Vehicle Hopper Door Operating Mechanism

Abstract

An automatic device for locking and unlocking a hopper car door operating lever mechanism. This device, which prevents unintentional opening of hopper doors and includes pivoted and connected spaced locking members connected by an operating bar, is locked onto the door operating drive lever and is removed automatically from the levers on actuation of the door opening air cylinder when a cammed portion of the air cylinder ram contacts and lifts the operating bar thus allowing operation of the door operating mechanism.

Description

SUMMARY

With the entrance into the area of larger cars having greater capacities, higher lading and other forces are encountered requiring stronger, more massive force transmitting and structural members than those used in the past. In utilizing these larger force transmission members higher inertial forces are encountered which on impact could supply sufficient forces to a mechanism to open the hopper doors. It was with this in mind that the present design evolved in order to prevent unintentional and undesirable opening of hopper car doors due to inertial forces on impact or other forces which were sufficient to operate door operating mechanism and produce unintentional door opening. The present invention embodies a pivotally located locking device engaging the door operating drive lever near the air cylinder which upon actuating of the air cylinder disengages from a locked position to allow movement of the lever. A means is employed between the air cylinder ram and the locking device which upon actuating of the air cylinder allows a pretravel of the ram and in this pretravel, the locking device is removed from the drive lever. When the pretravel has terminated the ram engages the door operating lever and in turn actuates the door operating mechanism which opens the doors.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a railway hopper car which employs the locking device at both ends;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the locking device utilized at the right end of the hopper car illustrated in FIG. 1 in the self locked position;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the device illustrated in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an elevation view of the invention showing the position of the locking device in the unlocked position;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the locking device; and

FIG. 6 is another embodiment of a locking device with cammed surfaces.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to FIG. 1 there is shown a railway hopper car 10 having wheels 11 center sill 12 and riding on rails 13. Hopper doors 14 are pivoted on a longitudinal axis and open downward to discharge lading. The doors 14 operate in pairs and each pair is interconnected allowing the inner door of each pair to overlap and support the outer door of the pair. The doors open and close sequentially in response to forces transmitted through the levers 15 and 16 which are connected by the connecting link 17. This arrangement of the door operating mechanism is shown in my co-pending Pat. application Ser. No. 884,424 filed on Dec. 12, 1969 and titled Door Operating Mechanism, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,633,511 issued Jan. 11, 1972 and being herein incorporated by reference. A pneumatic cylinder 18 located at each end of the hopper car 10 is pivotally connected at 19 having a piston rod 20 extending through its non-pivoted end. The piston rod 20 has a ram 21 fixedly attached to it. The ram 21 illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3 is substantially U-shaped having opposed slots 22 with first and second cammed portions 23 and 24 connected by an intermediate dwell portion 25. The auxiliary lock 26 is pivotally connected to the lock supporting means 27 and pivots about the pivot pin 28. The lock supporting means 27 is fixedly attached to the top 29 of the center sill 12 and includes spaced side plates 30 connected by means of a connecting plate 31 and topped with a top plate 32 to which is fixedly attached spaced lugs 33 having openings 34.

The auxiliary lock 26 comprises spaced locking members 35 connected so as to move in unison by means of the connecting bar 36 and pivotally connected about the pivot pins 28. Each locking member 35 includes a nose portion 37 having a vertical wall 38, a connection section 39, and a cammed or angled portion 40. The top portion 41 extends from the tip 42 to the radiused cutout 43 which accommodates the connecting bar 36. Below the radiused cutout 43 is a wall 44 which connects the wall 38 with the bottom side 45 of the lug portion 46. The top 47 of the lug 46 is terminated at 48.

An auxiliary drive lever 52 is positioned as illustrated in FIGS. 2-6 to transmit and multiply forces supplied by the pneumatic cylinder 18. The drive lever 52 pivots about the pivot means 49 and includes a pin 50 which extends through an opening 51 and is fixedly attached thereto and also extends through slots 22 in the ram 21 and terminates just outside the bottom of the wall 44 of the locking members 35, best illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3.

