Track status monitoring device

• US 9,707,983 B2
• Filed: 04/25/2013
• Issued: 07/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Central Japan Railway Company
• Original Assignee: Central Japan Railway Company
• Inventors: Soda, Yoshinobu, Masuda, Iwao
• Primary Examiner(s): Raevis, Robert R
• Application Number:
  US14/402,433
• Publication Number:
  US 20160114817A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,545 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B61K 9/08 Measuring installations for surveying permanent way applications of measuring apparatus or devices for track building purposes E01B35/00; measuring techniques G01
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/14 for measuring distance or clearance between spaced objects or spaced apertures G01B11/26 takes precedence; rangefinders G01C3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/24 for measuring contours or curvatures
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 21/20 for measuring contours or curvatures, e.g. determining profile

Abstract

Providing a track status monitoring device comprising an acceleration detection unit disposed on a railway car and detecting an acceleration at least in the axle direction among accelerations generated on a wheel of the railway car; a rail position detection unit disposed on the railway car and detecting a value indicating a position of the rail in relation to the wheel in the axle direction; an integration unit that calculates a value based on a 2^nd-order integrated value of the acceleration detected by the acceleration detection unit; and a subtraction unit that counterbalances an undulating component of the wheel by subtracting a value detected by the rail position detection unit from a value calculated by the integration unit, and calculates an amount of horizontal-direction displacement of the rail.

Claims

1. A track status monitoring device that detects an amount of horizontal-direction displacement of a rail for a railway car to run, the device comprising:

an acceleration detection unit that is disposed on the railway car and detects an acceleration at least in axle direction among accelerations generated on a wheel of the railway car;

a rail position detection unit that is disposed on the railway car, wherein a position of the rail in relation to the rail position detection unit and a position of the wheel in relation to the rail position detection unit are detected, and based on both detected positions, a value indicating a position of the rail in relation to the wheel in the axle direction is detected;

an integration unit that calculates a value based on a 2^nd-order integrated value of the acceleration detected by the acceleration detection unit; and

a subtraction unit that counterbalances an undulating component of the wheel by subtracting a value detected by the rail position detection unit from a value calculated by the integration unit and calculates an amount of horizontal-direction displacement of the rail.

2. The track status monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the rail position detection unit and the acceleration detection unit are provided on a rigid body that is integrally displaced with the wheel.

3. The track status monitoring device according to claim 2, wherein the rigid body is an axle box that supports an axle of the wheel.

4. The track status monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the rail position detection unit is a non-contact displacement gauge that comprises a light emitting section and a light receiving section.

5. The track status monitoring device according to claim 4, wherein the rail position detection unit comprises a two-dimensional laser displacement gauge.

6. The track status monitoring device according to claim 4, wherein the rail position detection unit comprises a plurality of spot laser displacement gauges that are arranged in parallel.