A system for properly aligning parts of a car to be welded together to form a railway or subway car

Abstract: An apparatus is disclosed for properly positioning and welding parts of railway cars and subway cars, said apparatus comprising: a supporting frame (9); devices (20) for locally and adjustably raising the floor (3) of the car so as to impart to said floor (3) a predetermined camber; devices (26) for anchoring the floor (3) to said frame (9) after said camber has been formed; devices (33) for clamping the floor (3) to the car body sides (5); adjusting devices (44) that are adjustably movable along three orthogonal directions; independently operated devices (40) for blocking the body sides (5) to the roof (7), each of said independently operated devices (40) being coupled to a corresponding one of said adjusting devices (44); and at least a pair of welding devices (58) for CO 2 or spot welding the floor (3) to the body sides (5) and the body sides (5) to the roof (7).

Description: The present invention refers to a system or apparatus for properly positioning and/or welding railway cars, subway cars and the like. The manufacturing of cars for railway and subway systems substantially comprises separately preparing the car floor or well, the two side frames (body sides) and the roof, and then manually welding together these four parts, that is by the intervention of single workers to CO 2 weld first the floor to the two body sides, and then the roof to the body sides, after positioning the roof over the sides. This operation is already troublesome when manufacturing railway cars, since the rewelding of the welding spots implies the presence of critical points on the car body sides in the future operating life of the car. The problem is worsened when manufacturing subway cars, since the body sides of these cars are not formed as one-piece parts, but rather comprise a number of sections between which several doors (at least three on each body side) are to be located for passengers entrance and exit. In this case therefore in addition to a proper welding of the sections, these latter are also to be calibrated and properly positioned in respect of each other along the car length. As herein used the term "properly positioning" means the mutual coupling between the main parts of a car, i.e. the floor, the body sides and the roof, in accordance with the measures requested by the design. Such measures while allowing for coupling and working tolerancies, are preferably to be met through an automatic adjusting and welding procedure. Moreover, both in railway cars and in those used in subway systems, manual weldings almost always bring about a finished car that is not geometrically exact, since the single parts do not perfectly fit to each other due to their size. US 5,267,683 discloses an apparatus for assembling a motorcar vehicle body by welding side panels to other vehicle body constituting members such as a floor panel, a roof panel and the like. The apparatus comprises a supporting movable frame, a plurality of adjusting devices carried by the frame and movable along three directions orthogonal to each other, and a plurality of devices for blocking the body sides to the roof, each of said blocking devices being connected to a respective adjusting device. In any case, in the art there are not known apparatuses for automatically positioning car parts to be welded for manufacturing passenger cars in railway, subway and like systems. At present these operations are manually accomplished by disposing on 4 struts the car that has been manually welded, and checking the car geometry and in case attempting the necessary corrections. It can be easily understood that such manual operation is completely unreliable and might even be dangerous to the final quality of the manufactured cars. An object of the present invention is to overcome the above drawbacks of the prior art by providing an automatic apparatus allowing to carry out, either alternatively or jointly, the operations for properly positioning and welding large size cars such as those to be employed in railway, subway systems and the like. A further object of the present invention is to ensure a high quality of the final car that has been subjected to such complex operations of the above mentioned type, where the several parts of the car are joined together while respecting the operation tolerancies and without having critical points due to manual working. To this aim, the apparatus of the present invention allows for a precise measuring of the assembled car before this latter is prepared to the welding, and therefore a correspondingly precise control measurement after the welding has been carried out. The above objects and advantages of the invention are achieved through the apparatus and method claimed in independent claims 1 and 11. Additional advantageous characteristics are claimed in the dependent claims. The present invention will be better understood through some preferred embodiments, only disclosed for exemplary and not limiting purposes, with reference to the attached drawings in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a complete apparatus according to the present