Patent Application
20070066193
The present invention concerns a device for continuously reprofiling the rails of railroads, including at least one abrasive rail reprofiling unit that is guided along a railroad track and comprises at least one abrasive disk that can be pressed against the rails.
In the context of rectifying the rails of a track, several methods such as abrading, cutting, planing and other processes have been known for a long time. One of the methods currently preferred is the abrasive reprofiling of the heads of rails, since it is fast and allows important quantities of metal to be removed. The reprofiling units usually are mounted on a railroad vehicle comprising abrading units equipped with abrasive disks rotated and pressed against the pertinent surface of the head of the rail to be rectified. The railroad vehicle moves along the rails of the railroad tracks to be rectified while making the best possible use of the time intervals that are available in view of the more and more intense use of rail networks.
Because of the limited length of time available to do the rectifying work, and hence the significant power of current abrading units, as well as the quality requirements for the rectifications needed, more particularly for high-speed railroad networks or networks intended for very heavy freight trains, the amounts of matter removed during a rectifying operation are very large. This is the reason why it becomes ever more important to recover the abrasive waste produced during a rectifying operation on the rails.
The abrasive waste actually consists for the most part of metal particles from the material taken off the rail surface, and for a small part of abrasive particles from the abrasive disk. The individual masses of these particles extend over a rather large range, as one has on the one hand a dust cloud consisting of particles of small mass, and on the other hand a spark jet rather well concentrated along a particular trajectory and consisting for the larger part of glowing chips having a larger mass, and notably a very high kinetic and thermal energy.
With the aim of recuperating the waste created during abrasive rail reprofiling, a device exists that comprises a box kept under reduced pressure. The box covers the top of the abrading unit and surrounds it on the sides. As described in detail in the Swiss Patent brochure CH 671,595, this device is able on the one hand to suck up from above the dust cloud consisting of particles of small mass and to transport them toward a container on the railroad vehicle in order to keep them there temporarily until they are unloaded. The lateral walls of the device on the other hand form a kind of mechanical collector possibly equipped with a deflector accumulating the heavy particles ejected with the spark jet. Because of their very high kinetic and thermal energy, these heavy particles cannot be sucked up by this device, and rapidly form accumulations of matter on the lateral walls of the box. They thus are not transported to the container in order to be effectively eliminated, but are simply dumped along the railroad track at certain time intervals.
Since the low-mass particles contained in the dust cloud sucked up by this device constitute only 10 to 20% of the abrasive waste while the remainder of the waste matter is contained in the jet of the heavy spark particles, this process does not allow a satisfactory percentage of the waste generated during abrasive rail reprofiling to be recovered. The resulting ecological disadvantage is increasingly important owing to the rising amount of waste produced during reprofiling, as explained above, as well as owing to the fact that the protection of nature in general becomes ever more important. The spark jet moreover has other negative consequences, such as an important release of heat leading to difficult working conditions for the staff in charge of the device and to a high thermal load on the components of the device. The spark jet even represents a risk of injury to the operators, and it would be desirable to eliminate this source of danger.
It is the aim of the present invention to obviate the disadvantages cited, and to make it possible to eliminate all of the abrasive waste generated by abrasive rail rectifications of the railways, to improve the environmental compatibility of rail rectification, and eliminate at least in part the spark jet representing a source of danger for the staff in charge of the reprofiling device, as well as being the reason for high thermal loads on the components of the device.
Object of the present invention is a reprofiling device for the rails of railroads comprising the characteristics cited in claim 1.
This device more particularly includes at least one pickup for the abrasive waste that comprises at least one segment forming a collection port, said segment being placed in the immediate vicinity of at least one abrasive disk and into the geometric axis of the major jet of waste produced during operation of this abrasive disk, this segment cooperating at the same time with the waste transport means. Then not only the particles of small mass but equally well the heavy particles contained in the spark jet are recuperated and then transported to a container so as to be properly disposed of. Thus, removal of nearly the total amount of abrasive waste generated by abrasive rectification of the rails of railroads is possible, and the environmental compatibility of rail rectification is improved. At the same time a source of danger for the staff in charge of the reprofiling device is eliminated, and components of the device other than the abrasive disk and the waste pickup are much less stressed thermally.
