U.S. patent number 3,776,581 [Application Number 05/165,897] was granted by the patent office on 1973-12-04 for sealing cam interlock.
This patent grant is currently assigned to The Youngstown Steel Door Company. Invention is credited to Irving D. Ross, Jr..
United States Patent |
3,776,581 |
Ross, Jr. |
December 4, 1973 |
SEALING CAM INTERLOCK
Abstract
A cam activated mechanism which permits a railroad car door to
be sealed only when the door is in a fully closed position. The
mechanism is activated by the final rotation of a car door
operating lever or handle. An aperture is provided in the handle to
allow the insertion of a car seal when the handle is rotated to the
proper final position between spaced opposed arms of a sealing
fork. Turning the handle imparts rotational movement to a shaft
which drives a pinion in meshed engagement with a segmental gear
rotatably mounted between the base and cover plates on the car
door. The rotational movement of the pinion thus turns the
segmental gear. A cam slot is located in the segmental gear and is
adapted to admit one end of a cam crank pivotally mounted on the
base plate to provide a rocking motion such that the other end of
the cam crank which is attached to a bar provides rectilinear
motion to the bar. The cam slot is so situated on the segmental
gear that it will accept the one end of the cam crank only when the
door is closed. Spaced below the segmental gear adjacent the handle
is a sealing fork, the housing for which is essentially a U-shaped
bracket having two legs and an intermediate portion therebetween
which is secured to the base plate. The bracket lies within the
periphery of the circumference projected by the handle. A rod
having a locking surface thereon is journalled in the legs of the
U-shaped bracket and the handle interfering sealing fork arms are
fixedly mounted on said rod. The arms are apertured to allow the
insertion of a car seal therethrough when said apertures are
aligned with the corresponding aperture in the handle. The
rectilinearily moving bar has a lateral projection adapted to
contact the rod having the locking surface when the one end of the
cam crank is dislodged from the cam slot in the segmental gear. The
cam crank is in a dislodged position whenever the door is not
closed and the sealing apertures are thus prevented from being
aligned since the arms are prevented from being positioned on
either side of the handle to lock it in place. When contact is
effected between the bar and rod, the sealing fork arms are
positively held in a position out of the path of the handle so that
the handle may be rotated. A seal may be passed through the
apertures in the handle and the arms of the sealing fork to seal
the railroad car only when the cam crank end is in the cam slot and
the door is fully closed.
Inventors: |
Ross, Jr.; Irving D.
(Barrington, IL) |
Assignee: |
The Youngstown Steel Door
Company (Cleveland, OH)
|
Family
ID: |
22600925 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/165,897 |
Filed: |
July 26, 1971 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
292/39; 292/40;
292/DIG.32; 292/148 |
Current CPC
Class: |
E05D
15/1007 (20130101); E05B 63/143 (20130101); Y10T
292/0843 (20150401); E05B 63/0021 (20130101); Y10S
292/32 (20130101); E05Y 2900/51 (20130101); Y10T
292/1025 (20150401); Y10T 292/0844 (20150401) |
Current International
Class: |
E05D
15/10 (20060101); E05B 63/14 (20060101); E05B
63/00 (20060101); E05c 001/12 (); E05c
009/12 () |
Field of
Search: |
;292/66,113,39,65,51,142,112,DIG.32,148,7,DIG.69,34,35,36,40 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Wolfe; Robert L.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A selectively actuated mechanism for preventing the insertion of
a car seal through the sealing aperture of a railroad car door
operating lever and corresponding apertures in the arms of a
sealing fork unless the car door has been completely closed, said
mechanism comprising:
a partially arcuate member having teeth positioned about at least a
portion of its periphery, said member being rotatably secured to
the car door and said member further having a cam recess positioned
on its periphery;
a rotatable shaft on which the operating lever is mounted;
a pinion fixedly mounted on the rotatable shaft in meshed
engagement with the toothed portion of the partially arcuate
member;
a cam crank pivotally secured to the car door being activatable by
contact with the cam recess;
a rectilinearily movable bar attached to the end of the cam crank
which does not engage the cam recess;
a U-shaped bracket having two legs and an intermediate portion
secured to the car door within the periphery described by the
operating lever and having rod accepting apertures in each leg
thereof;
a sealing fork comprising a rod having a locking surface rotatably
mounted through said rod accepting apertures and having radially
extending therefrom at least one handle engaging arm, said locking
surface being contacted by the bar when the non-attached end of the
cam crank leaves the cam slot, said cam slot being positioned on
the toothed member such that it accepts one end of the cam crank
when the lever is within a predetermined distance from its desired
degree of rotation, the activation of the crank being such that the
bar attached thereto disengages the rod locking surface to permit
the arm to establish engagement with the lever when the desired
closure of the door is achieved.
