US2526307A - Crane and the like apparatus mounted on rails - Google Patents

Description

Oct. 17, 1950 E. J. VARDA cam AND THE LIKE APPARATUS uounmn on RAILS Filed July 11, 1947 4 sheetssheet 1 INVfNTOR 005: /AN VARDA I) T RIVI Y Oct. 17, 1950 E. J. VARDA 2,526,307

CRANE AND THE LIKE APPARATUS MOUNTED 0N RAILS Filed July 11, 1947 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 igxz.

' hww A T TORNEX Oct. 17, 1950 E. J. VARDA 2,526,307

CRANE AND THE LIKE APPARATUS MOUNTED 0N RAILS Filed July 11, 1947 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Oct. 17, 1950 E. J. VARDA 2,525,307

CRANE AND THE LIKE APPARATUS MOUNTED 0N RAILS Filed July 11, 1947 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INI- EN TOR. [UGENEz/EAA/ V4204 A TTOR/VE Y Patented Oct. 17, 1950 CRANE AND THE LIKE APPARATUS MOUNTED ON RAILS Eugene Jean Varda, Paris, France Application July 11, 1947, Serial No. 760,238 inFrance February 16, 1946 Section 1, Public Law 690, August 8, 1946 Patent expires February 16, 1966 Claims. l

The present invention relates to heavy and bulky apparatus adapted to run on spaced railway tracks. The movement of heavy and bulky apparatus, such for example as heavy cranes, over spaced railway tracks involves series difficulties by reason of variations in the spacing of said tracks arising, for example,'from variations in curvature of the tracks, as at the junction of a curved track section with a straight section. These difiiculties are accentuated when it is desired to reduce to a minimum the endwise motion of the axles, i. e. the play allowed the latter in a transverse direction with reference to' the rails.

Variousmeans have heretofore been proposed for obviatin these drawbacks. However, the previously proposed solutions leave much to be desired, chiefly on account of the relatively great endwise motion which it is still necessary to allow the axle. This endwise motion leads toobjectionable wear by reason of the friction of the axles in their bearings. Because of this, an attempt has been made to reduce friction by inserting anti-friction rollers between'the frame of the apparatus and the carriages that support it. However, this arrangement leads to constructional complications and has not been found to be entirely satisfactory.

It is an object of the present invention to overcome these difficulties and to provide a firm, steady and strong support for the load to be carried while at the same time permitting free movement of the apparatus over the tracks despite variation-in curvature of the tracks and variation in spacing and without objectionable endwise motion of the axles in their bearings.

In accordance with the present invention, a rigid platform or framework is carried on vertically extending supports which in turn are supported by trucks running on the spaced tracks. The supports resting on the trucks onv one of the tracks are rigidly connected with the platform while the supports resting on the trucks on the other'track are hingedly connected to the platform to swing about an axisapproximately parallel to the tracks. The supports are swivelly mounted'for universal movement on the respective trucks. With this arrangement, the supports that are pivotally secured to the platform are capable of swinging in a direction transverse to the tracks, thereby allowing the respective trucks to follow the variations in the spacing of the tracks without imparting any substantial endwise motion to the axles of the trucks.

The friction produced by variations in the spacing of the tracks, as for example when the apparatus passes over a portion connectinga straight portion of the track with a curved portion, is thus reduced merely to the friction 'between the pivoting members by which the supports at one side of the platform are connected to the platform. As the angle through which the pivoted supports swing is very small and becomes still smaller as the height of the platform above the tracks is increased, the friction in insignificant.

With the arrangement in accordance with my invention, it is possible to lay out the tracks as simple arcs of a circle that merge directly into the rectilinear portion of the track, thereby eliminating the necessity of using spirals or other complicated curves. The construction of the tracks is thereby considerably cheaper, without this leading in any way to high lateral pressure between the rails and the flanges of the wheels.

My invention is readily applicable to the construction of apparatus of considerable size and weight, such as cranes capable of raising loads of tons and capable of rolling over curved tracks of comparatively small radius, for example a radius of 30 meters, and of a comparatively wide gauge or spacing between the tracks of, for example, 10 meters.

