HK1008790A - A device for the continuous and fine reprofiling in situ of the surface of the head of at least one rail of a railway track - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to devices for continuous and continuous rewiring by grinding the surface of the mushroom of one or two railway tracks. Several rewiring systems mounted or towed by railway vehicles have been proposed to date, such as those described e.g. in patents CH 606.616; CH 626.673; CH 633.336; CH 653.073; CH 654.047; CH 655.528.

All these conventional grinding devices have in common that they include at least one grinding unit which has means of guidance along the rail; means of coupling to a chassis of a railway vehicle for traction along the track; means of moving a grinding unit upwards from the chassis and applying it against the rail to be re-profiled; supporting bodies on the rail defining a reference base of sufficient length so that the positioning of the grinding unit on the rail is appreciably independent of the undulations to be removed from that rail; a grinding tool; and therefore means of moving this grinding tool in one or several movements relative to the grinding and re-rolling of the rail.

These milling machines differ from each other, on the one hand, in the practical implementation of the means and devices mentioned above and, on the other hand, in the type of milling tools they use, i.e. either abrasive hooves, stone or peripheral mills or milling machines.

The most serious disadvantage of these known devices, especially those using rotary tools such as mills, is that the precision of the rewiring is not sufficient, especially for high-speed railway tracks.

Figures 1 to 3 and 4 to 6 show schematically the influence of the play in the engine bearings which causes the peripheral mill, respectively the lapidary mill, to be placed on the end of the re-wiring work.

It can be shown that for a rolling mill axis shock of the order of 0.25 mm, the ripples or microwaves produced on the rail's rolling surface can have a depth of the order of 0.1 mm and a wavelength of 18 to 20 mm.

These microwaves cause noise disturbances during the passage of trains at a frequency of 1200 Hz for trains travelling at 100 km/h and up to over 3000 Hz for trains travelling at 250 km/h.

This microwave phenomenon on the rolling surface of the rail mushroom is necessarily present when any rewiring device using a rotary tool in contact with the rail, mill or mill is used.

The same microwave phenomenon is observed on the rail surface when the rail is re-wired with hooves or scrapers in contact with the rail.

At present, the rewiring of the rail with abrasive hooves subjected to continuous or alternate movement in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the rail is completely abandoned because the abrasion capacity and therefore the removal of metal from these hooves is totally insufficient, which immobilizes the track for far too long.

The abrasive strip is fixed, the portion in contact with the rail can be replaced by a new portion manually after wear. The EP 0 512 159 patent describes a rail grinding device that features a continuous abrasive strip, wrapped around pebbles, three of which are in contact with the rail. These two devices CH 356.483 and EP 0 512 159, present the same device as the previously discussed devices as they feature a set of micropubbles or pebbles that are applied to the rail surface, and have been shown to create such an abrasive.

Patent EP 0 371 328 describes a device for grinding a rail using a continuous abrasive strip, closed on itself and driven by this motor. This abrasive strip moves in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the rail, which requires lower pebbles on which the abrasive strip passes to be arranged laterally relative to the rail and slightly lower than the bearing surface. This presents a serious drawback because such a device cannot be towed along the track without having to be frequently lifted to avoid obstacles along the rail.

Thus, none of the solutions proposed to date for rewiring or milling the railway can prevent or eliminate the microwaves formed along the rolling surface and which induce unacceptable noise when the railway convoy is moving at high speed.

The purpose of the present invention is to construct a finishing grinding device to remove microwaves formed on the rail rolling surface by rail re-rolling operations, and to enable this finishing device to perform this finishing operation by being towed along the railway track by a railway vehicle at a speed similar to that of current re-rolling machines and without having organs extending laterally on either side of the railway track which would collide with obstacles on the track.

The present invention concerns a self-closed abrasive strip grinding device driven in a plane substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the rail, which can be mounted on a railway vehicle for traction along the track and thus allow continuous finishing grinding or polishing of the rail rolling surface to remove microwaves from the rolling rail re-wiring tools.

The accompanying drawing shows schematically and by way of example two ways of making the finishing grinding device for the rolling surface of a railway track.

Figures 1 and 4 show a tangential mill, a lapidary mill and its drive motor respectively, showing the grinding wheel's buckling due to the joints of the bearings on the mill axis.

Figures 2.5 and 3.6, respectively, show in plan and longitudinal section the rolling surface of the rail on which microwaves were created by the defects of the mills' rotation.

Figure 7 is a side view of the finishing device according to the invention.

Figure 8 is a view of A from Figure 7.

