SWITCHING DEVICE FOR VEHICLES

Abstract: Provided is a switching device for guiding a vehicle (A) having horizontal guide wheels (1) along vertical guiding sur­ faces of rails of a track and thereby selecting the course of the vehicle. Vertical guiding surfaces of auxiliary rails (12L, 12R) provided only in a switching section (S) of the track are located opposite vertical guiding surfaces of main rails (11L, 11R) with equal height. A swingable rail (12M) for selectively switching the course of the vehicle (A) is integrally connected to the corresponding main or auxiliary rail. The connecting portion of the swingable rail (12M) is reduced in lateral stiffness and thereby made bendable, and the free end portion of the swingable rail (12M) is also reduced in the lateral stiffness and thereby made laterally deformable.

Description: SWITCHING DEVICE FOR VEHICLES BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS: Fig. 1 is a plan view showing a typical example of prior art switching device for vehicle; Figs. 2a to 2b are cross sectional views taken along the line IIa-IIa and the line IIb-IIb of Fig. 1, respectively; Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view of a vehicle and track according to a conventional vehicle guiding system; Fig. 4 is a plan view corresponding to that of Fig. 1, which shows a switching device for vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 5 is a cross sectional view taken along the line V-V of Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is a view for explaining a movable or switching rail section shown in Fig. 4; Figs. 7a, 7b and 7c are cross sectional views taken along the lines XIIa-XIIa, XIIb-XIIb, and XIIc-XIIc of Fig. 6, respectively; ; Fig. 8 is a plan view showing the switching device vehicle according to another embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 9 is a plan view showing the switching device for vehicle according to still another embodiment of the present invention; and, Fig. 10 is a cross sectional view of track, showing the difference between the vehicle guiding system according to the present invention and that according to the prior art, a right side illustration thereof showing the former system while a left side illustration thereof showing the latter system. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION: FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a switching device for vehicle, applied to a vehicle guiding system wherein a vehicle is guided by its guide wheels allowed to rotate within a horizontal plane. Many of those vehicles arranged to travel on an exclusive track through their rubber made tires are guided leftwards or rightwards by means of their wheels which are provided horizontally. Fig. 1 shows a prior art vehicle of such type and a switching device for vehicle involved. The vehicle A has a travel wheel 3 of rubber tire and travels on an exclusive track 10. In other track section than that in which the switching device is installed, the vehicle A is guided by travel of its guide wheels along their corresponding rail and by detecting the position of the vehicle A relative to the rail, or the variation thereof and by steering the travel wheel 3 accordingly. The track includes a general section and a switching section when it is roughly classified. Usually, in the general section, main rails ilL and llR are provided on both sides of the track and, in the- switching section, an auxiliary rail 12L and movable guide plate 13L, and an auxiliary rail 12R and movable guide plate 13R are added to the main rails llL and llR, respectively, as shown in Fig. 1. In Fig. 2, a sectional view of the vehicle-A is shown. As seen, the guide wheels which are provided horizontally include two types of guide wheels, one of which is main wheels 1 and the other of which is switching wheels 2. In the vehicle shown in Figs. 2a and 2b, the main wheels 1 are guided by the main rails llL, llR while the switching wheels 2 are guided by the auxiliary rails 12L, 12R or guide plates 13L, 13R. Practically, it is desirable that the main wheels and main rails are located at an upper stage or position with the switching wheels and auxiliary rails being located at a lower stage or position. Thus, the main rail and auxiliary rail have the different heights of guide surface and are not opposed to each other. When the vehicle travels on the track of general section, the main wheels 1 respectively provided on the right and left sides of the vehicle are guided by the right and left main rails llL, llR, respectively. In the switching section of track, the switching wheels of one side are guided by and along a corresponding one of the wheel ways H respectively provided between the main rails and auxiliary rails on both sides of the track. For selecting the course of the vehicle, in a switching section the movable guide plates 13L and 13R are provided in such a manner as to be connected to the auxiliary rails, respectively, and are pivotally supported by pins 13', respectively. The other end of the movable guide plates, as in the case of a point installed on a railway, is made rightwardly or leftwardly movable by a switching device 14 whereby the wheel way H is selectively formed on either one side of the track 10. The construction of such switching device for vehicle is known as dissolved in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 