2. A mechanism for ensuring positive closing of a crank operated
railroad car plug door mounted for movement along a car side on a
track before an elongated car seal may be placed in sealing
position, said mechanism comprising:
a lock bolt selectively moveable between a locked and an unlocked
position;
mechanical power transmission means for selectively moving the lock
bolt; and
means responsive to the selective movement of said lock bolt to
permit placement of said car seal into sealing position only when
the car door is closed and the lock bolt is in locked position.
3. The mechanism of claim 2 wherein a handle is rotatably secured
to the door for supplying power to the mechanical transmission
means whereby said lock bolt is responsive to rotational movement
of the handle.
4. A mechanism for ensuring positive closing of a crank operated
railroad car plug door mounted for movement along a car side on a
track before a car seal may be placed in sealing position, said
mechanism comprising:
a lock bolt selectively movable between a locked and an unlocked
position;
mechanical power transmission means for selectively moving the lock
bolt, said mechanical power transmission means being selected from
the group consisting of:
rack and pinion means;
gear and cam crank means; and
sprocket and roller chain means; and
means responsive to the selective movement of said lock bolt to
permit placement of said car seal into sealing position only when
the car door is closed and the lock bolt is in locked position.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to railroad cars and, more particularly, to
a sealing, locking and door closure indicating mechanism for
railroad car plug doors. Conventionally, after a car has been
loaded and the door closed, a seal is passed through an aperture in
the car door handle in such a fashion that the handle may not be
rotated without breaking the seal. The seal is designed to
facilitate detection of whether or not the car has been broken into
during transit and it is an insurance to the consignee that the car
lading has not been tampered with since it left the shipping point.
One of the problems encountered with the typical railroad car door
sealing mechanisms is that, occasionally, a car handle is not
turned all the way up and the door is not completely closed when
the car seal is placed through the openings provided therefor. This
has occurred because it was difficult to positively ascertain
whether the door was completely closed when the seal was inserted.
The safety hazards alone of incomplete car door closure are, of
course, obvious.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To remedy the above situation, the invention herein has three
functions: one is to provide a mechanism which prevents a car from
being sealed unless the car door is completely closed; another is
to provide a mechanism which positively interfers with and locks
the handle against further rotation after it has been completely
turned up to firmly close the railroad car door; and the third is
to provide an indicator to indicate whether or not the door is
fully closed. As aforestated, the incomplete closure problem
occasionally resulted in serious safety hazards in addition to
facilitating the loss of lading through pilferage.
In overcoming these shortcomings, the invention is directed toward
providing a U-shaped bracket or sealing fork housing within the
circumference described by the handle end during handle rotation.