invention; Figure 2 is a perspective front view of an adjusting device for properly positioning the side-roof parts of the car; Figure 3 is a perspective rear view of the adjusting device of Figure 2; Figure 4 is a side cross section view of a welding device and of the clamping assembly of the floor-side-roof parts of the car; Figure 5 is a front view of a device for locally raising the car floor; Figure 6 is a front view of a device for anchoring the floor of the car, adapted to cooperate with the raising device of Figure 5; and Figure 7 is a side view of the device for securing the floor-side parts of the car. With reference to the drawings, Fig. 1 shows a system or apparatus for properly positioning component parts of a car to be welded together to form a railway or subway car, according to the present invention. The apparatus has a modular construction, i.e. it can be arranged for automatically carrying out either simultaneously or separately the two operations of positioning and welding the car parts. According to the preferred embodiment, the apparatus is a "complete" apparatus, which allows for manufacturing a complete car 1 (a railway or a subway car), by properly positioning the parts thereof and welding them together. As better shown in Fig. 4, such component parts comprise a floor 3, a plurality of side panels or sides 5 and a roof 7. The apparatus of the present invention comprises a supporting frame 9 that in the illustrated embodiment is made up by two (side) bridges 11 extending along the whole length of the car to be manufactured (not shown). Each of the bridges 11 is mounted on posts 12, with two facing posts being connected to each other through bed plates 13, and support plates 14 longitudinally extending over the bed plates. Each bridge 11 is further provided with walkways 16 over which operate the personnel controlling the assembling and/or welding operations. Thanks to the disclosed configuration of the supporting frame 9, the apparatus of the present invention can also be employed for welding the car body from inside. To this aim the frame 9 is further equipped with an upper elongated supporting member (not shown in the drawings, but easy to be devised by the skilled of the art) connected to the upper ends 18 of each of said bridges 11 and extending for the whole length of the car sides. By connecting a longitudinally slidable inner welding device (not shown in the drawings) to such an upper supporting member and introducing the welding device into the car through openings formed in the car roof, completely automated inner welding tasks can be accomplished through the apparatus of the invention. In order to properly weld together the main component parts forming a railway car or a subway car, at the moment of joining together the sides 5 and the floor 3, this latter must not lie completely flat but has to be sligthly arcuated upward with respect to ground, forming a camber. This is required since after completing the welding of the car, when the car fittings and equipments are fitted inside the coach, the weight of such fittings and equipments will act to return the floor to a flat configuration. The apparatus of the present invention provides for creating in advance an upward floor camber or "deflection" and comprises a plurality of leveling devices 20 adapted to locally raising the floor 3, i.e. each of such devices 20 can raise a portion of the floor. The leveling devices 20 are permanently mounted and properly spaced on both sides of the supporting frame 9, on the bed plates 13 as shown in the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 1. Each leveling device 20 is adapted to adjustably lift the corresponding section of the floor 3 to a height different with respect to the other raising devices 20 in order to achieve the desired deflection. Therefore, as better shown in Fig. 5, each of such leveling or raising devices 20 comprises a vertical hollow column or post 21 fastened to the support plate 14 by fastening means 22 inserted into the post base 22'. An upper piston 23 with a resting head 24 at one end is telescopically movable within the hollow post 21. Piston 23 can be vertically moved upward by a variable length that is usually shorter for the devices 20 located at the car ends and longer for those at the car center. When the device 20 is actuated, the head 24 rests against (a beam of) the floor 3 and the piston 23 pushes the floor upwards. After positioning a number of leveling devices 20 at different heights so as to obtain the deflection requested by the design, use is made of a plurality of anchoring devices 26 that are permanently mounted at both sides of the supporting frame 9, each anchoring device bein adjacent one leveling device. Each anchoring devices 26 is adapted to cooperate with the corresponding adjacent leveling device 20 for anchoring the floor 3 for further operations after a proper camber has been imparted to the floor. To this aim, according to the illustrated preferred embodiment, each anchoring device 26 comprises a hollow cylindrical body 27 an end of which is secured to the support plate 14 by fastening means 28 and a base 22', such body being further provided with