The invention will be more fully understood from the following'description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which show, by way of example, a 150-ton crane rolling over a hairpin track laid out around a dry dock hav ing a breadth of about 55 meters. In the drawings Fig. 1 is an elevational view of the crane.-

Figs. 2 and 3 are front and side views, respectively, of the framework carrying the platformof the crane. V

Fig. 4 is a plan View of a portion of the tracks surrounding one end of the dry dock with a schematic representation of the crane platform in various positions.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged view, partially in side elevation and partially in longitudinal section; of one of the trucks and the adjacent portions of a leg supporting the platform. 1

Fig. 6 is a plan view of this truck; and

Figs. 7, 8, 9 and 10 are transverse sections taken respectively "on the lines l-l, 8-8, 9-9 and l0l0 in Fig. 5.

In the example illustrated in the drawings, the framework includes a rigid rectangular platform 11 carried by four legs orsupports b, b5:

and c, c disposed respectively adjacent the four corners of the platform and resting on corresponding carriages or trucks (1, d, e and 6 rolling on corresponding tracks, each composed of a pair of rails j and g, g, respectively.

The legs 'or supports 1) and b resting on carriages d and (1' running on the track 1, are rigidly connected at their upper ends to the platform a. The upper ends of the legs or supports 0, c which are carried by the trucks e, e on the track g, g are pivotally secured to the platform a by pivotal connections or hinges having an axis l, I. These legs may hence swing freely and independently of one another about the said axis with reference to the platform a and the rigid supports 22, b to the extent allowed by the length of an elongated slot 2 provided in each of the cross-beams h, h pivotally secured at p to the supports b, b (Fig. 2).

In the form shown in the drawings, each of the carriages d, d, e and e includes four elementary carriages 3, each having two axles with a pair of wheels on each axle. The corresponding legs b, b, c and c' which support the platform a rest on these trucks through the agency of a main beam 5, the ends of which are supported by auxiliary beams 6 which are carried in their turn by two of the elementary trucks 3. The bearings of these superimposed parts include pivotal members of any suitable kind that allow the wheels of the trucks to follow the corresponding rails both with respect to direction in a horizontal path and also with respect to predetermined or fortuitous changes of level, whereby the load on each support may be distributed as evenly as possibleover the sixteen wheels of the truck. For this purpose, I may provide on each carriage a double pivot, one of which is vertical While the other has a horizontal axis parallel to the tracks, or else I may provide a spherical joint. Similarly, the main beams 5' and auxiliary beams 6 of the trucks are secured together so as to be capable of rocking with reference to one another and to the supports 2), b, c, within suitable limits around two axes perpendicular to the axis of the track respectively in a vertical and in a horizontal direction.

1 -'As illustrated in the drawing (Fig. the main beam 5 of each truck is supported at its opposite ends by ball and socket joints 1 on the auxiliary beams 6. In its central portion the beam 5 has a recess H. The lower end of the leg, for example the leg I) has an extension or foot portion 8 which is received in this recess and is supported by a ball and socket joint 9 (Figs. 5 and "1) provided at the bottom of the recess in the beam 5. Bolts. l2 and. I3 which connect the parts of the ball and socket joints 1 and 9 (Figs. 5, '7 and 8) are sufficiently loose in their holes to permit the relatively small amount of movementrequired between the two parts of the bearing.

In the examples considered, the rails f, f, g, g are arranged along lines drawn as simply as possible. The inner track comprises two parallel rails f; f separated by a distance of 1.2 meters and has a rectilinear portion AB extending along either-side of the dry dock and a curved portion BC in which the rails are laid along circular arcs coaxial with one another, with the center 0 located on the axis of the dry dock and with the radii of the arcs equal to 29.4 meters and 30.6 meters respectively. The arcuate portions of the track join with the rectilinear portions at B.

The outer track likewise comprises two rails separated by a distance of 1.2 meters and. has 8.

rectilinear portion DE and an arcuate portion EF in which the rails are laid along concentric circular arcs having radii equal, respectively, to 39.25 meters and 40.45 meters and a center 0' which is located about 0.15 meter from the above mentioned center 0 on the longitudinal axis of the dry dock. The arcuate track portions join the rectilinear portions tangentially at E. Consequently, the spacing between the axes of the rectilinear tracks is about 10 meters whereas in the curved portions this distance decreases gradually from 10 to about 9.85 meters.

