GB2298408A

GB2298408A - Mobile lifting system for rail vehicle bogies

Info

Publication number: GB2298408A
Application number: GB9505555A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Armin Ertl
Original assignee: PFAFF SILBERBLAU HEBEZEUG
Current assignee: PFAFF SILBERBLAU HEBEZEUG
Priority date: 1995-03-03
Filing date: 1995-03-20
Publication date: 1996-09-04
Anticipated expiration: 2015-03-20
Also published as: DE29503603U1; GB9505555D0; GB2298408B

Abstract

The invention relates to a mobile lifting system which is utilised in the maintenance, overhaul and repair of rail vehicles, and/or the bogies thereof. The mobile lifting system comprises a drive unit 10 with arranged thereon a lifting mechanism 20 with liftable and lowerable wheel support elements 30, 31 to support a bogie, where the drive unit frame and the lifting mechanism, viewed from the top, have an essentially U-shaped basic form with two parallel longitudinal arms (11, Fig 2) which leave between them a working area (40) freely accessible from one end of the longitudinal arms, and a section 12 connecting the longitudinal arms at one end, and where the drive unit 10 is fitted with rollers 13, 14 for steerable movement of the lifting system on a floor and with guide rollers 15 which can be brought into a working position in which they engage in the rail profile grooves of a track. Preferably, the lifting mechanism comprises threaded spindles 22 and a slider 23 moved from an electric motor (50) via gears 52.

Description

MOBILE LIFTING SYSTEM FOR RAIL VEHICLE BOGIES In the maintenance, overhaul and repair of rail vehicles, it is often necessary to repair or replace the bogie and the drive motors and other components therein, which requires removal of the bogie from the rail vehicle and subsequent replacement of the bogie on the vehicle and transport of the removed bogie between the rail vehicle and a workshop site provided for the performance of the work on the bogie.

To remove the bogie, the rail vehicle is usually jacked up by means of a lifting system which engages in the vehicle frame, and a separate bogie lifting system within the vehicle lifting system is used to raise and lower the bogie concerned. The bogie lifting system is installed, stationary, in the corresponding position within the vehicle lifting system but can be lowered into the ground, and has liftable and lowerable rail segments or similar where the arrangement is such that in the lowered state, the rail segments or other wheel support elements are flush with the track path in the vehicle lifting system and allow the removed bogie to be rolled from and to the bogie lifting system on the track below the jacked train.

In the removal and mounting of the bogie, two aspects are important: firstly the staff must have as much freedom of movement as possible beneath the bogie being supported by the lifting system to be removed or mounted, in order to be able to release or tighten fixings, which requires the presence of a corresponding working platform below the bogie even when the bogie lifting system has been withdrawn, and secondly the bogie lifting system must press the bogie, on which the vehicle is normally supported on springs, with a force exerting sufficient compression of these springs from beneath, against the jacked vehicle during both removal and mounting, so that it is possible to release or tighten the bogie fixing on the vehicle.

With the use of conventional stationary bogie lifting systems, in practice several bogie lifting systems must be incorporated into a vehicle lifting system, namely at every possible position of a bogie on the vehicle to be jacked, and secondly manoeuvring of the removed bogie during transport is difficult as it can only be rolled away and back via the track and either must be moved over a track guide extending to the processing site, or loading operations must be carried out in between. Such rolling away and back of the bogie beneath a jacked train also requires the track concerned not to be blocked directly by another stationary, withdrawn or used, bogie lifting system.

The invention is based on the task of producing a more simple and more versatile manoeuvring aid for the removal, mounting and transport of rail vehicle bogies.

This task is solved by the invention of the mobile lifting system described in the claims.

The mobile lifting system according to the invention has the advantage that it can be moved as required both on the track and outside the track, i.e. on a tool hall floor, and therefore irrespective of the situation of other bogies of a jacked rail vehicle, it can be moved below the relevant bogie position on the rail vehicle and positioned on the track there to remove or mount the bogie, and a removed bogie can be transported as required from the rail vehicle or to the rail vehicle by means of the steerable drive unit of the mobile lifting system without a track being required and without any further loading processes between the vehicle position concerned and the working site for processing the bogie.Because of the U-shaped frame of the mobile lifting system, the area below the jacked bogie is freely accessible from the open side and a large working area is available which allows easy working during removal and mounting of the bogie from or on the rail vehicle.

