KIT FOR A BODY- SHELL STRUCTURE
An embodiment of the present invention discloses a kit for a body-shell structure of a rail vehicle, including a carrier structure with at least two upper belts and a plurality of roof cross members for the roof region of the space frame, at least two lower belts and a plurality of bottom cross members for a bottom region of the body, a plurality of columns running perpendicular and a plurality of window belts for side regions of the body. An embodiment of the present invention further includes at least one head module, wherein the shell structure has a modular design. The upper belts and the lower belts are connected via knots to adjoining cross members, perpendicular columns and/or window belts, wherein the upper belts and the lower belts have a uniform profile cross-section and the knots are at least partially of uniform design.
This application is the national phase under 35 U.S.C. §371 of PCT International Application No. PCT/EP2008/055631 which has an International filing date of May 7, 2008, which designated the United States of America, and which claims priority on German patent application number DE 10 2007 022 198.5 filed May 11, 2007, the entire contents of each of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
FIELDAt least one embodiment of the invention generally relates to a kit for a car body-shell structure of a rail vehicle. In at least one embodiment, it relates to a kit for a car body-shell structure of a rail vehicle, having a beam structure which has at least two upper chords and a number of roof transverse beams for the roof area of the car body, at least two lower chords and a number of bottom transverse beams for a bottom area of the car body and a plurality of pillars which extend vertically, and a plurality of window chords for side areas of the car body, and having at least one front module.
BACKGROUNDA kit is generally employed in the construction of rail vehicles of all types, both local railway vehicles and long-distance railway vehicles.
Car body shells frequently exhibit, within the kit which is used for their manufacture, a variety of simple individual components such as chamfered pieces of sheet metal and open profiles which are assembled with extremely time-consuming welding operations in an assembly process to form a framework. Depending on a respective customer's requirements, it is necessary to adapt the kit, and in this context considerable adaptations are necessary in terms of the elements of the kit and additions of components. This incurs very high costs both in the development and in the fabrication of the car body shell.
In addition, in many cases only a tight development time is available for the configuration of the car body shell and in addition a large number of individual components of the kit have to be fabricated by hand, with the result that product safety can be ensured only with very considerable effort.
At present, the high costs when developing a new car body shell are combated by changing the car body-shell structure of a particular predecessor model as little as possible.
SUMMARYIn at least one embodiment, a kit is specified for a car body-shell structure of a rail vehicle in which reduced development time is required when a car body shell is newly configured.
The modular body shell structure which is provided makes it possible to construct a car body with a very small number of different elements for the kit. In particular, the uniformity of the profile cross section of the upper chord sections and lower chord sections and the design of the joints can be used to construct various car bodies.
In this context, the upper chord sections and the lower chord sections can preferably be at least partially of uniform length. This will apply to the upper chord sections in most cases, while in the case of the lower chord sections it may be necessary to ensure that any wheel cases are arranged.
It is advantageous if the pillars and the window chords also have a uniform profile cross section. This facilitates the provision of suitable profiles for forming the pillars and the window chords. It is therefore possible to manufacture both pillars and window chords from a single extrusion profile or roller-profiled profiles.
The pillars and the transverse beams may also have a uniform profile cross section, which further reduces the variety of profiles to be used.
A plurality of sets of transverse beams which differ in their length are advantageously provided for the kit in order to implement various vehicle widths. This means that the side elements of the car body remain the same for different vehicles, while only the length of the transverse beams which are used and the configuration of the front module are changed from one car body configuration to another.
In order to implement various vehicle lengths it is also advantageously possible to dispense with changes in the sides of the car body. In this context, it is preferred to provide rear modules and front modules of differing lengths for connection to the respective end sides of the beam structure. Such front modules are typically manufactured from plastic.
With respect to the uniformity of the joints it is possible to provide that the joints which are provided in the interior of the beam structure are of uniform design in the vicinity of the upper chords and lower chords. This also limits the variety of components of the kit.
The joints may preferably be embodied as sheet-metal joints. In this context, a sheet-metal joint may be fabricated from a sheet-metal semifinished product which is cut to size by jet-treatment cutting methods or punching tools, and is subsequently suitably shaped and then joined. The joining is preferably carried out by welding or bonding to an adjacent chord section.
Alternatively, the sheet-metal joint can also be manufactured by deep-drawing, in which case the sheet-metal joint can be suitably cut to size after the deep-drawing process and then chamfered, if necessary.
It is also conceivable to form the sheet-metal joint from a plurality of parts which are each manufactured by deep-drawing.
Example embodiments of the kit can include an embodiment of the sheet-metal joints which are used in its construction.
Example embodiments of the invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to the drawings, in which:
The beam structure of a car body for a rail vehicle which is shown in
It is to be emphasized that a continuous embodiment of the upper chords O and lower chords U can also be provided in the respective sheet-metal joints in the beam structure according to
Two lower chords U are also divided into lower chord sections UA, with a central region remaining free in order to accommodate an undercarriage.
The upper chord sections OA and lower chord sections UA are uniform with respect to their profile cross section and their length.
In order to connect the upper chords O and the lower chords U, vertical pillars S are provided. In order to form window areas, horizontally extending window chords F are used which correspond in terms of their profile cross section to that of the vertical pillars S. In this context, the window chords F are attached to the vertical pillars S in an abutting connection.
In order to connect the upper chords O and the lower chords U to one another horizontally, transverse beams Q are provided which have a uniform profile cross section and are of uniform length. Their profile cross section corresponds here to that of the vertical pillars S and of the window chord F.
The construction of the beam structure therefore requires only two different cross-sectional profiles, specifically one cross-sectional profile for the upper chord section OA and lower chord section UA, and a second cross-sectional profile for the transverse beams Q, the vertical pillars S and the window chords F.