Moreover, each waste pickup of the device more particularly comprises means for reflecting and absorbing the kinetic and thermal energy. In this way one can avoid the formation of agglomerated matter on said pickup, and in particular on the inside walls of the pickup or collection port, which is necessary for being able to subsequently transport the waste toward the container.
These elements have a specific shape and consist of a material adapted to avoid the formation of agglomerations of matter on its surface. To this end they are more specifically provided with a ceramic cladding. They may as well have a cooling system, and/or vibrators may be provided to prevent waste from clinging to the pickup.
In addition, the relative positions of an abrasive disk of the reprofiling unit and the collection port of an abrasive-waste pickup may be variable.
This arrangement of the relative positions can be obtained by making the segment that constitutes the collection port of an abrasive-waste pickup move as a function of the position of the abrasive disk in a reprofiling unit. It may be realized as well by an appropriate manipulation of the geometric axis of the major waste jet produced by the operation of an abrasive disk of the reprofiling unit or by a combination of these two measures.
Whatever the mode of operation selected to modify the relative positions of abrasive disk and collection port, the purpose will always be the same, viz., that the geometric axis of the major waste jet produced by operation of this disk essentially fall into the geometric center of the corresponding collection port, in such a way that almost all of the matter of a spark jet be recovered and then transported toward the container. By these measures it is possible on the one hand to enhance the efficiency of the device with respect to the percentage of waste eliminated, and on the other hand optimize the layout of the device in view of the rather limited space.
Further advantages will become evident from the characteristics expressed in the dependent claims and from the description that hereinafter will present the invention in greater details with the aid of drawings.
The annexed drawings illustrate schematically and by way of example one embodiment of a reprofiling device according to the invention.
The invention will now be described in detail while referring to the drawings mentioned above, which by way of example illustrate an embodiment of the invention.
The principle of the device for the continuous reprofiling of the rails of railroad tracks according to the present invention is schematically illustrated in
In the embodiment presented in the figures, these components are mounted on a railroad vehicle as follows. First the railroad vehicle comprises a fixed segment serving as support 11 for the device. Spring blades 9 are fixed at one of their ends to this support 11, and with their other ends two by two hold two plates 8 which are mutually parallel, and essentially orthogonal to the direction of rails 1. A jack 10 may act orthogonally relative to the direction of the rails 1, and essentially parallel to the plane of the railroad tracks, upon each of these plates 8 so as to make these two plates 8 simultaneously come closer to the rails 1, or move away from the rails 1, in a lateral direction by virtue of the elasticity of spring blades 9. The utility of this function will be explained in detail further down in the text. Between the plates 8 there is a rack 5 that is fixed to these plates 8 in such a way that it can swivel about points of rotation or the axis of rotation 7 that is essentially parallel to rails 1. The rack 5 holds at least one abrasive disk 3 as well as a drive motor 4 and the controls for the disk 3. This set of components forms an abrasive reprofiling unit 2 which in the following will simply be called an abrading unit 2. Jacks 6 are mounted on each side of rack 5 between one plate and the side wall of rack 5, so that this rack as well as the disk or disks 3 may be tilted, and thus oriented relative to a particular surface on the rail 1 to be rectified. It will evidently be possible to equip each rack 5 with several disks 3 and/or put several racks 5 with a single disk 3 (or with several disks) on support 11, so that the abrading units 2 actually may have a variable makeup. For reasons of simplicity only the embodiment having one abrasive disk 3 per abrading unit 2 will be described in detail in what follows.
The abrasive-waste pickup 20 is also mounted on rack 5, in such a way that the segment 21 forming a collection port that is set up facing the abrasive disk 3 will basically follow the movements of the corresponding abrading unit 2 that are executed in order to remove matter from the surface of the particular rail, so that an optimum rectification result may be obtained. For this reason the largest part of the matter of spark jet 40 automatically flies into the collection port that is set up where the waste escapes, that is, at the source of the waste, which thus is collected directly at the site of its generation. By referring to
Owing to the very high kinetic and thermal energy of the sparks, each waste pickup 20 firstly comprises means for reflection and absorption making it possible to avoid the formation of agglomerations of matter on said pickup, and to be able to subsequently suck away the waste.
