Abstract: A housing having a base having a cavity within which a temperature scanner module may be mounted and which is readily clamped to a rail of a railroad track so that a scanner may detect an over-heated wheel or wheel bearing. The base includes a rail clamp support portion for extending beneath the rail. A clamping assembly is positioned on the clamp support portion with resilient compressible bumpers sandwiched therebetween. The clamping assembly includes a first rail clamp and a pair of spaced apart arms between which a second rail clamp is positioned and adjustably attached to the first clamping assembly so as to secure the assembly to a rail. The arms of the clamping assembly terminate at locations above the upper surface of the clamp support portion and may be forcibly urged to apply a bending moment to the clamping assembly adjacent the cavity to pivot the clamping assembly on the bumpers relative to the base. The base may thus be angularly adjusted relative to the rail.

Abstract: In a process for measuring axle bearing temperatures in order to locate hot wheels in moving railroad cars with infrared receivers and with an oscillating scanning beam that is oriented transversely to the longitudinal direction of the rail, the analog measured values from the infrared receiver are digitized and then coupled with the oscillation frequency orientation of the scanning beam so that at least two complete oscillations of the scanning beam are analyzed for each axle. A mean value is formed from the measured value corresponding to one sub-area of a first oscillation of the scanning beam and from the measured value that corresponds to subsequent oscillations of the scanning beam. When this is done, the calculation of the average or mean value is repeated for a specific predetermined maximum number of oscillations of the scanning beam and for as long as an activation signal initiated by the wheel signals from the same axle is within the measuring angle of the center.

Abstract: In the case of a system for detecting excessively heated wheel bearings and/or wheel tires of rail vehicles, a device is inserted into the path of the beam extending from a measuring point to a heat radiation sensor that distorts the resulting image and, in particular, widens it at least uniaxially. This device also serves to detect the measuring point when wheel axles shift in an axial direction. A system of this type may be formed by using a distorting optical device (6) which permits the imaging of a correspondingly widened field (4).

Abstract: A hot box detector system is provided wherein heat signals from bearings within a housing are analyzed to determine if the scanned surface of the housing is an inner sidewall surface or an outer sidewall surface. The signals are normalized to account for differences in the heat dissipating characteristics of the inner and outer sidewalls and air stream cooling resulting from the trains movement.

Abstract: An improved method and circuit is provided for processing waveforms from a railway car heat signal to eliminate spurious signals and to differentiate between roller bearings and friction bearings in a railroad hot box detector system. The waveforms generated by passing bearings are discretely sampled and spurious signals are eliminated by considering only those signals that fall within the crossing points of a threshold value. Discrimination between roller bearings and friction bearings is obtained by determining the ratio of the sum of the discrete values of the amplitude of the waveform within a first set of samples between the crossing points to the sum of the discrete values of the amplitude of the waveform within a second set of samples between the crossing points.

Abstract: An apparatus for the thermal monitoring of railway wheels is provided. The monitor comprises an insert placed into the railway wheel near its rim. If the wheel overheats, the monitor will be released from its location. A subsequent inspection will readily indicate that the wheel has been overheated during operation.

Abstract: An apparatus for determining the temperature of railroad car wheel journals (i.e., "hotbox" detector) includes a sensor including a pyroelectric cell responsive to infrared radiation signals, which are focused onto the cell, to output voltage signals as a function of the radiation signals inputted thereto. The sensor exhibits a nonlinear gain response to different frequencies of input signals and compensation is provided by coupling the output of the sensor to a differentiating circuit which has a similar but relatively negative gain response. The output of the differentiating circuit is a substantial voltage replica of the infrared input signal and this voltage signal may be applied to a suitable utilization device such as one which records journal temperature and/or provides a suitable alarm when a sensed journal temperature exceeds a predetermined value.