EP0004515B1 - Process for assembling a triangle brake beam of a rail vehicle and triangle manufactured accordingly - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a method of assembling a brake linkage triangle for railway vehicles, comprising a base and two sides coming from a top and formed by a single bar bent in its middle part corresponding to said top, a piece angle, pierced with a receiving bore of the bent bar and forming a head of the triangle, being fixed to the bar in its middle part, as well as the wheelhouse triangle assembled according to this process.

For the assembly of such a wheelhouse triangle, and before joining the two ends of the bent bar respectively to the two ends of the base, we proceed first to the rigid assembly of the bar and the piece of angle. For this, the bar is introduced into the receiving bore of the corner piece which is then slid on the bar to its middle part, and the corner piece is fixed on the bar.

The attachment of the corner piece to the bent bar has hitherto been carried out by welding, as described in patent FR 1,166,739.

However, this welding has various drawbacks. First, it requires that the corner piece and the bent bar be respectively made of weldable materials. Secondly, it requires two welding operations, at the two edges of the receiving bore of the corner piece.

The present invention therefore aims to eliminate the welds to eliminate the drawbacks.

To this end, the invention relates to a method of assembling a wheelhouse triangle of the type described above, in which the bent bar is introduced into the receiving bore of the corner piece which is then made to slide. on the bar to its middle part, and the corner piece is fixed on the bar, a process characterized by the fact that the corner piece is fixed by crimping it on the bar.

In a preferred implementation of the method of the invention, the corner piece is heated before crimping it on the bar, whereby the crimping can be accompanied by hooping.

Thanks to the invention, it is therefore possible to assemble a corner piece and an angled wheelhouse triangle bar made of different materials without having to worry about weldability criteria.

• La figure 1 représente une vue en plan du triangle de timonerie selon l'invention:
• La figure 2 représente une vue en perspective à plus grande échelle de la pièce d'angle et de la partie médiane de la barre coudée du triangle de la figure 1 ;
• La figure 3 représente une vue en plan de la pièce d'angle de la figure 2, et
• La figure 4 représente une vue en coupe selon la ligne IV-IV de la figure 3.

The invention will be better understood with the aid of the following description of an embodiment of the brake link triangle of railway vehicles and of its method of assembly, with reference to the appended drawing, in which:

• FIG. 1 represents a plan view of the wheelhouse triangle according to the invention:
• 2 shows a perspective view on a larger scale of the corner piece and the middle part of the bent bar of the triangle of Figure 1;
• FIG. 3 represents a plan view of the corner piece of FIG. 2, and
• FIG. 4 represents a sectional view along the line IV-IV of FIG. 3.

The brake link triangle of railway vehicles according to the invention, shown in the drawing, comprises a base 1, formed of a straight bar, two sides coming from a corner vertex 2, opposite the bar 1, formed a single bar 3 bent in its middle part corresponding to the top 2, a first corner piece 4, forming a triangle head, fixed to the bar 3 in its middle part 2, and two other corner pieces 5 and 6 bringing together respectively the associated ends of bars 1 and 3.

The corner piece 4 is pierced with a first bore 7 intended to receive the bent bar 3. The section of this bore 7 is slightly larger than that of the bar 3, so that the latter can slide there freely, and in particular its bent part 2.

A second bore 8 is also drilled in the corner piece 4, to introduce a piece connecting the triangle of the invention to its wheelhouse.

The corner piece 4 has two parallel flat faces 9, 10 having an eight-shaped profile, the usefulness of which will appear below, during the description of the assembly operations.

According to the invention, the bent bar 3 comprises, in its median part 2 and at least inside the elbow, asperities 11 formed on its outer surface, in order to improve, as explained below the assembly of the bar 3 and the corner piece 4. These asperities can be formed by surface grooves parallel to the longitudinal axis of the bar 3, or by knurling, ridges or any other means suitable for rendering the surface of the middle part 2 of the bar 3 not smooth.

To assemble the triangle thus described, we proceed as follows. The bar 3 is introduced into the receiving bore 7 of the corner piece 4. Then the corner piece 4 is slid on the bar 3, up to the bent middle part 2 of the bar 3. In this position relative to the corner piece 4 and the bar 3, a slight clearance 15 remains between these pieces due to the difference in cross sections of the bar 3 and the receiving bore 7 of the corner piece 4. The relative position of the corner piece 4 and the bar 3 being maintained, these two pieces are then suitably placed in a conventional crimping tool, to rigidly assemble them to each other by crimping the corner piece 4 on the bar 3. During this crimping operation, pressure forces are applied laterally to the corner piece 4, ie orthogonally to the axis of the bore 7, and part of its material is moved to fill the void initially remaining between the two parts. In order to obtain a judicious distribution of these forces, the part 4 has been given a particular figure of eight, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4. Thus the crimping tool can exert its action on a large part of the part angle 4 surrounding the bore 7, with the sole exception of the narrowed area 12 of the corner piece 4. The interior parts 13 and 14 of the corner piece 4, adjacent to the narrowed area 12, can therefore also be advantageously subjected to the action of the crimping tool.