In Fig. 4, the apparatus appears as a rectangle 12 meters long and 10 meters wide (on the same scale as the tracks). The letters 17, b, c, c at the corners of the rectangle indicate the positions of the corresponding supporting legs. In the position I in which all the wheels are on rectilinear rails, the axes of the four supports are all vertical. As the front of the apparatus en'- gages the curved tracks uponmovement in the direction of the arrow, the outer supports c-c' are constrained to move gradually away from the supports b, 2) until the apparatus arrives in the position II. As it passes beyond that point, the supports come nearer to one another and return to their normal spacing of 10 meters in position III. The maximum lateral displacement of the front support 0 under such conditions is about 0.15 meter and that of the rear support 0' is about 0.07 meter. If the axis l-i of the hinges connecting the upper ends of the legs 0, c tothe platform are assumed to lie at about 11 meters above the rails, the swinging of the legs 0, c is about 1. The angular movement of the supports 0, c' is thus very small and the frictional forces in the hinges connecting the supports to the platform are comparatively unimportant. .If required, these forces may be still further reduced through the use of anti-friction bearings. The several supports are held rigidlyiin the direction of the track through suitable braces such as i. In Fig. 3, there are shown three braces comprising two angular braces and a horizontal brace. The latter is op tional and, if used, ,is pivotally connected with the legs c and c", as shown. Similarly, the supports b, b are also held rigid in a transverse direction by suitable stay members, such as 7c (Fig. 2).

It should be observed that the values herein given for the weight, size and number of the different elements are given solely by way of example and it is possible to increase or reduce the same to a greater or lesser extent without modifying the principal characteristics of the invention as herein disclosed and defined in the accompanying claims. The invention, moreover, is not limited .to hoisting apparatus but is applicable to any apparatus -of a large size and considerable weight intended to move over tracks having curves, the radii of which vary between wide limits, whatever may be the shape of these curves and the breadth and length of the apparatus. Instead of having two rigid supports and two pivoted supports, as shown, the apparatus may obviously include different numbers of supports. Similarly, the number of trucks and wheels may vary within the load limits of their design.

What I claim is:

1. Heavy and bulky apparatus adapted to run along two spaced railway tracks comprising two trucks running on each track, each of said trucks having a plurality of axles, a rectangular platform above the trucks, a leg extending up from each of the trucks to the'platform for supporting the platform, the bottom end of each leg being provided with a bearing of spherical section resting on a correspondingly shaped bearing on the respective truck, the two legs resting on the trucks on one of the tracks being rigidly connected with the platform and the two legs resting on the trucks on the other track being individually hinged to the platform at theirupper ends to permit said latter legs to swing in a direction crosswise to the track.

2. In apparatus according to claim 1, means.

for limiting the swinging of said hinged legs comprising'a brace which extends between each of the hinged legs and the opposite rigid leg, said brace'being hingedly connected with one of the legs between which it extends and having a pin and slot connection withthe other. 7

3. In heavy and bulky apparatus adapted to run on spaced railway tracks including straight portions and curved portions, the combination of a pair of trucks on each of the tracks, a rigid platform above said trucks, supports for said platform swivelly supported for universal movement on the trucks on one track and rigidly connected to the platform and other supports for said platform swivelly supported for universal movement on the trucks on the other track and hingedly connected to the platform to swing about an axis approximately parallel to the tracks.

4. In heavy and bulky apparatus adapted to run on spaced railway tracks, the combination of a pair of trucks on each track, a rigid platform above the trucks, a pair of legs supported respectively on the trucks on one track, said legs being rigidly connected with the platform and swivelly mounted for universal movement on said trucks, members for bracing said legs both longitudinally and transversely of the platform, a, second pair of legs swivelly supported for universal movement respectively on the trucks on the other track and hingedly connected to the platform at their upper ends to swing about an axis approximately parallel to said second track and members for bracing said second pair of legs in the plane of said legs.

5. In apparatus according to claim 4, means for limiting the swinging movement of said second pair of legs.

- EUGENE 'JEAN VARDA.

No references cited.

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