126303/80, Japanese Patent Publication No. 264/81, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 123001/80, or Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 39807/76. In the prior art, however, the above-mentioned two types of guide wheels, i.e., main wheels and branching wheels are always used as the horizontal guide wheels. Further, such arrangement of prior art intends, as understandable from Figs. 2a and 2b, that, during the travel of the vehicle in the switching section, any of main wheel and switching wheel is allowed to contact with the main rail or auxiliary rail only on one side of the wheel, whereby to prevent the wheels from making their reverse rotation and being much frictionally worn. Providing the switching wheels in the same number as :hat of the main wheels, however, means that a valuable space is employed only for the purpose of performing the switching operation which occupies a very small percentag in the entire travelling operation of the vehicle. This is not preferable from the viewpoint of spatial efficiency. On the other hand, while the branching wheels perform a very important function of selecting the course of the vehicle, a failure involved in such branching wheel will result in a great accident. For this reason, a large amount of labour is spent for their maintenance and inspection similarly as in the case of for maintenance and inspection of the main wheels. In the meantime, since the guide wheel 1 and the corresponding switching wheel 2 are vertically arranged in upper and lower stages, the respective positions of the main rails llL and lIR become correspondingly high and the space required for installing the rails becomes correspondingly large. Accordingly, a space for providing power rails 15 provided on the side of the track and used to supply a power, as well as a space for providing a current collector 4 on the side of the vehicle becomes necessarily small. Further, in the switching device of the abovementioned system, the movable guide plates are pivotally supported by the pins 13' as shown in Fig. 1, it becomes necessary to make dimentional adjustment of the device, make replacement of the worn pins or bushes, effect the supply of oil to the relevant parts, etc. Namely, there remains some problem of maintenance unsettled. Further, since, in such branching device, the movable guide plates are constructed in the form of a straight line, the device has a problem that it fails to provide a smoothness when the vehicle passes through it. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION: In view of the above, the object of the present invention is to provide a switching device for vehicle which eliminates the above-mentioned problems inherent in the prior art, which is simple in construction, which is easy to maintain, and which makes it possible for the vehicle to have wider space for providing a current collector or power rails and to make a smooth switching movement. The present invention has been accomplished by discovering that the problems considered important in the prior art, i.e., the above-mentioned problems that when single guide wheel is guided between two vertical walls of a wheel way, it is brought alternatingly into contact with either of the two vertical walls of the wheel way and is thereby caused repeatedly to make its normal and back rotations and thus frictionally worn very much, are practically not serious problems, that is to say, by discovering that such problems are practically not fatal problems for the reasons that the guide wheel in the switching section is likely to be guided in contact with only one side wall of the wheel way; that, on the other hand, the length of the switching section is remarkably short as compared with the entire length of the track; etc. Further, the present invention has been materialized with conception that the auxiliary rails and movable guide plates need not be high in stiffness since they are solely intended to guide only the guide wheels for obtaining a steering signal unlike those intended to guide the travelling wheels as in case of a railway. The above object of the present invention is attained by arranging the main rails and the corresponding auxiliary rails such that the vertical guiding surface of the former rail and that of the latter rail are opposed to each other with the same height. Further, the above another object of the present invention is attained by preparing the movable rail in a manner that it is integrally and bendably connected at. one end to a auxiliary rail or main rail by reducing lateral stiffness of connecting portion and the other free end of the movable rail is made flexible. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS: An embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying dr.,.wings . In Fig. 4, over the substantially entire length of a switching section S having main rails llL and llR provided thereon, auxiliary rails 12L and 12R being paired with the main rails llL and llR, respectively, are provided inside these rails llL and llR, respectively. A portion of the auxiliary rail 12L adjacent to an entrance of the switching section S forms a swingable rail 12M, thus defining a switching section M. Assume now that a vehicle A mounted, at its right and left sides, with guide wheels 1 arranged to rotate within a horizontal plane, comes on from a direction indicated by an arrow. Then, the vehicle, in accordance with the position of the swingable rail, advances rightwards by having its right guide wheels guided along a right wheel road Hr, or alternatively advances leftwards by having its left guide wheels guided along a left wheel way HQ. As seen in Fig. 5, a vertical guiding surface of the main rail 11 and a vertical guiding surface of the auxiliary rail 12L, 12R or movable rail 12M are same in height and made to oppose each other with one guide wheel 1 interposed or guided therebetween. In this embodiment, the swingable rail 12M is constructed in such a manner as to continue from the fixed or stationary auxiliary rail 12L, and a bending portion 20 is made small in the lateral stiffness and thereby made flexible or bendable. A free end portion 12F (indicated by a-one-dot chain line in Fig. 4) of the swingable rail 12M is also made small or less in the lateral stiffness, whereby, when it is contacted with the main rail, it flexes to form a smooth guiding surface. In the meanwhile, the auxiliary rail 12R of the branching side is also fixedly provided over the substantially entire switching section S. In this case, however, an end 12F' of the auxiliary rail 12R is retreated from a point corresponding to said free end portion F, to such an extent that, when the vehicle advances straight along the rails llL and 12L, no hindrance arises in passing of its right-side guide wheel 1. The ends 12E', l2F' of the auxiliary rail 12R, as well as the respective ends l2E, 12F of the auxiliary rail 12L and swingable rail 12M, should be extended up to the positions at which the vehicle can reliably be guided by only main rail llL and opposing main rail llR. Further, the swingable rail.12M may of course be provided on the auxiliary rail 12R. Figs. 6, 7a, 7b and 7c each show a detailed structure of an embodiment of the swingable rail 12M shown in Figs. 4 and 5. Cross-sectional shapes of main rail llL and swingable rail 12M are, however, not limited to those shown in these figures. In Fig. 7C, the cross section of the free end portion is shown, which joins the movable rail 12M to the corresponding main rail llL. As seen, horizontal and vertical webs of the T-shaped movable rail 12M have their respective parts omitted or cut away, whereby the movable rail 12M is reduced in the lateral stiffness. Thus, the swingable rail 12M is made flexible and thereby made capable of being pressed contact with the main rail so that it may have a smooth guiding surface. The reduced thickness of vertical webs is helpful for a smooth guiding. Further, the cross section (b-b) of an intermediate portion of the swingable rain 12M indicates that no particular fabrication is required in this intermediate portion. In the cross section (a-a) of a bending portion of the swingable rail 12M, a horizontal web thereof has its parts omitted or cut away, whereby reducing the lateral stiffness. Further, as shown in Fig. 6, the swingable rail 12M may be provided with an embossed portion 21 for reliably introducing the guide wheel 1 residing on the opposite side from the swingable rail 12M into the corresponding wheel road Hr. The necessity of the embossed portion 21 depends on the positional relation between the bending portion 20 and the end portion 12F1 of the opposing auxiliary rail 12R, this is, the embossed portion 21 is not required in case that the end portion 12F' is located more toward the entrance of switching section than the bending portion 20, or in case that swingable rails are provided on both sides of the track as will be mentioned later. In Fig. 8, there is shown another embodiment of the swingable rail 12M, in which the swingable rail is provided on each of the auxiliary rails 12L, 12R. The one-side swingable rail 12ML is made linear correspondingly to the form of its corresponding main rail while the other-side swingable rail 12MR is made curvilinear. This embodiment provides a structure suitable for the passing of the vehicle through the switching section at high speed. The swingable rails 12ML and 12MR have bending portions 20L and 20R, respectively, and are made operable in interlocking relation with each'other, The end portions 12FL and 12FR of the swingable rails 12ML and 12MR arn pointed or made sharp, as same as in case of Fig. 6. When the movable rail 12ML is pressed against the main rail llL by the switch-over force of the switching device 14, a portion of the swingable rail 12ML which resides in the vicinity of the free end 12FL thereof is caused to flex or bend due to its elasticity and is thereby pressed contact with the main rail llL. Thus, a desired smooth guiding surface is obtained. Since the swingable rail 12MR of opposite side is made curvilinear, it is possible to cause both the swingable rails 12ML and 12MR to suitably share a load applied from the guide wheels if, for example, stoppers 23 are located at the center side of the track. Where, on the contrary, the vehicle takes the straight course, pressing the swingable rail 12MR against the corresponding main rail llR by the switching device would cause the swingable rail 12MR to flex to pressed contact with the main rail llR. Thus, a substantially linear rail form or guiding surface is obtained. At this time, the movable rail 12ML of opposite side is restored to its original linear form, whereby the guide