One design example of the mobile lifting system according to the invention is shown in diagram form in the attached drawings and is described in more detail below. In the drawings: Fig. 1 shows a mobile bogie lifting system according to the invention in partial cross-section from a side view, Fig. 2 shows the bogie lifting system according to Fig. 1 in a top view, Fig. 3 shows the bogie lifting system according to Fig. 1 in a front view.

The mobile bogie lifting system shown in the drawings consists of a drive unit 10, a lifting mechanism 20 mounted thereon and two synchronised liftable and lowerable parallel longitudinal members 30 each with a rail section 31 to support the wheels on the respective side of the rail vehicle bogie to be manoeuvred.

The drive unit 10, as shown in Fig. 2 viewed from the top, has an approximately U-shaped form with two parallel longitudinal side arms 11 and connecting these at the front a front part 12, where between the longitudinal arms 11 is a clear working space 40 freely accessible from the rear, which gives staff releasing and attaching a bogie from or to a rail vehicle maximum freedom of movement.

As Figs. 1 and 3 show, the drive unit 10 has at the front a large roller 13 arranged centrally in the frame front part 12 and on both sides at the rear, i.e. in the area of the rear end of each longitudinal arm 11, a pair of smaller rollers 14. The front roller 13 is steerable (steering mechanism not shown in detail) and drivable via a motor (drive mechanism not shown in detail).

The drive unit 10 also has guide rollers 15 which, as also shown in Figs. 1 and 3, are arranged at the front and rear of the two longitudinal arms 11, and by engaging in the rail grooves in the track below the jacked rail vehicle, guide the drive unit 10 into the track and hence precisely align the drive unit, and the longitudinal members 30 mounted on its lifting mechanism 20, centrally and parallel to the track axis. These guide rollers 15, as shown in Fig. 1, are mounted on drive unit 10 to swivel between a working position (as shown) and a retracted rest position.The front steerable roller 13 of the drive unit can be locked in its central position, i.e. in the straight ahead position, and preferably the mechanism for swivelling out the guide rollers 15 into the working position is designed such that it can be activated only with the front roller 13 standing and locked in the straight ahead position.

The lifting mechanism 20 has four lifting columns 21 each with a vertical lifting spindle 22 and a slider 23, which slider can be raised or lowered by turning the lifting spindle 22 in one direction or the other. Each longitudinal member 30 runs between the sliders 23 of the front and rear lifting columns 21 on the longitudinal frame arm 11 of the drive unit 10. In Fig. 1, the longitudinal members 30 are shown in the fully raised position and by dotted lines in the lowered position.

The lifting spindles 22 of the four lifting columns 21 are driven, synchronised, by an electric motor 50 (Fig. 2) which is mounted in the front area of the lifting mechanism on a cross-member 24 running between the platforms of the sliders 23 of the front lifting columns 21. The motor 50 drives a cross-spindle 51 running along the cross-member 24 (see Fig.

3), where the said cross-spindle acts via gears 52 on longitudinal spindles 53, each of which runs below the associated longitudinal member 30 between the sliders 23 of the front and rear lifting columns 21 on the corresponding longitudinal arm 11 of the drive unit frame, and via the gears arranged in the sliders 23 drives the corresponding lifting spindles 22 of the relevant lifting columns 21. In this way all four lifting spindles 22 are turned precisely synchronised and the associated sliders 23 are raised or lowered precisely synchronised.

As Fig. 1 shows, the lifting spindles 22 are each suspended on the upper ends of the lifting columns. This means that during operation they are exposed only to tensile loads as the load of the longitudinal members 30 acts on the sliders 23; in particular when loaded with the removed bogie and while the longitudinal members 30 are raised under a bogie still on the vehicle and press the bogie against the vehicle (to compress the spring mechanism acting between the bogie and the vehicle frame), only a force acting downwards is exerted on the sliders 23. This has the advantage that the lifting spindles 22 are not stressed to bend or deform as would be the case if the lifting spindles 22 were supported from beneath.As a result of this design, the lifting spindles 22 need not be over-sized to increase their resistance to bending strain, and the precision of the synchronised lifting and lowering movement on all four lifting columns 21 is improved as the lifting spindles, exposed only to tensile load, always run precisely extended.

