Rocking Patents (Class 105/223)
  • Patent number: 10974740
    Abstract: A railcar adapter for radially connecting a railcar body to a bearing. The railcar adapter includes an adapter body, and a top cover mounted onto an outer surface of the adapter body. The top cover is provided with at least one curved outer surface to be in direct radial contact with the railcar body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2021
    Assignee: Aktiebolaget SKF
    Inventors: Gautier Jenart, Ludovic Fenayon, Thierry Le Moigne
  • Patent number: 9434394
    Abstract: An axlebox assembly having at least one rolling bearing designed to be mounted on an axle, and a cover designed to be fastened with the axle such as to axially maintain the at least one rolling bearing between the cover and an abutment of the axle is provided. A backing ring is mounted on the axle between the at least one rolling bearing and the abutment. The backing ring includes a deformable portion so as to substantially fit the shape of the abutment of the axle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2016
    Assignee: AKTIEBOLAGET SKF
    Inventors: Thierry Le Moigne, Arnaud Turmeau
  • Patent number: 9254850
    Abstract: A swing motion rail road freight car truck is provided that has a truck bolster and a pair of side frames, the truck bolster being mounted transversely relative to the side frames. The side frames have spring seats for the groups of springs. The springs seats may be rigidly mounted in the side frames. Friction dampers are provided in inboard and outboard pairs. The biasing force on the dampers urges then to that act between the bolster ands and sideframes to resist parallelogram deflection of the truck. The bearing adapters and sideframe pedestal seats interact on a rolling linear contact interface that has a relatively small radius of curvature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2016
    Assignee: National Steel Car Limited
    Inventor: James W. Forbes
  • Publication number: 20140245921
    Abstract: A rail road freight car truck has a truck bolster and a pair of side frames, the truck bolster being mounted transversely relative to the side frames. The mounting interface between the ends of the axles and the sideframe pedestals allows lateral rocking motion of the sideframes in the manner of a swing motion truck. The lateral swinging motion is combined with a longitudinal self steering capability. The self steering capability may be obtained by use of a longitudinally oriented rocker that may tend to permit resistance to deflection that is proportional to the weight carried across the interface. The truck may have auxiliary centering elements mounted in the pedestal seats, and those auxiliary centering elements may be made of resilient elastomeric material. The truck may also have friction dampers that have a disinclination to stick-slip behavior. The friction dampers may be provided with brake linings, or similar features, on the face engaging the sideframe columns, on the slope face, or both.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 12, 2014
    Publication date: September 4, 2014
    Applicant: NATIONAL STEEL CAR LIMITED
    Inventors: James Wilfred Forbes, Jamal Hematian
  • Patent number: 8726812
    Abstract: A rail road freight car truck has a truck bolster mounted transversely between a pair of side frames. The mounting interface between the wheelset axle ends and the sideframe pedestals allows self-restorative longitudinal rocking self-steering motion proportionately resisted as a function of displacement and of the vertical force carried at the interface. The center of rotation of the rocking motion is lower than the center of rotation of the axle. The interface may also permit lateral rocking swing motion of the sideframes. Auxiliary centering elements may be mounted in the pedestal seats. The auxiliary centering elements may be elastomeric. The truck may also have low stick-slip friction dampers, and may be provided with brake linings, or similar features. The friction dampers may be mounted in a four-cornered arrangement at each end of the truck bolster.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Assignee: National Steel Car Limited
    Inventors: James Wilfred Forbes, Jamal Hematian
  • Patent number: 8567320
    Abstract: A resilient pad having a base with two side arms and two side lips for resiliently holding the base on a pedestal wear plate, the pad being configured with dome shaped portions disposed substantially perpendicular to the direction of the pad and being spaced apart from each other, where the pad, when installed with a pedestal wear plate serves to improve the force load handling and preferably re-distributes the load bearing surface from the edges and center of the adapter to the flat load bearing surface of the adapter, thus eliminating load on areas that have no support. Because the spring arms do not depend on bending of the base for their resiliency, the pad of the invention provides improved service stress capabilities and allows for longer life of the wear plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2013
    Assignee: Pennsy Corporation
    Inventors: Manuel Tavares, Michael James Schmidt
