BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
The above and other objects, features, and advantages will become more readily apparent from the following description, reference being made to the accompanying drawing in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a device for throwing railroad switch blades, having a running rail is clipped to a support, and having a switch blade, which is depicted both in a position resting against this running rail and in a position spaced from it and is supported on rollers of a roller assembly likewise accommodated in the support, which assembly is contained within a slide frame;
FIG. 2 is a side view of the switch-throwing device according to FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a perspective top view of a detail of the switch-throwing device, showing the roller assembly comprised of two rollers situated one behind another and in line with each other and a middle roller laterally offset from them; and
FIG. 4 shows the structure of FIG. 3 from the right, the adjusting side.
SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION
As seen in FIG. 1 a switch blade-throwing device 1 is carried on a support 9 with a running rail 2 also clipped to the support 9. The blade tip 4 of a switch blade 3 rests against the running rail 2 (see FIG. 2) in an inner position shown in solid lines and is spaced transversely from it in an outer position shown in broken lines. The blade 3 has a narrow foot 7 that supports the switch blade 5 rests and rolls during adjusting movements on a roller plane of a plate-like slide frame 8, which for positioning purposes, is situated so that it can move in linear fashion on a support 9 of the switch blade-throwing device 1.
In the illustrated embodiment, a slide frame 8, which functions as a base support element and is equipped with a ribbed plate 13, in cooperation with a top plate 10 (see FIG. 4), on the one hand provides a height-adjustable support for inner and outer rollers 11a and 11b that are centered on respective axes 14a and 14b. In addition there is a middle roller 12 that is spaced axially offset from the rollers 11a and 11b, with its axis 12a (FIG. 1) parallel to and approximately midway between the axes 14a and 14b of the rollers 11a and 11b. This roller 12 is also height-adjustable so that the switch blade 3, when moved from its contacting position 5 to the spaced-apart position 6 and vice versa, is always supported by either the inner or outer roller 11a or 11b or the laterally offset roller 12a. The rollers 11a, 11b, and 12 are here all of the same diameter which is such that their outer peripheries radially overlay each other, that is the inner portion of the roller 12 overlaps the outer portion of the roller 11a and the outer portion of the roller 12 overlaps the inner portion of the roller 11b. These diameters and the transverse spacing of the axes 14a, 14b, and 12a are such that a spacing between the outer peripheries at a slide plane P of the support 9 is smaller than the transverse width of the bottom face of the rail foot 7. This assures that when the blade foot 7 is situated in the middle between two rollers 11a and 12 as shown in FIG. 2 for the spaced-apart blade 3 (position 6), its edges continue to rest on and contact both rollers 11a and 12.
Despite the lateral offset, the middle roller 12 bridges the gap between the rollers 11a and 11b, thus making it possible, even during the switch-throwing process as it rolls from the inner contacting position 5 into the outer position 6, for the narrow blade foot 7 to always rest on two rollers, i.e. roller 11a and roller 12 or roller 11b and roller 12. This assures a smooth, continuous rolling process of the switch blade 3, thus significantly reducing the blade-throwing force of the unillustrated actuator that shifts the blade 6 transversely.
As is clear from FIGS. 1 and 2, the rollers 11a, 11b, and 12 project upward and downward from the shared ribbed plate 13 of the slide frame 8 situated in the support 9. The entire subassembly formed by the frame 8 and rollers 11a, 11b, and 12 can travel transversely between the illustrated inner position close to the running rail 2 with the blade 3 resting against this running rail 2 to an unillustrated outer position. In the inner position the inner roller 11a almost comes into contact with the s blade foot 7 and as a result, when the switch blade is being thrown, a rolling motion begins as early as possible, as soon as the blade 3 pulls away from the rail 2 and lifts slightly up off a support face or plane P of the support 9.
If an eccentric adjusting device 14 shown here only for the rollers 11a and 11b, but also supplied for the roller 12, sets the inner roller 11a and the middle roller 12 lower than the outer roller 11b, then the blade foot 7 can roll even more easily and in an almost infinitely variable fashion onto the inner roller 11a and the laterally offset roller 12 and can also roll smoothly onto the outer roller 11b. The height of the middle, laterally offset roller 12, however, should be preset so that it does not lie beneath the surface of the support 9. The devices 14 each have an eccentric core shaft 15 on which the respective roller 11a, 11b, or 12 is journaled and centered.
Patent Application
20080087773