a piston 29 movable within such hollow cylindrical body 27 and with an upper end 30 secured to a hook 31 terminating with a flat member 32 for engaging the floor 3. The hook 31 enters the C-shaped section forming the floor 3 (as shown in Figs. 4 and 6) and engages the car floor 3 through the member 32. When the piston 29 is lowered the previously arcuated floor 3 is joined to the supporting frame 9. The above disclosed devices constitute a portion of the apparatus allowing a beam or floor 3 to be bent and permanently secured in such arcuated profile to the supporting frame 9: this provides for a first mounting reference for properly positioning the car parts. After preparing the car "base" as illustrated, it is necessary to postion and adjust the body sides 5 thereon, this operation being the most difficult and critical when assembling subway cars, as already pointed out. Each body side 5 is positioned in the place dictated by the design and then a plurality of clamping devices 33 are used to firmly secure the body sides 5 to the floor 3. A preferred embodiment of the clamping devices 33 is illustrated in Fig. 7 and in Fig. 4, that are a detailed view and a mounting assembly view, respectively. As shown in these Figures, each clamping device 33 substantially comprises an internally threaded body 34 to which a shoe 35 is pivotally coupled at 35', the shoe being secured to the support plate 14 by a base 22' and fastening means (not shown). A piston 36 is vertically movable within the body 34 and carries at the upper end 37 an elongated hook 38. The length of the hook 38 is such as to engage the space of one of the windows provided in each side body 5 (by resting over its lower wall 39). After the hook 38 has engaged the window edge 39, the piston 36 is moved downwards for securing the side body to the frame 9. After accomplishing this operation for all the points required in accordance with the particular application, the joining of the body side 5 to the floor 3 is completed. At this point of the car assembling procedure, all the lower parts of the car have been properly positioned and secured to each other. It is now necessary to place over them the roof 7 that because of its size and shape, has lateral edges that are not perfectly straight. Therefore, in the first place the roof is secured to the body sides 5 in the arrangement dictated by its configuration, and then a set of tractive and compression forces is applied to it in order to adjust its geometrical shape to the car final design requirements. For securing the roof 7 to the body sides 5 a plurality of locking devices 40 of known type are provided that engage with each other and keep the roof 7 and the sides 5 joined together. In the illustrated embodiment, each blocking device 40 is mounted at the end of a bar 41 that in turn is slidably coupled (through rolling members 42) to a corresponding one of a plurality of position-adjusting devices 44 provided by the apparatus of the present invention. Also such adjusting devices 44 are carried by the supporting frame 9 and can be displaced in an adjustable manner along three directions that are orthogonal to each other. More precisely such directions are the car lengthwise direction, the car height direction and a direction trasverse to the car lengthwise direction. As better illustrated in Figures 2 and 3, the adjusting device 44 is slidably mounted on a supporting member 45 along the car longitudinal direction. A graduated scale starting from a "0" design position is applied to the member 45, in accordance with the car to be built. After moving the adjusting device 44 until it reaches the longitudinal position at which the body side 5 and the roof 7 are to be joined to each other, the adjusting device 44 is blocked on the supporting member 45, through conventional blocking means (not shown) acting on its base body 45' provided with ribs. An adjustment is then carried out along the car height direction (i.e. along the vertical direction) by raising or lowering the adjusting device 44 through a square pitch screw 46 by acting on a displacement member 47 (e.g. a common handwheel). In this case, because of the screw shape, no blocking means are required after the desired height has been reached. The vertical displacement with respect to the "0" design position can be checked by means of a graduated scale 48 provided on the adjusting device 44. Finally the positioning of the adjusting device along the car transverse direction - that is the most sensitive - is accomplished by fixing the "0" design position by inserting a conventional pin 49 (or similar means) into a hole 50 drilled to this aim in the bar 41. The "0" position is clearly shown to the operator by the graduated scale 51 provided on the adjusting device 44. At this point, after the required positions have been fixed in the longitudinal and height directions, and after the "0" point along the transverse direction has been fixed, the body sides 5 and the roof 7 are brought near and firmly joined to each other. The required displacements are accomplished by operating - through a conventional displacement member 53 such as a handwheel - a screw 55 that causes the whole bar 