WO2001014199A1

WO2001014199A1 - Equipment for mutual turning of car body elements

Info

Publication number: WO2001014199A1
Application number: PCT/CZ2000/000059
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jiří HOFMAN
Original assignee: Čkd Dopravní Systémy, A.S.
Priority date: 1999-08-25
Filing date: 2000-08-22
Publication date: 2001-03-01
Also published as: CZ293377B6; CZ9903026A3

Abstract

The equipment for mutual turning of car body elements, articulated sectional body of which rests on freely rotating undercarriages (6, 7) and adjacent body elements (8, 13) are situated in articulation of adjacent elements (10). The equipment comprises at least one force element (1) situated in the area of the articulation (10) in such manner that the first supporting point (11) is anchored to the first body element (8) and the other supporting point (12) is anchored to adjacent body element (13). Action of the force element (1) depends on mutual displacement of the first undercarriage (6) and the first undercarriage element of the body (8) and of another undercarriage (7) against another undercarriage element of the body (9).

Description

Equipment For Mutual Turning of Car Body Elements

Technical Field

The invention relates to the transportation branch, suspension of rail cars in particular. The equipment in question allows automatic undercarriage adjustment with turntable while guiding in curves.

Background Art

The length of integral rail car body is limited by car body narrowing, which depends on the possibihty of passage through a traction line curve. This length is approximately 15 meters at tram cars due to city traffic.

This length does not provide for sufficient low-floor proportion design in the passenger space. For this reason, partly low-floor tram cars are usually designed as articulated trams, which allow better guiding in curves and, even at signrficantly higher body length, the body narrowing remains in acceptable range.

On the other hand, an articulated car body has more degrees of freedom thus requiring additional technical means, which would uniquely define its position in curves. These means may include an additional undercarriage, linkage mechanism or usage of fixed undercarriages. Utilization of additional undercarriage can be justified at longer cars, however, this equipment is too expensive for shorter cars. For this reason, shorter cars (with length below approximately 20 meters) usually utilize linkage mechanism solution (at two-piece bodies) or the solution with fixed undercarriages (at three-piece bodies). Due to prevention from free undercarriages rotation, solutions with fixed undercarriages are characterized by increased steering forces and with resulting reduced derailing safety, increased wear of wheel flanges and they are not therefore suitable for classical city-type tram lines with numerous curves without transition curves. Instead, they more suitable for high-speed type tram lines. Besides, solutions with additional linkage mechanism are not suitable for low-floor cars due to space limitations. Disclosure of Invention

The above listed limitations are eliminated by the equipment for mutual turning of car body elements. With this solution, an articulated car body rests on freely rotating undercarriages and adjacent body elements are connected with articulated joint. The principle of the articulated joint consists in force element arrangement in the area of body elements articulation when supporting points are anchored on adjacent body elements and action of force element thus depends on mutual displacement of undercarriages and articulated body. Each undercarriage is fitted with undercarriage displacement sensor and each articulated joint between body elements is provided with body displacement sensor. Body undercarriage elements do not have to be adjacent and there may be an element without undercarriage nested between them. The force element comprises a linear drive and attached mechanism. It acts in predefined dependence on signals of the above mentioned sensors and according to the control unit response. The undercarriage displacement sensor detects the displacement of rotating undercarriage and car body element and sends a signal to the control unit. Car body displacement sensor detects the displacement of body elements in the area of articulation and sends a signal to the control unit.

The solution described herein does not require increased driving forces during body swiveling and undercarriages may rotate freely. This results in improved driving properties of tramway car and in avoiding undesirable excessive wear of wheel flanges and rails in turns.

Brief Description of the Drawing

Figure 1 shows section plan of the tram car equipped with equipment for mutual turning of car body elements. Detail Description

The attached Figure 1 shows two-part tram car body with first element No. 8 and second element No. 9 which, togetlier with adjacent body element No. 13 rotate on a vertical axis formed by articulation of No. 10 of adjacent elements. Both body elements are based on freely rotating undercarriages (first undercarriage No. 6 and second undercarriage No. 7) equipped with tlie equipment for mutual turning of car body elements comprising one force element No. 1 situated in skew position with respect to the axis of adjacent elements articulation No. 10. The force element is installed on both the first body element No. 8 and the second body element No. 9, which also adjoins tlie body 13. The first support point No. 11 of tlie force element No. 1 is anchored on the first body element No. 8 and tlie other supporting point No. 12 of the force element No. 1 is anchored on tlie next element of body No. 9. Action of tlie force element No. 1 is based on mutual displacement of the first undercarriage No. 6 and the first body element No. 8 and tlie second undercarriage No. 7 against the other body element No. 9. If a rail vehicle enters a curve and once the first rotating undercarriage No. 6 turns against the first body element No. 8, tlie displacement sensor No. 3 of tlie first undercamage No. 6 sends a signal into tlie control unit No. 5. After processing with a built-in algorithm, the control unit immediately issues a command into the force element No. 1 and tlie rail vehicle body is displaced correspondingly. Body displacement is concurrently controlled by a signal from elements displacement sensor No. 2, which is sent to tlie control unit No. 1. The control process is also influenced by entry of another undercarriage No. 7 into the curve and by corresponding signals from the displacement sensor No. 4 of the undercarriage No. of the undercarriage No. 7 into the control unit No. 1. The equipment for mutual turning of car body elements works analogously when the vehicle drives out from the curve.

This way, the car body elements are appropriately turned in curves and aligned in straight sections thus optimizing their guiding in curves.

Industrial Application

The equipment for mutual turning of car body elements can be conveniently used at articulated bodies of rail cars, mainly at low floor trams.

Claims

1. The equipment for mutual turning of body elements at cars with two and more elements, articulated sectional body of which rests on freely rotating first undercarriage (6) and at least one additional undercamage (7) and where the first undercarriage element (8) and another undercarriage element of the body (9) are situated in articulation of adjacent elements (10), characterized by that at least one force element (1) is situated in the area of adjacent elements articulation (10) so that the first support point (11) is anchored to the first undercarriage element of the body (8) and the other supporting point (12) is anchored to tlie adjacent element of the body (13) while action of the force element (1) depends on mutual displacement of the first undercarriage (6) and the first undercarriage element of the body (8) and of another undercarriage (7) against another undercarriage element of tlie body (9).

2. The equipment for mutual tuπring of car body elements as specified in the Claim 1 characterized by that tlie first undercarriage (6) is equipped with displacement sensor (3) of the first undercarriage (6) and another undercarriage (7) is equipped with displacement sensor (4) of another undercarriage (7).

3. The equipment for mutual toning of car body elements as specified in the Claim 1 characterized by that the articulation of adjacent elements (10) is equipped widi elements displacement sensor (2).

4. The equipment for mutual turning of car body elements as specified in tlie Claim 1 characterized by that the force element (1) is attached to at least two points while at least tlie first supporting point (11) is anchored to the first body element (8) and at least the other supporting point (12) is anchored to the adjacent body element (13). The force element comprises linear drive and mechanism.

5. The equipment for mutual turning of car body elements as specified in Claims 1 to 4 characterized by that the rail car is equipped with control unit (5), which is connected to tlie displacement sensor (3) of the first undercarriage (6) and to the displacement sensor (4) of another undercarriage (7) and also to elements displacement sensor (2), and which also controls operation of the force unit (1).

6. The equipment for mutual iraiing of car body elements as specified in Claims 1 to 5 characterized by that another undercarriage element of the body (9) does not have to be adjacent to the body element (13).