A second embodiment of an automatic unlocking auxiliary lock is illustrated in FIG. 6. Parts used in this embodiment which are the same as those parts used on the previously described lock are designated by the same reference numerals. The auxiliary lock 26a includes spaced locking members 35a pivoted about the pivot pins 28 and connected by a connecting bar 36a. The locking members 35a include a nose portion 37a comprising a wall 38a, section 39a, and an angled or cammed portion 40a. The top portion 41a extends from the tip 42a horizontally until it meets the top portion 47a of the lug portion 46a at 43a. Diagonal cammed surfaces 48a and 49a are located opposite and extending downward of the top portion 44a. Upon initial movement of the ram pin 50a which is fixedly attached to the ram 21a, the ram pin 50a will contact the cam surface 49a to raise the auxiliary lock 26a.

The ram 21a is fixedly attached to the piston rod 20 and is essentially U-shaped having slots 22a in each leg of the U for movement about and the constraining of the pin 50 of the auxiliary drive lever 52.

OPERATION

Referring now to the drawings and in particular FIGS. 1 through 6, the operation of the preferred auxiliary lock will be understood. Upon operation of the power source 18 the piston rod 20, as best illustrated in FIG. 2, will begin to move to the left and in doing so the first cammed portion 23 of the ram 21 will contact the connecting bar 36, and as movement of the ram continues the camming action of surface 23 will lift the bar and lift the attached locking members 35 which the bar connects, the locking members 35 moving pivotally about the pivot pins 28. Also, as the ram 21 moves towards the left, there is relative movement between the pin 50 of the drive lever 52 and the cutout 22 of the ram 21. This relative movement continues until the right side of the slot 22 comes in contact with the pin 50. When this has occurred the auxiliary lock 26 will have rotated to the position illustrated in FIG. 4, thus in effect unlocking the pin 50 and allowing it to be moved by the ram 21. The lever 52 will remain in position until moved by the ram 21 because of an over center self-locking feature of the door operating levers 15, 16 and their door operating struts or arms 15a.

The auxiliary lock 26 will remain in approximately the position illustrated in FIG. 4 until the ram 24 has completely passed under the auxiliary lock 26. Generally, the bar 26 will not contact surface 24 because the inertia given to the lock 26 during its initial clockwise rotation into the position illustrated in FIG. 4 maintains the lock 26 in a position above surface 24 until the rapidly moving ram 21 has passed.

After counter clockwise rotation of the lock has begun a stop not shown in the illustration prevents further counter clockwise rotation of the auxiliary lock 26 past a predetermined position, thus, preventing the bar 36 from contacting the piston rod 20 during the remainder of movement of the ram 21 which rotates the lever 52 to open the hopper doors 14.

On the return stroke of the pneumatic cylinder 18 the cutout 22 of the ram 21 will move across the pin 50 of the drive lever 52 in a lost motion movement until the pin 50 is constrained by the left rounded end of the cutout 22 at which time the pin 50 will move in unison with the ram 21. On this return stroke the pin 50 may be positioned to contact the cammed portion 40 of the nose 37 or the cammed surface 24 may be utilized in conjunction with the connecting bar 36 to rotate the locking members 35 about the pivot 28 until the pin 50 has passed under the flat section 39 thus allowing the locking members 35 to move in a counterclockwise direction and to return to a position which will restrain movement of the drive lever 52 and the pin 50. This position is illustrated in FIG. 2 and depicts the position of the auxiliary lock 26 when the hopper doors 14 are in a locked, overlapping, and supportive position.

In the operation of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 6 movement of the ram 21a to the left on operation of the pneumatic cylinder 18 releases the locking members 35a from constraining the pin 50 and allows the drive lever 52 to rotate when the right end of slot 22a contacts the pivot pin 50. Upon initial movement of the ram 21a the ram pin 50a makes contact with the first cammed portion 49a of the locking members 35a. Upon linear longitudinal movement of the ram 21a the pin 50a will cause the locking members 35a to rotate in a clockwise direction until contact between the ram pin 50a and the first cammed surface is terminated. When this termination occurs the inertia of the lock 26a will cause it to continue to rotate in a clockwise direction, during which time the ram 21a will pass under the locking members 35a allowing the lock 26a to rotate in a return, counterclockwise direction, until the lock 26a strikes a stop (not shown) which is positioned to prevent the bar 36a from contacting the piston rod 20. When contact between the pin 50a and cam surface 49a ends, the right side of the slot 22a is in contact with the pin 50 and rotation of the drive lever 52 begins.