  • Publication number: 20130098262
    Abstract: A rail road freight car truck has a truck bolster mounted transversely between a pair of side frames. The mounting interface between the wheelset axle ends and the sideframe pedestals includes a bearing adapter. It has an upper portion that seats in the sideframe pedestal. The underside, lower portion, of the bearing adapter defines sits on the wheelset bearing casing. The lower portion has an apex, and has a first land portion for engaging a first portion of the bearing casing, and a second land portion for engaging a second portion of the bearing casing. The apex lies circumferentially between the first and second lands portions. There is a relief formed at the apex over the bearing race, so that vertical load is split to enter the casing to either side of top dead center.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 15, 2012
    Publication date: April 25, 2013
    Applicant: NATIONAL STEEL CAR LIMITED
    Inventors: James Wilfred Forbes, Jamal Hematian
  • Patent number: 8297199
    Abstract: A railcar primary suspension is configured to couple an axle box to a truck frame by a coupling mechanism. The coupling mechanism includes: a radius arm including a tubular part which has openings at both sides thereof; a shaft inserted into the tubular part and provided with projecting portions formed at both side surfaces of the shaft; a pair of receiving seats including fitting grooves in which the respective projecting portions are fitted; cover members configured to support the respective projecting portions; and fastening members configured to fix the cover members to the respective receiving seats. A portion of each fitting groove and a portion of the corresponding projecting portion, the portions contacting each other, respectively have arc surfaces, and a portion of each projecting portion and a portion of the corresponding cover member, the portions contacting each other, respectively have flat surfaces.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2012
    Assignee: Kawasaki Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takehiro Nishimura, Yasufumi Okumura
  • Patent number: 8272333
    Abstract: A rail road freight car truck has a truck bolster and a pair of side frames, the truck bolster being mounted transversely relative to the side frames. The mounting interface between the ends of the axles and the sideframe pedestals allows lateral rocking motion of the sideframes in the manner of a swing motion truck. The lateral swinging motion is combined with a longitudinal self steering capability. The self steering capability may be obtained by use of a longitudinally oriented rocker that may tend to permit resistance to deflection that is proportional to the weight carried across the interface. The truck may have auxiliary centering elements mounted in the pedestal seats, and those auxiliary centering elements may be made of resilient elastomeric material. The truck may also have friction dampers that have a disinclination to stick-slip behavior. The friction dampers may be provided with brake linings, or similar features, on the face engaging the sideframe columns, on the slope face, or both.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2012
    Assignee: National Steel Car Limited
    Inventors: James Wilfred Forbes, Jamal Hematian
  • Patent number: 7926428
    Abstract: A railway car truck is provided that includes two sideframes and a bolster. Each sideframe has a pedestal opening at each end to receive a bearing adapter assembly. The pedestal opening is formed by a roof section that includes a pad receiving opening. The bearing adapter assembly includes a cast steel bearing adapter that is formed to fit on top of a bearing assembly. An adapter pad, comprised of a selected hardness elastomer, is fit on top of the bearing adapter. The adapter pad includes a base section and a raised top section that is fit within the pad receiving opening in the pedestal roof section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2011
    Assignee: Amsted Rail Company, Inc.
    Inventors: Ralph H. Schorr, Peter Klauser, Jay P. Monaco, Gnana Jeevan Robinson, Manuel Tavares
  • Publication number: 20110073002
    Abstract: A rail road freight car truck has a truck bolster and a pair of side frames, the truck bolster being mounted transversely relative to the side frames. The mounting interface between the ends of the axles and the sideframe pedestals allows lateral rocking motion of the sideframes in the manner of a swing motion truck. The lateral swinging motion is combined with a longitudinal self steering capability. The self steering capability may be obtained by use of a longitudinally oriented rocker that may tend to permit resistance to deflection that is proportional to the weight carried across the interface. The truck may have auxiliary centering elements mounted in the pedestal seats, and those auxiliary centering elements may be made of resilient elastomeric material. The truck may also have friction dampers that have a disinclination to stick-slip behavior. The friction dampers may be provided with brake linings, or similar features, on the face engaging the sideframe columns, on the slope face, or both.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2010