This bracket is mounted on the base plate so that it does not
interfere with the rotation of the handle. The U-shaped bracket has
a hole in each of its legs through which a rod is journalled. On
the rod is located one or two sealing fork arms which, when the car
door is open, lie substantially flat against the base plate and do
not interfere with the rotation of the handle. However, the rod on
which the arms are mounted is also supplied with a flat cam
surface. This surface may be contacted by a projection on a bar to
prevent the rod from rotating. The bar is capable of having
rectilinear motion supplied to it by one leg of a pivotal, base
plate mounted, cam crank which acts in response to rotational
movement of the car door handle. The other leg of the cam crank is
designed to rock into a cam recess on a handle driven segmental
gear when the apertured portion of the handle is within 180.degree.
of fully closing the door. It will be appreciated that the handle
may have any number of spokes and as the number of spokes increases
the cam slot will be so located as to activate the L-shaped cam
crank at a point closer to the entry of the seal accepting portion
of the handle into the locking region. A visual indication that the
car is ready for sealing occurs when the rod flat is released by
the removal of the bar projection or stop which had formerly
blocked the rotation of the rod. All that is then necessary is to
align the handle aperture with the sealing fork apertures when the
sealing fork arms are flipped down around the handle spoke.
The objects of the invention are thus to provide an interfering
means and a locking means and a handle position indicating means,
which purposes are achieved by the activation of a cam crank by a
cam slot in the gear segment which is normally rotated by the
pinion secured to the handle shaft. It will be understood, that in
addition, the rotation of the gear segment operates suitable bell
cranks, locking fingers and imparts rotation to suitable parallel
pipes to open and close the door in normal fashion.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In the drawings:
FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a plug door positioned in the
door opening of a railroad car;
FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary front elevational view of the
invention of FIG. 1 when the car door is in the fully closed
position;
FIG. 2A is a view taken along line 2A--2A of FIG. 2;
FIG. 3 is a view taken along line 3--3 of FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary front elevational view of the
invention of FIG. 1 when the car door is in the open position;
FIG. 5 is a view taken along line 5--5 of FIG. 4;
FIG. 6 is a fragmentary front elevational view of an alternative
embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 7 is a side elevational view taken along line 7--7 of FIG.
6.
In the several views of the drawings, like parts are designated
with like numerals. In FIG. 1, a railroad car door utilizing one
embodiment of the invention is indicated generally by the numeral
2. Vertical pipes 4 and 6 are rotatably attached to the door 2 by a
number of brackets 7 and at their extremities, are secured to upper
cranks 8 and 10 and lower cranks 12 and 14. The lower cranks 12 and
14 are journalled in roller hangers 20 and 22, respectively, and
the roller hangers are mounted on track 26 in known manner to
facilitate longitudinal movement of the door. The upper cranks are
pivotally attached to rollers 16 and 18 which lie behind retainer
24 and guide the top of the door during longitudinal movement along
the track 26.
Crank operating rods 32 and 34 are pivotally attached to a
segmental gear 40 at points 28 and 30. Gear segment 40 is rotatably
attached to the door at point 42 and is housed between the base
plate 41 and the cover plate 100. A peripheral portion of segmental
gear 40 has gear teeth 44. Also situated on the periphery of member
40 is cam recess 54. The toothed portion 44 of segmental gear 40 is
in meshed engagement with pinion 46 which is secured to and driven
by a shaft, not shown, which is journalled in or otherwise
rotatably mounted on the base plate 41 and through the cover plate
100. At the outer end of the shaft and lying outward of the pinion
46 is an operating lever or handle 48 for rotating the shaft and
thereby actuating the above described drive train. In the
embodiment shown, the handle is comprised of two radial arms or
spokes, 50 and 52, although the handle could have any number of
spokes.
It will be seen that mounted just below the gear segment 40 is a
L-shaped cam crank 56, which is pivotally mounted on the car door
by a pivot pin 58. One end of the L-shaped cam crank is attached to
a vertically sliding bar 60 by a pivot pin 62. In the embodiment
shown, bar 60 has attached to it a projection or tab 64 which is
adapted to contact or interfere with a sealing fork cam portion in
the form of a rod 66 when the cam crank 56 is forced out of cam
slot or cam recess 54.
