Abstract: A car includes a car equipment protection structure, The car equipment protection structure includes an underframe, couplers and guide members. Each of the guide members is provided on a railcar inner side of an attached flange portion of the underframe to which the couplers are attached. Moreover, the guide members respectively include inclined surfaces, each of which is opposed to at least a part of the coupler. Each of the inclined surfaces is inclined toward the railcar inner side as it extends downward.

Abstract: An improved pre-clean chamber of a semiconductor processing system minimizes the generation of particulates during processing, thereby decreasing contamination levels that can adversely affect plasma vapor deposition film properties while also decreasing operational costs. The pre-clean chamber comprises an insulator collar that insulates the outside diameter surface of a wafer pedestal, thereby mitigating the etching of the wafer pedestal during etching. The pre-clean chamber further comprises a gas trench cover that directs a suitable etching gas from a gas inlet trench into streams that are focused up and towards the center of the chamber to reduce the extent to which gas bombards the chamber cover. The pre-clean chamber also comprises a bellows cover which protects the bellows of a wafer lift during etching, further reducing the dislodgment of particulates during etching.

Abstract: An articulated railroad car including a plurality of platforms each supported by a single axle wheel truck at each end. The platforms are connected to rigid drawbars which allow relative motion therebetween in both horizontal and vertical directions. The drawbars and the platforms have cooperable surfaces which engage when the car is being pushed and tend to align the platforms and drawbars to prevent jackknifing and derailment.

Abstract: A striker for a railway vehicle comprises a casting having an endless rib projecting outwardly from each side wall to reinforce a key slot for a draft key. The endless ribs present continuous surfaces for welding the striker to a sill of a railway vehicle. Above and below the endless rib on each side wall are inwardly-displaced side wall sections to inwardly shift the neutral axes of the wall sections for resisting imposed loads. In a second embodiment, weld sites above and below the endless ribs are formed. High-strength load transfer for pull forces is achieved at weld sites at the rear portion of the casting. Load transfer is supplemented by lower-strength weld sites at the forward portion of the casting. Other weld sites are formed along vertical parts of front draft lugs.

Abstract: A drawbar assembly comprising a drawbar and a buffing block device constructed and arranged so as to provide a turning moment which tends to align the horizontally displaced adjacent ends of the railway vehicle to which the drawbar is connected when said drawbar is operating under buff loading.

Abstract: A fabricated backstop for an end-of car cushioning unit in a railway car. The backstop is composed of two plate members or pieces which are welded separately to the inside of a center sill. One backstop piece is a generally U-shaped vertical plate member which is welded about its entire outer circumference to the inside of the center sill and provides an over-solid stop. The second backstop piece is a horizontal plate member positioned in contact with the rear face of the vertical plate member and having a cutout portion to receive an end collar of an end-of-car cushioning device. The horizontal plate member is welded at its front face to the vertical plate member and at its outer sides to the center sill to provide a rear buff stop and a rear draft stop.