    Publication date: March 31, 2011
    Applicant: National Steel Car Limited
    Inventors: James Wilfred Forbes, Jamal Hematian
  • Patent number: 7845288
    Abstract: A rail road freight car truck has a truck bolster and a pair of side frames, the truck bolster being mounted transversely relative to the side frames. The mounting interface between the ends of the axles and the sideframe pedestals allows lateral rocking motion of the sideframes in the manner of a swing motion truck. The lateral swinging motion is combined with a longitudinal self steering capability. The self steering capability may be obtained by use of a longitudinally oriented rocker that may tend to permit resistance to deflection that is proportional to the weight carried across the interface. The truck may have auxiliary centering elements mounted in the pedestal seats, and those auxiliary centering elements may be made of resilient elastomeric material. The truck may also have friction dampers that have a disinclination to stick-slip behavior. The friction dampers may be provided with brake linings, or similar features, on the face engaging the sideframe columns, on the slope face, or both.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2010
    Assignee: National Steel Car Limited
    Inventors: James Wilfred Forbes, Jamal Hematian
  • Patent number: 7699008
    Abstract: An auto rack rail road freight car is provided for carrying low density, relatively high value, relatively fragile lading. The car has trucks that have multiple dampers in a four corner arrangement in the sideframes. The dampers may include damper wedges having primary and secondary wedge angles. The spring groups in the side frames are relatively soft, giving a low vertical bounce natural frequency. In an articulated embodiment, differentially placed ballast is mounted in a biased arrangement to load the coupler end trucks to encourage a dynamic response similar to the dynamic response of the internal trucks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: National Steel Car Limited
    Inventor: James W. Forbes
  • Patent number: 7654204
    Abstract: A swing motion rail road freight car truck is provided that has a truck bolster and a pair of side frames, the truck bolster being mounted transversely relative to the side frames. The side frames have spring seats for the groups of springs. The springs seats may be rigidly mounted in the side frames. Friction dampers are provided in inboard and outboard pairs. The biasing force on the dampers urges then to that act between the bolster ands and sideframes to resist parallelogram deflection of the truck. The bearing adapters and sideframe pedestal seats interact on a rolling linear contact interface that has a relatively small radius of curvature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2010
    Assignee: National Steel Car Limited
    Inventor: James W. Forbes
  • Patent number: 7267059
    Abstract: An auto rack rail road freight car is provided for carrying low density, relatively high value, relatively fragile lading. The car has trucks that have multiple dampers in a four corner arrangement in the sideframes. The dampers may include damper wedges having primary and secondary wedge angles. The spring groups in the side frames are relatively soft, giving a low vertical bounce natural frequency. In an articulated embodiment, differentially placed ballast is mounted in a biased arrangement to load the coupler end trucks to encourage a dynamic response similar to the dynamic response of the internal trucks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2007
    Assignee: National Steel Car Limited
    Inventor: James W. Forbes
  • Patent number: 7263931
    Abstract: A rail road car truck has side frames mounted to rock on the wheelsets. A bolster is mounted cross-wise on the sideframes, each end of the bolster being seated on a spring group, each spring group being seated in one of the sideframe windows. The bolster has damper groups mounted at each end to work between the end of the bolster and the columns of the sideframe windows. The truck has a dynamic response to lateral perturbations that includes a first component due to the swinging of the sideframes on the sideframe pedestal rockers, and a second component that is due to lateral shear in the main spring groups. The pendulum action may tend to be softer than the lateral shear in the springs, and so therefore may tend to dominate the lateral response. This swing-dominant lateral response may be combined with a multiple damper arrangement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2007
    Assignee: National Steel Car Limited
    Inventor: James W. Forbes
  • Patent number: 7231878