The exact interaction of these elements will be appreciated upon
examination of other figures; however, in order that an
appreciation be gained of the general operation of the door and its
securing members, further attention should be directed to FIG. 1.
Locking fingers 68 and 70 are adapted to be received in keepers 72
and 74, respectively, and are horizontally, reciprocably actuated
by bell cranks 76 and 78, respectively. Said bell cranks 76 and 78
are pivotally attached to the car door at points 80 and 82,
respectively. The ends 84 and 86 of bell cranks 76 and 78 are
attached to a vertically reciprocating actuating bar 88. A second
cam crank 92 is pivotally attached to bar 88 at point 90 to provide
the vertical reciprocatory motion in the bar as it is rocked about
pivot pin 94. It will be seen that a cam recess 96 is provided on
gear segment 40 into which cam leg 98 of cam crank 92 may be
accepted. As gear segment 40 rotates in a clockwise direction, the
cam recess 96 forces leg 98 in a counterclockwise direction about
pin 94, thereby pulling member 88 down and extracting locking
fingers 68 and 70 from keepers 72 and 74.
In FIG. 2, it should be noted that cover plate 100 has been omitted
to illustrate that when the gear segment or member 40 is moved in a
clockwise direction, cam follower 56 is forced out of cam recess 54
and imparts a vertical motion to bar 60. It will be appreciated
that tab 64 on bar 60 is slightly bent and is adapted to mate with
flat 102 of rod 66 and prevent its rotation after the rod has been
rotated and the tab moved up to overlie the flat.
Referring now to FIG. 2A, rod 66 is provided with a flat 102 and is
journalled through apertures 104 and 106 in the legs 108 and 110 of
U-shaped member or sealing fork housing 112. U-shaped member 112 is
attached by welding or otherwise to the car door 2. Sealing fork
arms 116 and 118 are rigidly attached to the rod 66.
As can be appreciated from viewing FIGS. 2 and 2A, the locking
mechanism can only be actuated when the door is closed. Whenever
the door is open, tab 64 on the bar lies over the flat 102 of rod
66 to hold the arms 116 and 118 in a substantially vertical
position allowing the handle to swing freely past the locking
mechanism. This is shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. However, when the handle
is rotated to drive rotating gear segment 40 in a counterclockwise
direction to close the door, the cam recess 54 and cam crank 56
will interact to allow the bar 60 to slide down, thus permitting
the arms of the sealing fork to be pulled down around the handle so
that a car seal may be inserted through apertures 120 and 122 in
arms 118 and 116, respectively, and through apertures 124 in the
handle (best seen in FIG. 5). In FIG. 3, it can readily be seen
that bar 60 is shaped to permit it to slide behind gear segment 40
as it is vertically advanced by cam crank 56 when the door is
opened.
FIGS. 4 and 5 are views of the indicating mechanism position when
the door is not fully closed. The cover plate has been omitted for
clarity. It can readily be seen in these FIGS. that tab 64 overlies
the flat 102 of rod 66 and that the arms 116 and 118 are in a
position substantially parallel with the car door and do not
interfere with the rotation of the handle. Referring specifically
to FIG. 5, which is taken along line 5--5 of FIG. 4, it is easily
seen that the prongs lie so as not to obscure the movement of the
handle when the door is not closed.
In FIGS. 6 and 7, an embodiment of the invention is shown in which
a locking finger extension 130 is secured to the bar 60 so as to
provide an additional door locking point. Locking finger or bolt
130, when the door is closed, fits into keeper 132 which is located
on the railroad car. It will be appreciated, of course, that
brackets 135 and 136 have been provided for keeping the bar and
extension in proper alignment.
Thus, having fully described my invention, it should be understood
that but two embodiments have been described and that the invention
is capable of other variations. However, it is the intent of the
inventor to be restricted only by the scope of the appended
claims.
* * * * *