angular shapes having portions disposed substantially parallel to general plane of the door and portions projecting transversely of said plane,

like member reinforcing the panel structure transversely of said plane.

2. A railway car door as described in claim 1 in which the welding of the panel sheets to the frame and to each other extends in continuous lines from edge to edge of the door, to close the crevices between contiguous members.

3. In a railway car door, a panel structure comprising a plurality of plates with flanged marginal portions projecting transversely of the plane of the door, and a rectangular frame including com- 1 mercial rolled Z-bars with their webs extending transversely of said panel structure, the ends of the bodies of said plates overlapping and being secured to flanges of said frame Z-bars, throughout the width of said plates and the ends of said plate flanges abutting and being welded to the webs of said frame Z-bars at points spaced from said flanges and throughout the width of said flanges.

4. In a railway car door, a rectangular frame including commercial rolled Z-bars with their webs disposed transversely of the general plane of the door and with their anges disposed in planes paralleling the general plane of the door,

and a panel structure comprising rectangular 6 plates including marginal portions abutting each other and having elements spaced apart transversely of the general plane of the door and secured together by welded joints spaced from each other transversely of the general plane of the door, and the ends of the bodies of said plates overlapping and being welded to the corresponding anges of said frame Z-bars, and the ends of said marginal portions having elements 75 welded to the webs of said frame Z-bars throughout the width of said webs.

5. In a railway car door, a rectangular frame comprising commercial rolled angular shapes disposed to provide a substantial depth of frame transversely of the general plane of the door, and a panel structure consisting of plates with fiat body portions and marginal portions bent at right angles to said body portions and secured to each other so as to provide girders of thicker section than the bodies of the plates extending from side to side of the door and of substantial depth in planes transversely to the general plane of the door, the ends of said girders being tied to the inner and outer parts of said frame shapes so that the depth of the latter contributes to the rigidity of the girders.

6. A railway car door as described in claim 1 in which the interconnected portions of the panel structure plates form a hollow box section from side to side of the door.

'7. A railway car door as described in claim 1 in which the interconnected portions of the panel structure plates form a hollow box section from side to side of the door, the box section being formed by pairs of right angle elements welded together at diagonally opposite corners of the section.

8. In a railway car door, a rectangular frame including commercial rolled Z-bars with their webs disposed transversely of the general plane of the door and with their flanges disposed in planes in the general plane of the door, and a panel structure comprising rectangular plates each including a marginal portion bent to form a Z-shaped section corresponding in depth to said frame Z-bars, one of said marginal portions being juxtaposed with a corresponding portion of an adjacent plate to form a hollow girder, the ends of said panel marginal portions overlapping inturned flanges of said frame Z-bars and abutting the webs of said frame Z-bars, and welded to said flanges and to said webs throughout the depth of the latter.

9. A railway car door panel applicable to a separately formed complete rectangular frame, and consisting of a plurality of plates having reinforcing flanges at their edges projecting at right angles to the plates and along the same, said plates being arranged in series with adjacent portions of successive plates overlapping each other and united by lines of welding extending lengthwise of the plates and spaced transversely of the general plane of the door panel to form a rigid panel structure.

10. A railway carl door panel applicable to a separately formed complete rectangular frame, and consisting of a plurality of plates having reinforcing ilanges at their edges projecting at right angles to the plates and along the same, said plates being arranged in series with portions of adjacent plates overlapping each other and forming box sections having welded corner joints substantially spaced apart transversely of the panel and extending from one edge of the door to the other.

11. A railway car door panel applicable to a separately formed complete rectangular frame, and consisting of a plurality of plates each having rectangular marginal portions turned substantially at right angles to the body of the plate, adjacent marginal portions of successive plates being in abutment and welded together along lines spaced apart transversely of the plane of the plate bodies to form reinforcing webs perpendicular to the plate bodies and double the thickness thereof.

12. In a railway car door, a frame of commercial rolled angular shapes having portions disposed substantially in the general plane of the door and portions extending transversely of said plane, and a panel structure mounted on said frame and consisting of a plurality of metal plates with marginal anges extending at right angles to the plane of the bodies of the plates, contiguous plates having abutting flanges welded to each other along both their longitudinal edges and the ends of said flanges being welded to the inner and outer parts of the frame portions extending transversely of the general plane of the bodies of the plates so that interconnecting elements of said frame portions and panel flanges form bracing structure of continuous rectangular outline disposed transversely of the general plane of the door.

13. In a railway car door, a frame of commercial rolled angular shapes having members disposed substantially parallel with the general plane of the door and portions extending transversely of said plane, and a panel structure including a plurality of metal plates with marginal portions of adjacent plates overlapping each other and including elements spaced from each other transversely of said plane and secured at their ends to said members at points spaced transversely of said plane to form a girder-like member reinforcing the panel structure transversely of said plane from one frame shape to the other.

14. In a railway car door, upright rigid side framing members, a panel structure extending between said members and including a plurality of metal sheets, said sheets having flanged marginal portions extending across the door between said members and spaced from the top and bottom of the door and overlying each other, each of said portions being welded, along a line spaced from its edge, to the other sheet whereby said marginal portions are interlocked and form a girder of substantial depth transversely of the general plane of the door and extending across the door from one framing member to the other, and means securing the ends of said girder to said framing members. v

EDWIN G. BUSSE.

Images