    Abstract: The present invention relates generally to a linear steering truck apparatus comprising a bolster member having two ends, the bolster being located along the transverse axis extending generally perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, generally located between and parallel to the transversely extending axles, a linear steering truck attachable to the car body, a plurality of pedestals, a pedestal engaged to an axle bearing, the axle bearing being rotationally engaged to one end of a transversely extending axle, and at least one pedestal being movably attached to at least one other pedestal situated in the same plane along the longitudinal axis, and rack and pinion steering components, where the geometry of pivot points from one axle to the bolster form a trapezoid and the geometry of pivot points from another axle to the bolster form a parallelogram, the pedestals being pivotably connected so that a lateral force at one axle is reacted by the other axle, wherein the car body mass acts as a pendulum mass restor
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2007
    Assignee: Active Steering, LLC
    Inventor: Paul S. Wike
  • Patent number: 7143700
    Abstract: A rail road freight car truck has a truck bolster and a pair of side frames, the truck bolster being mounted transversely relative to the side frames. The mounting interface between the ends of the axles and the sideframe pedestals allows lateral rocking motion of the sideframes in the manner of a swing motion truck. The lateral swinging motion is combined with a longitudinal self steering capability. The self steering capability may be obtained by use of a longitudinally oriented rocker that may tend to permit resistance to deflection that is proportional to the weight carried across the interface. The truck may have auxiliary centering elements mounted in the pedestal seats, and those auxiliary centering elements may be made of resilient elastomeric material. The truck may also have friction dampers that have a disinclination to stick-slip behaviour. The friction dampers may be provided with brake linings, or similar features, on the face engaging the sideframe columns, on the slope face, or both.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2006
    Assignee: National Steel Car Limited
    Inventors: James W. Forbes, Jamal Hematian
  • Patent number: 7004079
    Abstract: An autorack rail road car is provided with a truck that includes a pair of sideframes supported on wheel sets with bearing adapters positioned therebetween. The bearing adapters and the sideframes have associated parts or surfaces with curvatures configured to permit lateral swinging of the sideframes. A bolster is supported by the sideframes, and sets of laterally arranged dampers are provided therebetween to control the relationship between the sideframes and the bolster.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2003
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2006
    Assignee: National Steel Car Limited
    Inventor: James W. Forbes
  • Patent number: 6874426
    Abstract: A swing motion rail road freight car truck is provided that has a truck bolster and a pair of side frames, the truck bolster being mounted transversely relative to the side frames. The side frames have spring seats for the groups of springs. The springs seats may be rigidly mounted in the side frames. Friction dampers are provided in inboard and outboard pairs. The biasing force on the dampers urges then to that act between the bolster ands and sideframes to resist parallelogram deflection of the truck. The bearing adapters and sideframe pedestal seats interact on a rolling linear contact interface that has a relatively small radius of curvature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2005
    Assignee: National Steel Car Limited
    Inventor: James W. Forbes
  • Patent number: 5924366
    Abstract: A side frame for a railway car is disclosed comprising a pedestal jaw and an integral crown shaped pedestal jaw roof. A liner matching the shape of the crowned pedestal jaw roof is removably mounted to the pedestal jaw roof. In operation, the crown shaped pedestal jaw roof and snap-on liner reduce wear on the pedestal jaw roof and permit swinging of the side frames relative to the railcar axles. The integral crown shaped pedestal roof and snap-on liner eliminate the traditional rocker seat, shims, and welded retainers, thereby reducing the maintenance and cost of traditional side frames.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 1998
    Date of Patent: July 20, 1999
    Assignee: Buckeye Steel Castings
    Inventors: Kenneth W. Trainer, Mark R. Carifa
  • Patent number: 5737934
    Abstract: A controller for a climate control system has a relative humidity sensor as well as a dry-bulb temperature sensor within the enclosure. The humidity value is used in conjunction with the dry-bulb temperature to generate an apparent temperature error signal which is a function of both the dry-bulb temperature and the relative humidity values. This permits robust control of both enclosure temperature and enclosure moisture content without abnormal cycling of the climate control system. Instead of using a sensor which directly measures the apparent temperature, the apparent temperature can be synthesized from the relative humidity and dry-bulb temperature within the enclosure. Alternately, the sensed and set point apparent temperature values can be synthesized from any two thermodynamic properties of the moist air within the enclosure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 1996
    Date of Patent: April 14, 1998
    Assignee: Honeywell Inc.