A first measure concerning these means for reflecting and absorbing the kinetic and thermal energy consists in coating at least part of the inner walls of the waste pickup 20 by a material adapted to avoid the formation of agglomerations of matter on its surface. As shown in
Apart from the material used for the waste pickup 20, and particularly for the collection port 21, it is above all the shape of these parts that is important for the same reasons as cited above. The means for reflecting and absorbing the kinetic and thermal energy thus include at least one part having a smooth shape adapted to avoid the formation of agglomerations of matter on its surface. In this shape, ridges or obstacles in the pathway of the sparks entering the collection port 21 with a very high energy are avoided, so that the collection port 21 will not have any spot that could provoke an agglomeration of matter. Preferably, the cladding of the inner walls of the waste pickup 20 and the means for reflecting and absorbing the kinetic and thermal energy generally have a shape of rounded cross section while the outer structure 25 in steel and the inner structure 24 are tubular. Otherwise, a waste pickup 20 having a rectangular cross section could evidently be provided with an inner cladding that is rounded and smooth, above all in its corners.
Moreover, segment 21 forming the collection port is provided with an entrance 22 and an exit 23 of specific shape. The entrance 22 receiving the spark jet can be made as a slot in segment 21 forming the collection port that faces the abrasive disk 3. In the preferred embodiment illustrated in
Once the particles of the spark jet have been gathered up by the collection port 21 without forming agglomerations on its inner walls, by having lost a sufficiently large part of their energy, they may preferably be sucked up through an exit 23. In the example shown in the figures, its position is such that the waste is carried away toward the top.
To this end a connecting piece 28 is attached to exit 23. This piece 28 may again have a rounded cross section, preferably oval, so that on the one hand one can realize a relatively narrow exit and raise the surface area of collection port 21 that is available for impact of the arriving sparks, and on the other hand create a transition without edges between the segment 21 forming the collection port and the connecting piece 28, as well as between this piece and a hose forming a channel 29 for evacuating the waste toward a container on the railroad vehicle. The railroad vehicle or container in addition include appropriate filters as well as means for diminishing the pressure in the segment 21 forming a collection port, means that are connected with segment 21 by the connecting piece 28 and the channel 29. The abrasive waste and the glowing chips in particular that are the main constituents of spark jet 40 are thus sucked up, deflected, and transported from the collection port to the container where they are preliminarily kept until they are discharged.
In another embodiment not shown in the figures it is conceivable to realize the means for waste transport as mechanical means, rather than having a suction conveyor that requires means for evacuation. In this case exit 23 would be arranged beneath waste pickup 20, so that the particles of the spark jet captured without forming agglomerations in segment 21 forming the collection port drop under the effect of gravity and are transported toward the container, for instance with a belt conveyor or other, equivalent mechanical means. This shows that it is essential that the device according to the present invention comprise a waste pickup 20 having a surface adapted to take up the particles of the spark jet 40 without the formation of agglomerations on this surface, and that this pickup 20 cooperate with the means for transporting the waste so that it can be eliminated.
Coming back to the means for reflecting and absorbing the kinetic and thermal energy, it should be noted that they preferably include, not only a specific material and shape but also other measures inhibiting an adhesion of the material within pickup 20. In addition, they preferably comprise a device for cooling at least part of the inner walls of waste pickup 20, and particularly of the segment 21 forming the collection port. This cooling device may notably include a water and/or air cooling as shown by way of example in
The means for reflecting and absorbing the kinetic and thermal energy may also include air and/or water nozzles. These nozzles normally are located in the lateral flanges 27, and can be used on the one hand to sprinkle water onto the spark jet, so as to lower the energy of the jet particles by water evaporation and cool the spark jet. The energy of the glowing metal particles may thus be sufficiently reduced, which effectively contributes to the avoidance of their agglomeration on segment 21 forming the collection port. These nozzles on the other hand may serve to produce an irregular air flow in the interior of this segment 21, and particularly in the zone impacted by the spark jet, which again contributes to the effects inhibiting waste deposition within segment 21.
