RAILWAY VEHICLE AND ASSOCIATED TRAFFIC METHOD

• US 20190315380A1
• Filed: 04/16/2019
• Published: 10/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alstom Transport SA (Alstom SA)
• Original Assignee: Alstom Transport Technologies
• Inventors: CLAVIER, Jeremy
• Granted Patent: US 11,161,529 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B61F 5/10 incorporating fluid springs
• CPC Class Codes: B61F 5/144 comprising fluid damping devices B61F5/146 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B61F 5/24 Means for damping or minimising the canting, skewing, pitching, or plunging movements of the underframes

Abstract

Disclosed is a railway vehicle with a car and a bogie. The bogie includes a chassis and a secondary suspension system. The secondary suspension system includes a jack and a power supply device of the jack fluidly connected to the jack by at least one flow limiter. The jack is configured to go from a first so-called passive configuration, in which the supply device is inactive, the jack then being able to passively damp the oscillations between the car and the chassis using the flow limiter, to a second so-called active configuration in which the supply device is configured to supply the jack in order to modify the distance between the car and the chassis or in order to keep the distance constant between the car and the chassis.

Claims

1. A railway vehicle comprising at least one car and at least one bogie carrying the car, the bogie comprising a chassis and a secondary suspension system between the chassis and the car, the secondary suspension system, comprising:

a jack comprising two ends extending along a same axis; and

a power supply system of the jack;

wherein the jack is fluidly connected to the power supply device (38) by at least one flow limiter, and

wherein the jack is configured to go from a first so-called passive configuration, in which the supply device is inactive, the jack then being able to passively damp the oscillations in an elevation direction between the car and the chassis using the flow limiter, to a second so-called active configuration in which the supply device is configured to supply the jack in order to modify the distance between the car and the chassis or in order to keep the distance constant between the car and the chassis.

2. The railway vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising a set of springs mounted between the car and the chassis.

3. The railway vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the first end of the jack is connected to the car by a knuckle joint-type connection and the second end of the jack is connected to the chassis by a knuckle joint-type connection.

4. The railway vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the jack comprises at least one cylinder and a piston separating the cylinder into an upper chamber and a lower chamber, the power supply device of the jack being configured to power the upper and lower chambers.

5. The railway vehicle according to claim 4, wherein the power supply device comprises at least one accumulator able to store pressurized fluid and a pressure discharge reservoir.

6. The railway vehicle according to claim 5, wherein the upper chamber of the jack is connected to the power supply device by a so-called “

3-way/2-position”

valve, the “

3-way/2-position”

valve having an inlet connected to the upper chamber of the jack, a first outlet connected to the reservoir and a second outlet connected to the accumulator, the “

3-way/2-position”

valve connecting the inlet to the first outlet in a first position of the “

3-way/2-position”

valve or to the second outlet in a second position of the “

3-way/2-position”

valve.

7. The railway vehicle according to claim 5, wherein the jack is connected to the power supply device by a so-called “

4-way/3-position”

valve, the “

4-way/3-position”

valve having a first inlet connected to the upper chamber of the jack, a second inlet connected to the lower chamber of the jack, a first outlet connected to the reservoir and a second outlet connected to the accumulator, the “

4-way/3-position”

valve connecting;

the first inlet to the first outlet and the second inlet to the second outlet in a first position of the “

4-way/3-position”

valve,

the first inlet and the second inlet to the second outlet in a second position of the “

4-way/3-position”

valve, or

the first inlet to the second outlet and the second inlet to the first outlet in a third position of the “

4-way/3-position”

valve.

8. The railway vehicle according to claim 4, wherein the jack comprises a position detector able to determine the position of the piston in the cylinder, the position detector being a magnetic sensor, a laser sensor or an ultrasound sensor.

9. The railway vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the jack further comprises a damping device, the damping device connecting the jack and the chassis, the damping device being able to damp the oscillations in the elevation direction between the jack and the chassis.

10. A traffic method of a railway vehicle according to claim 1, comprising the following steps:

travel of the railway vehicle, the jack being in the passive configuration and damping the oscillations in the elevation direction between the jack and the chassis,

stopping of the railway vehicle at a platform, the jack being in the active configuration and powered by the power supply device, so as to change the distance between the car and the chassis or to keep the distance between the chassis and the car constant.