    Inventor: Dipak J. Shah
  • Patent number: 5544591
    Abstract: A rail car truck has a pair of side frames, a pair of wheelsets and roller bearing adapters seated on each end of each wheelset and supporting the pedestal of the side frames. Each roller bearing adapter has an upward transverse projection and each side frame pedestal has a downward facing concave depression, with the cooperating projections and depressions resisting unsquaring relative movement between the wheelsets and side frames.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 1995
    Date of Patent: August 13, 1996
    Assignee: Standard Car Truck Company
    Inventor: Armand P. Taillon
  • Patent number: 4527487
    Abstract: Device for ensuring the vertical suspension of the chassis of a bogie and the longitudinal and transverse coupling of each box of the chassis in a driving or carrying railway bogie, comprising a vertical suspension spring through which the bogie frame is supported on the axle box, thereby creating a rotary torque on this box, and including two flexible couplings mounted spaced in altitude between the frame and the axle box so as to be compressed when the axle box tends to rotate under the effect of the rotary torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 1983
    Date of Patent: July 9, 1985
    Assignee: Creusot-Loire
    Inventor: Georges Pinto
  • Patent number: 4512261
    Abstract: A railway truck having a suspension wherein pivotal suspension links are connected between the pedestal openings of a truck side frame and the bearing adaptor of the bearing received within the respective pedestal opening to suspend the side frame with respect to the bearing adaptor so as to permit limited relative lateral and longitudinal motion of the axle and wheel set with respect to the side frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 1982
    Date of Patent: April 23, 1985
    Assignee: A. Stucki Company
    Inventor: Oscar J. Horger
  • Patent number: 4510871
    Abstract: A bogie for a railroad vehicle comprises a pair of wheel sets mounted in a frame which is pivotally connected to the vehicle so that it can rotate about a substantially upright axis. The wheel sets are connected to the frame resiliently and by links which, upon the application of unbalanced force, axially to one of the wheel sets shifts the force-receiving end toward the other wheel set. The links can also be disposed so that any tendency for one of the wheel sets to move downwardly relative to the frame will result in a tendency for it also to move closer to the other wheel set. This has been found to increase high speed stability of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 1982
    Date of Patent: April 16, 1985
    Assignee: Krauss-Maffei Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Reinhold Habeck, Norbert Mackiol, Franz Mautner, Peter Schwarzler
  • Patent number: 4483253
    Abstract: A multiple axle railway truck having side frames with pedestals, roller bearings for the axles received in the pedestal jaws with clearance in a direction fore-and-aft of the vehicle to permit relative yawing motion of the axles. A yielding pad is provided between the bearing and the base of each pedestal jaw, and a transverse plank extends between the side frames to restrain fore-and-aft motion of the side frames and is torsionally flexible thereby permitting relative angular motion of the side frames in vertical planes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 1982
    Date of Patent: November 20, 1984
    Inventor: Harold A. List
  • Patent number: 4179995
    Abstract: A truck for a railroad car includes two spaced side frames which resiliently support ends of a transversely positioned bolster in a window formed in each side frame. On each side of the bolster is a vertical recess formed having opposing convex-shaped sides which engage with end walls of vertical ribs formed on the inner and outer side of spaced sidewalls of the side frame window. In downwardly projecting pedestal jaws formed at each end of each side frame and having selectively spaced sidewalls are journaled axle ends of a front and a rear wheelset. Interposed between each axle end and a roof of the pedestal jaw is a bearing adapter having a convex top surface to engage with a concave surface of the roof of the side frame pedestal jaw.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 7, 1977
    Date of Patent: December 25, 1979
    Assignee: AMSTED Industries Incorporated
    Inventor: John C. Day
  • Patent number: 4109586
    Abstract: This invention provides a railway wagon suspension unit comprising a frame mounted over a saddle accommodating an axle journal housing. The saddle can rock laterally relative to the journal housing. Suspension means are disposed between the frame and the saddle including load springs for vertical support, and a friction wedge block is mounted on the saddle and firmly biassed against the axle journal housing to provide substantially constant frictional forces against lateral motion between the saddle and the housing independently of vertical movement or loading of the frame. In this manner lateral restraints imposed on wheel set oscillations during service are not load sensitive as has been the case with some wedge-pot dampers and other suspensions hitherto.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 1977
    Date of Patent: August 29, 1978
    Assignee: British Steel Corporation
    Inventors: Alan H. Briggs, Eric Timmons
  • Patent number: 4058065
    Abstract: The railway truck disclosed herein is provided with a split axle composed of two transverse aligned axle members each having mounted on the outer end thereof a rail wheel. The inner ends of the axle members in one embodiment are connected by means forming a movable joint between such inner ends to enable the axle members to be moved to raise the rail wheels from the tracks, such connecting means also including means to restrict the relative movements of the two axle members. In this embodiment the two axle members are pivotally connected to the vehicle by means which enables lateral movement of such members during such relative movements thereof. Means are provided to raise the jointed inner ends of such axle members to raise the rail wheels. In another embodiment, the outer end of each axle member is supported by a main load carrying floating bearing construction permitting movement of such member about a pivot point located directly above the rail.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 1975
    Date of Patent: November 15, 1977
    Inventor: Arthur Seifert