Figure 9 is a top view of the device shown in Figure 7.

Figure 10 is a larger scale detail of the abrasive strip support patch shown in Figure 7.

Figure 11 shows an articulated roller supporting the abrasive strip.

Figures 12 and 13 illustrate the installation of four devices as shown in Figure 7 under a railway vehicle.

Figures 14 and 15 are similar to Figures 12 and 13 for a second form of the finishing device and its installation on a railway vehicle.

The solution proposed by the present invention for continuous railway track winding consists of re-profiling the rails using conventional continuous rail milling machines and then finishing with a finishing device according to the present invention using an abrasive strip, which can be mounted and towed by the same railway vehicle as the finishing device handling the grinding devices.

The finishing device shown in Figures 7 to 9 has a longitudinal beam 1 with a guide pad 2 at each end which, in the working position, comes into contact with the upper and inner side surface of the rail 3 spindle. The ends of the longitudinal beam 1 each carry a pebble 4 with a slightly bulbous peripheral surface. These pebbles 4 are intended to cooperate with an abrasive strip without end 5 and never come into contact with the rail.

The longitudinal beam 1 has a frame 6 in its central part, the upper part of which supports its engine 7 and drives a pulley 8 to cooperate with the abrasive strip 5.

The abrasive strip 5 passes around the pebbles 4 and the pulley 8 which drives it in rotation. This strip 5 is subjected to the action of tensile rollers 9 carried by the ends of the arms 10 articulated on the side parts of the longitudinal beam 1 and subjected to the action of hydraulic cylinders 11.

The lower part of frame 6 is supported by a supporting roller 12 As shown in Figure 10, supporting roller 12 has a lower part 12a below the surface of which the abrasive strip 5 slides This lower part 12a is located under a flexible blade 13 and is bolted to it by bolting on the upper part 12b of the supporting roller 12 The flexible steel blade 13, pinched between parts 12a and 12b of the roller 12 is fixed by its ends to frame 6.

The upper part 12b of this roller 12 is connected to frame 6 by a hydraulic cylinder 14 which, being fixed under a railway vehicle as will be shown below, allows the roller 12 and hence the endless abrasive strip 5 to be applied to the rolling surface of the rail 3 with a determined force.

Generally, the drive of abrasive strip 5 is so applied that the 5a strand of this strip 5 in contact with the rail moves in the same direction as the railway vehicle along the track in order to facilitate the removal of metal slurry or dust removed from the rail.

The supporting roller 12 has an integrated cooling circuit, which is fed with coolant through a 15 channel, which allows the abrasive strip to be cooled if the temperature exceeds a predetermined value to prevent deterioration and not to reduce its abrasion.

This construction allows the abrasive strip 5 to be applied to the rail using the roller without vibration and none of the rotating drive organs of the abrasive strip coming into contact with the rail.

Figure 11 shows a variant of the support roller 12 in which its lower part 12a is divided longitudinally into three parts. These three lower parts 12a are fixed on the flexible blade 13 on upper parts 12b articulated with each other and with respect to the cylinder rod 14a in such a way that under the thrust of the cylinder 14 the lower parts 12a of the roller 12 adopt the bulbous shape of the bearing surface so as to apply the abrasive strip uniformly over the entire bearing surface of the rail 3 spindle.

The supporting board 12 and in particular its lower parts 12a may be made of a special material, such as ceramic, resistant to heat and friction.

Figures 12 and 13 illustrate how four units as described in reference to Figures 7 to 9, two for each row of rails, are mounted under a V rail vehicle.

Two lifting cylinders 15 are fixed on each side under the chassis of the V rolling stock and carry a movable frame 16 comprising two wheels 17 intended to run on the rails and studs 18 cooperating with the inner flank of the 3 rails.

The movable frame 16 is also connected to the V vehicle by a rudder 19 so that the movable frame 16 can be towed along the track or lifted and held in an upright position by means of a rod 20 and a pin 21 which is housed in a hole 22 of this rod.

The movable frame 16 has supports 23 on which the finishing units are mounted in a pivoting manner by the action of cylinders 24. When the finishing units are pivoted upwards they can be held in this resting position by means of hooks 25 driven by cylinders 26, and then the four finishing units are lifted upwards by means of the cylinders 15.

In the working position shown in Figures 12 and 13, the support 16 is in the low position, the wheels 17 rest on the rails and the finishing units are in the working position resting on the rails by means of the guide skids 2.

In order to place the finishing units in working position on the rails, spacing devices are provided to space two opposite finishing devices so as to apply the guide skids 2 against the inner side of the rails 3.

