Wayside monitoring of the angle-of-attack of railway vehicle wheelsets
First Claim
1. A system for installation along a rail of a railroad track for measuring an angle defined between a monitored wheel and an imaginary line tangent to the rail on which the monitored wheel travels, said system comprising:
- a rangefinder mounted to a fixed location beside the railroad track for successively measuring at predetermined instants in time along a measurement axis a distance from the fixed location to the monitored wheel travelling on the rail, said rangefinder generating an output signal correlated to a distance between the fixed location and sites on the monitored wheel intercepting said measurement axis at respective ones of said instants in time; and
a sensor responsive to movement of the monitored wheel on the rail for generating an output signal correlated to a change of position of the monitored wheel on the rail relative to time, whereby said signals allow computation of a value for the angle defined between the monitored wheel and the imaginary line tangent to the rail by establishing a correspondence between a variation of the distance measured along the measurement axis from the fixed location to the moving monitored wheel and the change of position of the monitored wheel on the rail.
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Accused Products
Abstract
System for monitoring the angle-of-attack of the wheelsets of a railway vehicle moving along a track section. The apparatus includes a rangefinder to repeatedly measure at known intervals the instanteous distance between a reference point and successive registering points on a face plate surface of a wheel of a passing wheelset. A detector generates a signal representative of the velocity of the wheel passing along the reference point. A computer receives the output signals generated by the velocity sensor and of the rangefinder to compute the angle-of-attack of each wheelset.
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Citations
8 Claims
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1. A system for installation along a rail of a railroad track for measuring an angle defined between a monitored wheel and an imaginary line tangent to the rail on which the monitored wheel travels, said system comprising:
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a rangefinder mounted to a fixed location beside the railroad track for successively measuring at predetermined instants in time along a measurement axis a distance from the fixed location to the monitored wheel travelling on the rail, said rangefinder generating an output signal correlated to a distance between the fixed location and sites on the monitored wheel intercepting said measurement axis at respective ones of said instants in time; and a sensor responsive to movement of the monitored wheel on the rail for generating an output signal correlated to a change of position of the monitored wheel on the rail relative to time, whereby said signals allow computation of a value for the angle defined between the monitored wheel and the imaginary line tangent to the rail by establishing a correspondence between a variation of the distance measured along the measurement axis from the fixed location to the moving monitored wheel and the change of position of the monitored wheel on the rail.
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2. A method for monitoring the angle-of-attack of the wheelsets of a railway vehicle passing in succession over a curved track section, comprising:
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locating a rangefinder at a reference point in a position that is radial to the curved track section;
repeatedly measuring at known intervals the instantaneous distance between said reference point and successive registering points on a face plate surface of a wheel of each passing wheelset;measuring the velocity of the wheels of each wheelset moving along said track section past said reference point; and from said known intervals, said distance measurements, and said measured velocity, calculating the angle-of-attack of each said wheelset; comparing said calculated angle-of-attack to a standard value range, and identifying wheelsets whose angle-of-attack deviates from said standard range. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5)
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6. Apparatus for monitoring the angle-of-attack of the wheelsets of a railway vehicle moving along a curved track section comprising:
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a rangefinder positioned at a reference point radial to said curved track section, said rangefinder being adapted to repeatedly measure at known intervals the instantaneous distance between said reference point and successive registering points on a face plate surface of a wheel of a passing wheelset; detector means responsive to motion of such wheel along said radial section past said reference point to generate a signal representative of the velocity of such wheel; computer means adapted to derive from said known intervals, said distance measurements, and said velocity signal, a measure of the angle-of-attack of each wheelset; and means for comparing such measured angle-of-attack with a standard value range and identifying deviations therefrom. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
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Specification