On the return stroke of power cylinder 18 the slot 22a in the ram 21a will move across pivot pin 50 until contact occurs between the pivot pin 50 and the left side of the slot 22a. At this point clockwise rotation of the drive lever 52 begins, and after a predetermined rotation, the pin 50 of the drive lever 52 will contact the cammed portion 40a of the nose 37a producing a momentary clockwise rotation of the locking members 35a. However, spacial relationships between pins 50, 50a and surfaces 40a, 48a could be arranged to allow pin 50a to combine with surface 48a in lifting the auxiliary lock 26a during the return stroke of the ram 21a. This momentary rotation allows the auxiliary lock 26a to override the pin 50 until the pin 50 is under the wall 44a and constrained by the nose 37a.

The foregoing description and drawings merely explain and illustrate the invention and the invention is not limited thereto, except insofar as the appended claims are so limited, as those skilled in the art who have the disclosure before them will be able to make modifications and variations therein without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A railway hopper car having pneumatic cylinder means operative upon a door opening lever mechanism for opening and closing of pivoted discharge doors, said hopper car also including:

pivoted locking means adjacent said pneumatic cylinder means for preventing operative movement of said lever mechanism,

said pneumatic cylinder means having a connection with said lever mechanism for opening and closing said discharge doors, and thereby defining at their connecting extremities a lost motion connection means translating motion from the pneumatic cylinder means to the lever mechanism in the same plane and in a linear path,

said pneumatic cylinder means including a linearly reciprocal drive member having a locking means engaging surface and said lost motion connection means having a lost motion connection surface on said reciprocal drive member being spaced vertically from said locking means engaging surface attendant to releasing of the locking means from the lever mechanism during coacting movement of both surfaces as the reciprocal drive member moves linearly.

2. A railroad hopper car having pivoted discharge doors and pneumatic cylinder operating means, and said car including:

linearly reciprocable ram drive means being connected with said pneumatic cylinder means,

discharge door operating pivoted lockable lever means connecting with said ram drive means,

first cam means on said ram drive means,

a lost motion connection means coupling said ram drive means and the lockable lever means and including a lost motion surface on said ram drive means,

lock means mounted adjacent said ram drive means,

said lost motion connection surface being spaced from said first cam means attendant to releasing of the lock means from the ram drive means during coacting movement of the lost motion surface and the first cam means in a linear direction,

said lock means including a lever restraining means engageable with and containing the pivoted lockable lever means against movement, and

second cam means carried by said lock means and engageable with the first cam means and movable thereby to release the locking means from the discharge door operating pivoted lockable lever means during initial linear movement of said ram drive means.

3. The invention according to claim 2, wherein

said lost motion connection means comprising a slotted portion in the ram drive means surrounding a portion of said lockable lever means,

said first cam means of the ram drive means comprising a pair of inclined and spaced cammed surfaces operatively associated with said lock means;

said second cam means comprising a follower member extending from said lock means and engageable with said inclined cammed surfaces to thereby actuate the lock means during reciprocating linear movement of said ram drive means.

4. The invention according to claim 2, and

said lost motion connection means comprising a slotted portion extending longitudinally and horizontally through the ram drive means; means;

said lockable lever means having a lock pin extending through said slotted portion of the ram drive means thereby forming said lost motion connection means coupling the ram drive means and the lockable lever means;

said first cam means of the ram drive means including a follower member operatively attached to and protruding from said ram drive means;

said second cam means including a pair of spaced inclined cammed surfaces extending from said lock means and operatively associated with said follower member of the ram drive means to thereby release the lock means from engagement with the lock pin of the lockable lever means during linear reciprocal movement of the ram drive means.

5. The invention according to claim 3, and

said slotted portion of the ram drive means including a longitudinally and horizontally extending opening in the ram drive means;

said lockable lever means including a lock pin means fixedly attached thereto and positioned within a portion of said opening of the ram drive means to thereby form said lost motion connection coupling the ram drive means and the lockable lever means.

6. The invention according to claim 5, and

said lock means including a pivotally mounted means having a locking nose portion engageable with the lock pin means of the lockable lever to prevent an operative movement of said lever when the pneumatic cylinder is inoperative.