Similarly, tilting devices are provided to tilt the finishing units at a given angle so that they are in the plane of symmetry of each rail.

In the second embodiment, shown in Figures 14 and 15, each finishing unit has two pulleys 30 each driven by a motor 31 mounted on a beam 32 an endless abrasive strip 33 surrounds these two pulleys 30 is subjected to the action of a pebble 34 and passes over a supporting roller 12 as in the first embodiment.

Trolley 35 is equipped with 38 pebbles rolling on the rails, guide studs 39 and a spacing device comprising the guides 40 and the cylinders 41 connecting the two opposite halves of trolley 35 each carrying two finishing units.

This wagon 35 is connected to railway vehicle V on the one hand by lifting cylinders 42 and on the other by a slurry 43 .

In both versions of the two pairs of pebbles 4 or pulleys 30, 5,33 of the abrasive strip is raised relative to the tread to avoid contact with the rail and to facilitate the passage of the displaced rail joints.

No rotating parts of the finishing units are in contact or support the rail.

In both versions the finishing units are mounted swiveling between a working position and a resting position on their support, which is supported on the rail by pebbles in the working position.

Claims (14)

1. A device for finishing the surface of the shell in a continuous and continuous way of at least one railway track with at least one finishing unit per railway track, characterised by the fact that each of these finishing units has a beam on which are mounted in a rotating manner at least two pulleys or pebbles, slightly above the rail, around which is arranged an endless abrasive strip working longitudinally along the rail; by the fact that between two of these pulleys or pebbles there is a supporting roller which is subjected to the action of a cylinder applying an abrasive to the railway track and acting on the roller with a determined force to apply the abrasive against the rolling surface without causing any vibration; and by the fact that at least one of the movements is driven by an abrasive strip to put the railway track into motion.
2. Device according to claim 1, characterised by each finishing unit having two pebbles in a working position slightly above the bearing surface between which is the supporting roller and a pulley driven by a rotating motor between and above the pebbles, the engine and pulley being fixed to the beam.
3. Device according to claim 2, characterised by the fact that the finishing unit has two more rolls which are tightened by the action of cylinders to adjust the tension of the abrasive strip.
4. A device according to claim 2 or claim 3, characterised by each finishing unit having at least two guide skids which, in the working position of the unit, are in contact with the rolling surface of the rail and with the inner flank of the rail spindle.
5. Device according to one of the above claims, characterised by the fact that four finishing units are mounted tilting on a central support connected to a railway vehicle by two lifting cylinders and a rudder.
6. A device according to claim 5, characterised by the fact that each finishing unit is connected to the central support by a tilting cylinder; and by the fact that a hook allows each unit to be held in a raised position relative to the central support.
7. Device according to claim 1, characterised by the fact that each finishing unit has two pulleys each driven by an engine, these pulleys being located above the rolling surface of the rail; by the fact that the abrasive strip is stretched around these pulleys by a pebble stretched by a cylinder and by the fact that the supporting roller is located between the two pulleys.
8. Device according to claim 7, characterised by the fact that the beam of the finishing unit is connected by two beams forming a deformable parallelogram to the railway sleeve of a railway wagon with wheels; and by the fact that this wagon is connected to a railway vehicle by lifting cylinders and a rudder.
9. A device according to claim 8, characterised by a cylinder connecting one of the bearings to the trolley and allowing the finishing unit to be raised in relation to that trolley.
10. A device according to claim 6 or claim 9, characterised by the fact that the support or trolley carries four finishing units and is fitted with a spacing device to position the finishing units to the right of the rails.
11. Device according to one of the above claims, characterised by the fact that each support skate is equipped with a cooling circuit.
12. A device according to claim 1 or claim 11, characterised by the fact that each supporting roller consists of a lower part applying the abrasive tape to the rail and an upper part connected to the thrust cylinder, by the fact that these two parts are fixed together and tighten a flexible blade, the ends of which are solid with a frame fixed to the beam.
13. Device according to claim 12, characterised by the fact that the supporting roller consists of three parts running parallel to each other and to the rail axis, by the fact that the upper skids of these three longitudinal parts are pivoted by means of three bearings on the end of the thrust cylinder so that the longitudinal parts of the roller automatically orient themselves under thrust by bending the flexible blade transversely with respect to the rail axis according to the curvature of the rolling surface of the rolling rail.
14. Device according to one of the previous claims, characterised by the fact that the supporting roller is made of a special heat and friction resistant material.