wheels are guided without hindrance. Constructing the swingable rail -12ML or 12MR in a manner that it has the bendable portion 20L or 2OR, or the sharp or pointed end portion 12FL or 12FR, is possible as is in the preceding embodiment. Fig. 9 shows still another embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment refers to a switching device wherein the auxiliary rails 12L and 12R are disposed outside the main rails llL and llR, respectively. The interspace between each main rail and its corresponding auxiliary rail is given as a wheel way , and the corresponding guide wheels pass through this wheel way H. Even in such a switching device, the above-mentioned elasticity characteristic can be applied to the swingable rails 12ML and 12MR. In the switching device of this embodiment, however, it is impossible to construct the main rail on a continuous basis as in the preceding embodiments. That is, in the switching device of this type, it becomes unavoidably necessary to provide a clearance or passage 22 for passing the swingable rails. In any case of the foregoing descriptions, reference was made to the case where the height of the main rails is made same as the height of the auxiliary rails. With such construction, it is possible, as stated before, to omit the provision of the branching wheel 2 to the vehicle, and also to make the constructing of the current collector 4 and the power rails 15 on the track easy. However, it is also possible to improve the switching device already in service for passing a vehicle equipped with the prior art guiding system in a manner simply to make the movable rail at both ends laterally bendable, resulting in a simple machanism of the switching section and in a smooth passing of the vehicle through the switching section. Fig. 10 shows the difference between the vehi < - guiding system according to the present invention shown at right side and that according to the prior art shown in left side. As seen in Fig. 10, the heightwise space necessary for the guide wheel section of the present invention becomes smaller as compared with that of the prior art, and the height of the main rail is reduced correspondingly to that of the guide wheels, by amount of Ah = hl - h2. As a result, the arm of moment applied to the main rail from the guide wheel become shorter, and the space for accommodating the power rails 15 become wider. The present invention has the following effects. (1) The vehicle has only main guide wheels, but no switching wheels. This makes it possible to omit the expenditures and labour involved in the manufacture and maintenance of such stitching wheels. (2) The heights of guide wheels as well as of main rails are reduced. As a result, installation of the current collector 4 in the vehicle and of the power rails 15 in the track become easier due to their wider spaces, and the support column 24 for the main rail may be light-structured due to the reduced arm length of moment applied thereon. (3) Since, according to the invention, the supporting of the branching device is effected by elastic flexure or deformation instead of by hinge joints with pins, it is possible to eliminate the complexity in manufacture and maintenance which might be caused by the hinge joints with pins. And, (4) Since, according to the present invention, it is possible, by utilizing the elastic deformation of the swingable rail itself, to provide a smooth guiding surface at the switching portion of the track, the comfortable ride of passengers being obtained.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A switching device for vehicles, for selectively guiding a vehicle (A) along one of two main rails (11L, 11R) installed along both sides of a track, each of said main rails having a vertical guiding surface, comprising: a pair of auxiliary rails (12L, 12R) provided along said main rails (11L, 11R), respectively, and cooperating with said main rails for selectively guiding the vehicle (A), each of said auxiliary rails extending over nearly the whole length of the switching section (S) of the track and having a vertical guiding surface opposing the guiding surface of the corresponding main rail with equal height. 2. A switching device for vehicles, for selectively guiding a vehicle (A) along one of two main rails (ilL, 11R) installed along both sides of a track, each of said main rails having a vertical guiding surface, comprising: a pair of auxiliary rails (12L, 12R) provided along said main rails (11L, 11R), respectively, and cooperating with said main rails for selectively guiding the vehicle (A), and at least one switching rail (12M) having reduced lateral stiffness at both end portions, one end of said switching rail (12M) being integrally connected to the corresponding main or auxiliary rail (11, 12) so that this one end is laterally bendible, the other free end portion of said switching rail being made elastically deformable so that it may be pressed into contact with the corresponding auxiliary or main rail. 3. The switching device of claim 2, wherein said switching rail (12M) includes at least one horizontal web, and said reduced lateral stiffness is obtained by decreasing the width of said horizontal web.

Inventors: ISHIDA, TAKESHI, SHIMOURA, SHOZO
Applicants: KAWASAKI JUKOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1984
Main classification: E01B25
IPC codes: E01B25