Taking the beam structure illustrated in
The modular structure which is described in this way for a car body shell is also retained when different vehicle widths or vehicle lengths are implemented. In order to implement different vehicle widths, only the lengths of the transverse beams Q are adapted. Associated rear modules and front modules E1, E2, which have to be fitted onto the end sides of the beam structure, then have to be made available for each transverse beam length.
Different vehicle lengths are implemented for a given transverse beam length by means of the length of a front module, for example.
Even when there are different vehicle widths and vehicle lengths, the side areas of the beam structures remain unchanged in each case and can therefore be used as modular elements for different vehicle configurations.
In order to construct the beam structure which is shown in
In the inner area of the upper chords O, a second sheet-metal joint type BK2 is used which serves as a connecting point between two upper chord sections OA located one behind the other, a transverse beam Q and a vertical chord S. A third sheet-metal joint type BK3 is used to connect a window chord F to a vertical chord S.
The sheet-metal joint BK3A which is manufactured in this way is distinguished by low manufacturing costs and a high level of working precision.
The sheet-metal joint BK3B of the type BK3 which is manufactured in this way is embodied in two parts, with each part being joined individually to the adjacent profiles.
A further embodiment of a sheet-metal joint BK3C for use in the type BK3 can be seen in
In contrast to the deep-drawn sheet-metal joint embodiment according to
Details of the associated manufacturing method can be found in
A manufacturing method for a second embodiment BK2B of the sheet-metal joint type BK2 is shown in
A further embodiment BK2C for the sheet-metal joint type BK2 is illustrated in
In the same way, the inner shell IS can be composed of just one bent sheet-metal blank, and the outer shell AS can be deep-drawn.
In the embodiment according to
Example embodiments being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the present invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.
Claims
1. A kit for a car body-shell structure of a rail vehicle having a beam structure, the kit comprising:
- at least two upper chords;
- plurality of roof transverse beams for a roof area of the car body;
- at least two lower chords;
- a plurality of bottom transverse beams for a bottom area of the car body;
- a plurality of pillars which extend vertically;
- a plurality of window chords for side areas of the car body; and
- at least one front module,
- wherein the body-shell structure is of modular design, wherein the at least two upper chords and the at least two lower chords are connected via joints to adjacent at least one of the transverse beams, the vertical pillars and the window chords, wherein the at least two upper chords and the at least two lower chords have a uniform profile cross section, and wherein the joints are at least partially of uniform design.
2. The kit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least two upper chords and the at least two lower chords are at least partially of uniform length.
3. The kit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vertical pillars and the window chords have a uniform profile cross section.
4. The kit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vertical pillars and the transverse beams have a uniform profile cross section.
5. The kit as claimed in claim 1, wherein, in order to implement various vehicle widths, a plurality of sets of transverse beams which differ in their length are provided.
6. The kit as claimed in claim 1, wherein, in order to implement various vehicle lengths, front modules or rear modules of differing lengths are respectively provided for connection to an end side of the beam structure.
7. The kit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the joints provided in the interior of the beam structure are of uniform design in the vicinity of the upper chords and lower chords.
8. The kit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the joints are embodied as sheet-metal joints.
9. The kit as claimed in claim 8, wherein the sheet-metal joints are fabricated from a sheet-metal semifinished product which is cut to size by jet-treatment cutting methods or a punching tool, and is subsequently shaped and then joined.
10. The kit as claimed in claim 9, wherein the joint is joined by welding, other thermal joining methods or bonding.
11. The kit as claimed in claim 8, wherein the sheet-metal joint is manufactured by deep-drawing.
12. The kit as claimed in claim 11, wherein the sheet-metal joint is formed from a plurality of parts which are each manufactured by deep-drawing.
13. The kit as claimed in claim 9, wherein the shaping is carried out by way of a chamfering processes.
14. The kit as claimed in claim 12, wherein the parts of the sheet-metal joint which are manufactured by deep-drawing are obtained from a cup-shaped basic shape which is subjected to a subsequent cutting or punching process.
15. The kit as claimed in claim 12, wherein the parts of the sheet-metal joint which are manufactured by deep-drawing are obtained from a trough-shaped basic shape and have reinforcing flanges.
16. The kit as claimed in claim 15, wherein the sheet-metal joint has an enclosed structure.
17. The kit as claimed in claim 12, wherein the two parts which are manufactured by deep-drawing are each constructed in a cross shape.
18. The kit as claimed in claim 11, wherein, after the deep-drawing, a sheet-metal semifinished product is subjected to subsequent chamfering processes.
19. The kit as claimed in claim 12, wherein the two parts which are manufactured by deep-drawing are formed by an outer shell and an inner shell, which are further cut to size after the deep-drawing.
20. The kit as claimed in claim 19, wherein at least two of the sheet-metal joints are connected by their outer shells in such a way that one outer shell which is common to both of them is formed.
21. The kit as claimed in claim 19, wherein one of the outer shell and inner shell is present, separated in such a way that the respective one of the outer and inner shell is at least in two pieces.
22. The kit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the beam structure has further chords which extend at any desired angle with respect to the vertical.
23. The kit as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of the upper chords and the lower chords are divided into sections of equal length.
24. The kit as claimed in claim 2, wherein the vertical pillars and the window chords have a uniform profile cross section.
25. The kit as claimed in claim 24, wherein the vertical pillars and the transverse beams have a uniform profile cross section.
Type: Application
Filed: May 7, 2008
Publication Date: Jul 29, 2010
Inventors: Martino Cellghini (Nurnberg), Joachim Hecht (Furth), Andreas Stockinger (Uttenreuth)
Application Number: 12/451,381
International Classification: B61D 17/04 (20060101); B61D 17/00 (20060101);