At the front and rear of the rail section 31 of each longitudinal member 30 are arranged stop blocks 32, one or both of which can be mounted adjustably on the rail section 31 to allow adaptation to two- or three-axle bogies or different axle spacing of bogies from different vehicles.

On the frame front part 12 of the drive unit 10, in front of the front lifting column 21, is arranged a box 16 to hold batteries 17 and control elements etc., which can also serve as a seat for an operator climbing onto the platform of the frame front part 12. The batteries 17 feed both the drive motor 50 of the lifting mechanism and the drive motor (not shown) of the front roller 13.

A control column 18 is used to steer and control the drive function of the drive unit 10; other operating levers 19 are used to control the lifting mechanism 20.

It is evident that the design form described above and shown in the drawings solely to explain the example can be modified in numerous details while retaining the basic concept of the invention.

Claims

1. Mobile lifting system for rail vehicle bogies, comprising a drive unit (10) with arranged thereon a lifting mechanism (20) with liftable and lowerable wheel support elements (30, 31) to support a bogie, where the drive unit frame and the lifting mechanism, viewed from the top, have an essentially U-shaped basic form with two parallel longitudinal arms (11) which leave between them a working area (40) freely accessible from one end of the longitudinal arms, and a section (12) connecting the longitudinal arms at one end, and where the drive unit (10) is fitted with rollers (13, 14) for steerable movement of the lifting system on a floor and with guide rollers (15) which can be brought into a working position in which they engage in the rail profile grooves of a track.

2. Mobile lifting system according to claim 1, characterised in that the drive unit has two longitudinal arm parts (11) forming the longitudinal arms of the basic U-shape, each of which arm parts has rigidly arranged at the rear end a roller (14), and a front frame part (12) connecting them which has a steerable motor-driven roller arrangement,

3. Mobile lifting system according to claim 2, characterised in that the roller arrangement on the front drive unit frame part (12) is formed by a centrally arranged, steerable motor-driven roller (13).

4. Mobile lifting system according to any of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the lifting mechanism (20) has four lifting columns (21) arranged at the front and rear of the two longitudinal arms (11) of the basic U-shape, each of which contains a vertical lifting spindle (22) with a slider (23) which can be raised and lowered by rotating the spindle, and that between the sliders (23) of the front and rear lifting column (21) of each longitudinal arm (11) runs a longitudinal member (30) to support the bogie.

5. Mobile lifting system according to claim 4, characterised in that the lifting spindles (22) are each axially fastened to the upper end of the relevant lifting column (21) and suspended.

6. Mobile lifting system according to claim 4 or 5, characterised in that the lifting spindles (22) of the four lifting columns (21) can be driven synchronised by longitudinal spindles (53) which run between the sliders (23) of the front and rear lifting columns of each longitudinal arm (11) and which are in turn driven synchronised by a motor-driven cross-spindle (51) running in the area of the front lifting columns.

7. Mobile lifting system according to claim 6, characterised in that the cross-spindle (51) and an electric motor (50) driving this are mounted on a cross member (24) which runs between the sliders (23) of the front lifting columns (21).

8. Mobile lifting system according to any of claims 4 to 7, characterised in that the longitudinal members (30) each have a rail section (31) each with a front and a rear stop block (32), of which at least one stop block is mounted adjustably.

9. Mobile lifting system according to any of claims 1 to 8, characterised in that the mechanism for bringing the guide rollers (15) into their working position can be activated only if the steerable roller arrangement (13) of the drive unit (10) has been locked in the straight ahead position.

10. Mobile lifting system according to any of claims 1 to 9, characterised in that on the frame part (12) of the drive unit connecting the longitudinal arms (11) of the basic U-shape are arranged batteries (17) for the electric motor spindle drive of the lifting mechanism and the roller drive of the drive unit, and control and operating elements (18,19) for driving and steering the drive unit and for the lifting mechanism (20).