Self adjusting wheel bearing heat signal processing circuit
First Claim
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1. A railroad car hot box detector system comprising:
- infra-red responsive scanner means positioned along a section of track and adapted to scan passing railroad cars within a sensing zone along said track and to generate a signal in response thereto, said signal including portions thereof having an amplitude and waveform indicative of the passing of a wheel bearing and the temperature and type thereof;
variable circuit means for digitally processing samples of said signal to determine the condition of said bearing; and
,conditioning circuit means for detecting physical conditions of said car including car speed and for varying said processing circuit in response to said car conditions.
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Abstract
A railroad car hot box detector system is provided which includes a variable circuit means for processing the heat signal generated by an infra-red detector viewing a sensing zone along a section of track. The system includes a conditioning circuit which determines one or more conditions of the train (such as the wheel speed or temperature of the car bottom) and uses that information to vary the processing circuit to enable the heat signal to be processed optimally for the detected condition.
28 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A railroad car hot box detector system comprising:
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infra-red responsive scanner means positioned along a section of track and adapted to scan passing railroad cars within a sensing zone along said track and to generate a signal in response thereto, said signal including portions thereof having an amplitude and waveform indicative of the passing of a wheel bearing and the temperature and type thereof; variable circuit means for digitally processing samples of said signal to determine the condition of said bearing; and
,conditioning circuit means for detecting physical conditions of said car including car speed and for varying said processing circuit in response to said car conditions. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A railroad car hot box detector system comprising:
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infra-red responsive scanner means associated with a sensing zone along a section of track adapted to scan bearings of a railroad car within said sensing zone and to generate an output voltage signal in response thereto having an amplitude and waveform indicative of the type of bearing being scanned; first circuit means including a variable bandwidth passband filter; and
,second circuit means responsive to the speed of the train passing through said sensing zone for varying the bandwidth of said filter as a function of the speed of said train.
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8. A method for processing the signal from a railroad car hot box detector system of the type including an infra-red scanner positioned along a section of track and adapted to scan passing railroad cars within a sensing zone along said track and to generate a signal in response thereto which includes portions having an amplitude and waveform indicative of the passing of a wheel bearing and the temperature and type therefore and means for processing said signal, comprising the steps of:
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(a) determining the speed of said car prior to its entering said sensing zone; and (b) varying the bandwidth of said signal processing means as a function of the detected speed of said car.
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9. A method for processing the signal from a railroad car hot box detector system of the type including an infra-red scanner positioned along a section of track and adapted to scan passing railroad cars within a sensing zone along said track and to generate a signal in response thereto which includes portions having an amplitude and waveform indicative of the passing of a wheel bearing and the temperature and type thereof and means for processing said signal including a variable sample rate analog/digital converter comprising the steps of:
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(a) determining the speed of said car prior to said cars entering said sensing zone. (b) varying the sample rate of said A/D convertor as a function of the determined speed. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
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Specification