In order to perfect this crimping operation, and in order for the hole 7 of the corner piece 4 to properly close on the bar 3, it is preferable to apply other pressure forces simultaneously on the faces 9 and 10 of the corner piece 4, which prevents the material of the corner piece 4 from escaping along the bar 3.

The asperities 11, formed on the outer surface of the bar 3, of course improve the anchoring of the corner piece 4 on the bar 3.

There is shown and described a corner piece 4 of an eight-shaped triangle. But it is easily understood that this form should not be considered as limiting the invention, and that all other forms allowing such extensive crimping can also be envisaged. Likewise, the corner piece 4 shown is provided with two parallel flat faces 9 and 10. However, in other embodiments of the corner piece of the invention, more complex side walls could be provided, forming, for example, extra thicknesses of material thus providing internal faces disposed substantially parallel to the axis of the bore 7 and sufficiently close to this bore to be able to reasonably apply other pressure forces capable of further extending the crimping, and thus more fully close the receiving hole 7 on the bar 3.

In a preferred implementation of the assembly method of the invention, the corner piece 4 is heated beforehand before crimping it. This increases its plasticity and makes it possible to reduce the crimping forces to be brought into play. If, in addition, the material of the corner piece 4 has a certain coefficient of expansion, the mechanical crimping is accompanied by shrinking due to shrinkage of the material when it cools.

The assembly of the corner piece 4 and the bent bar 3 of the triangle of the invention having been carried out, the next step is to assemble the bent bar 3 and the straight bar 1 using the pieces d angle 5 and 6, under the usual conditions which it is therefore not necessary to approach again in the context of the present invention.

The invention therefore makes it possible to produce a brake linkage triangle for high-quality rail vehicles at a very reasonable cost.

Claims (9)

1. Process for assembling a triangle rod of the brake linkage of railway vehicles, comprising a base (1) and two sides issuing from an apex (2) and formed by a single bar (3) bent in its median part corresponding to said apex, an angle piece (4), pierced with a bore (7) for receiving the bent bar and forming a head of the triangle, being fixed to the bar in its median part, in which the bent bar (3) is introduced in the receiver bore (7) which is then made to slide on the bar up to its median part, and the angle piece (4) is fixed on the bar (3), said process characterized in that the angle oiece (4) is fixed by being crimped on the bar (3).

2. Process according to Claim 1, in which the angle piece (4) is heated before it is crimped on the bar (3).

3. Process according to one of Claims 1 to 2, in which the angle piece (4) is crimped on the bar (3), by applying thereto pressure forces at right angles to the axis of its receiver bore (7).

4. Process according to Claim 3, in which, during crimping of the angle piece (4), other pressure forces are applied on the faces of the angle piece (4) perpendicular to the axis of its receiver bore (7).

5. Triangle rod of the brake linkage of railway vehicles, assembled according to the process one of Claims 1 to 4, comprising a base (1) and two sides issuing from an apex (2) and formed by a single bar (3) bent in its median part corresponding to said apex, an angle piece (4) pierced with a bore (7) for receiving the bar (3) and forming a triangle head being fixed to the bar (3) in its median part, triangle rod characterized in that the bore (7) for receiving the angle piece, before the latter is crimped on the bar (3), presents a section slightly larger than that of the bar (3).

6. Triangle rod according to Claim 5, in which the angle piece (4) presents a narrow zone (12) adjacent the receiver bore (7).

7. Triangle rod according to Claim 6, in which the angle piece (4) presents a section along the axis of the receiver bore (7) in figure-of-eight form.

8. Triangle rod according to one of Claims 5 to 7, in which the zone of the angle piece (4) surrounding the receiver bore (7) presents extra thicknesses making inner faces disposed substantially parallel to the axis of the receiver bore (7) and relatively close to this receiver bore (7).

9. Triangle rod according to one of Claims 5 to 8, in which the median part of the bar (3) presents on its outer surface, and at least inside the bend, means for rendering it rough.

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