The means for reflecting and absorbing the kinetic and thermal energy finally may include a vibrating device making it easier to detach and suck up the material accumulated on the inner walls of the waste pickup. Thus, vibrators may be provided on pickup 20, and particularly on segment 21, in order to facilitate detachment of the nuclei for the agglomeration of matter that may have formed despite the other measures already mentioned.
It is obvious that one skilled in the art would know how to apply these principles to any abrading unit 2 having, either several abrasive disks 3 or a waste pickup 20 of different shape, for instance with separate collection ports 21 for each disk 3 or with a single large port 21 for several abrasive disks.
As already mentioned hereinabove, the abrasive waste pickup 20—like the abrading unit 2 with disk 3—is mounted on rack 5 in such a way that the segment 21 forming a collection port that is set up so as to face the abrasive disk 3 would follow the movements of the abrading unit 2 that are needed for optimum rail rectification results. It is advantageous, however, to provide for the possibility that the height of the waste pickup 20 could be varied relative to the abrasive disk 3 on the abrading unit 2, as a function of inclination of disk 3 and of the working conditions for the reprofiling of rail 1.
It is often the case in rail reprofiling devices of railroads, in fact, that the swivel point or axis of rotation 7 of the abrasive disk 3 is above rail 1, as schematically illustrated in
In a general way, therefore, the geometric axis of the major waste jet produced during operation of this abrasive disk 3 essentially falls always into the geometric center of entrance 22 of this collection port 21, since the segment 21 forming a collection port of an abrasive-waste pickup 20 can be oriented as a function of position of an abrasive disk of the reprofiling unit. In the embodiment illustrated in the figures, the segment 21 forming a collection port of an abrasive-waste pickup is adjustable, particularly in a direction normal to the plane of the rails 1 of the railroad tracks. By the same principle, it could as well be adjusted in a direction horizontally along the rail 1.
Another possibility to ensure optimum efficiency of the device with respect to the amount of waste transported away consists in manipulating the geometric axis 41 of the major waste jet 40 produced during operation of an abrasive disk 3 in a reprofiling unit 2. This geometric axis 41 may actually be oriented during operation of the device in such a way that this axis 41 of the jet 40 always essentially falls into the geometric center of a segment 21 forming a collection port of an abrasive-waste pickup 20. This configuration is schematically represented in
It is for this reason that the plates 8 are fastened between support 11 and rack 5 by the spring blades 9 that had been mentioned earlier. Rack 5 holding the abrading unit 2 may thus be displaced with the aid of jack 10 in a direction that is essentially orthogonal to the direction of rails 1, as can be taken from
The two possibilities described above, for enhancing the efficiency of the device with respect to the quantity of waste transported away have to do, in an abstract way, with the relative positions of an abrasive disk 3 of a reprofiling unit 2 and of the collection port 21 of an abrasive-waste pickup 20. These relative positions must be variable in order to achieve this aim, in such a way that the geometric axis 41 of the major waste jet 40 produced during operation of the abrasive disk 3 will always fall, essentially into the geometric center of entrance 22 of the corresponding collection port 21. This aim can be achieved, not only by the measures presented hereinabove or their combination but by any other measure having the same effect. For example, the segment 21 forming a collection port could be realized in another embodiment as a mobile head allowing its entrance to be oriented toward the spark jet.
It should also be noted that notably the vertical displacement of the waste pickup 20 along linear guide 30 by jack 31 is equally useful when an obstacle on the rails must be circumvented, for instance by momentarily lifting the pickup by a vertical movement.
The detailed description given above shows that by the measures taken in a reprofiling device according to the present invention one obtains more particularly the elimination of the heavy particles included in the spark jet that is taken up, deflected, and then transported to a container for proper disposal of the abrasive waste. Thus, an elimination of almost all the abrasive waste generated by the rectification of the rails of railroads by abrasion becomes possible, and the environmental compatibility of rail rectification is improved. With the spark jet, the source of danger that it represents for the staff in charge of the reprofiling device is eliminated at the same time. By the way, components of the device other than the abrasive disk and the waste pickup are much less stressed thermally, which prolongs their lifetime.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01521/05 | Sep 2005 | CH | national |