41 to be moved over wheels 56 along a transverse direction as a function of the wavings of the roof 7 with respect to a longitudinal straight line. After firmly clamping together the body sides 5 and the roof 7 at all the required points, the operator actuates again the displacement member 53 to return the index to the "0" transverse position: this way the floor-sides-roof assembly is subjected to a tractive or laterally pushing force adapted to straighten all the manufacture "twists" caused by the connection of the parts being joined together. The adjusting device 44 is further provided with a rotatable shaft 57, driven by a handwheel, allowing for an additional positioning displacement of the blocking device 40 along the car transverse axis. At the end of all these operations, the car parts are properly positioned and aligned in respect of each other in accordance with the design instructions. Then the parts that have been so assembled and clamped together can be easily and quickly welded together. To this aim the apparatus of the present invention is provided with at least a pair of welding devices 58 (of which two different embodiments are shown, respectively in Fig. 1 and in Fig. 4), that are slidably connected to the supporting frame 9 and supported by this latter. The welding devices 58 are adapted to weld the floor 3 to the plurality of body sides 5 and the plurality of body sides 5 to the roof 7, either simultaneously (i.e. by using plural welding devices 58), or separately. Moreover the welding devices 58 are capable of carrying out CO 2 weldings, or spot weldings or any other type of proper welding. As better shown in Fig. 4, there is illustrated a welding device 58 for carrying out a spot welding, and such a device raises the problem of transverse outwards forces during the welding operations. These forces are to eliminated in order to prevent working problems. To this aim, the welding device 58 comprises a spot welding lower electrode 60 connected to a supporting arm 62 having the shape of an upturned "S". The upper end 63 of arm 62 is slidably coupled to a side of the frame 9 and the lower end 64 is slidably movable in a rail 66 provided to this aim in the bed plate 13. By securing the supporting arm 62 at two places, it is possible to discharge onto the frame 9 all the outer transverse forces generated during the spot welding. For welding the roof 7 to the body sides 5 there is provided (as shown in Fig. 1) an upper part 67 of the welding device 58, that is slidably coupled to the frame 9 through a group 68 and provided with a corresponding welding torch 69. As already noted, for completing the assembling of a railway or subway car, inner welding devices can also be used.

Claims: A apparatus for properly positioning in respect of each other component parts of a car to be welded together to form a railway or subway car, said car substantially comprising a floor (3), a plurality of body sides (5) and a roof (7), said apparatus being characterized in that it comprises: a supporting frame (9); a plurality of devices (20) for leveling said car floor (3), said leveling devices (20) being permanently mounted on both sides of said supporting frame (9), each of said leveling devices (20) being adapted to adjustably and separately raise a portion of said floor (3) by an amount different from that of the other leveling devices (20) so as to bend said floor (3) according to a predetermined camber; a plurality of anchoring devices (26) permanently mounted on both sides of said supporting frame (9) for anchoring said car floor (3) to said supporting frame (9), each of said anchoring devices (26) cooperating with an adjacent one of said leveling devices (20) in order to anchor said floor (3) to said supporting frame (9) for further processing after said predetermined camber has been formed; a plurality of clamping devices (33) for clamping said floor (3) to said plurality of body sides (5); a plurality of adjusting devices (44), said adjusting devices (44) being carried by said supporting frame (9), each of said adjusting devices (44) being adjustably movable along three directions orthogonal to each other; and a plurality of devices (40) for blocking said plurality of body sides (5) to said roof (7), each of said blocking devices (40) being connected to one corresponding of said adjusting devices (44). An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that it comprises at least a pair of welding devices (58), said welding devices (58) being slidably connected to and supported by said supporting frame (9), said welding devices (58) being adapted to weld said floor (3) to said plurality of body sides (5), and said plurality of body sides (5) to said roof (7). An apparatus as claimed in claims 1 or 2 , characterized in that said supporting frame (9) comprises a double bridge (11) extending along the whole body side of said cars. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that it further comprises an inner welding device, said inner welding device being supported by said supporting frame (9) and being adapted to enter inside said car through openings formed in said roof (7) for welding inner parts of said car. An apparatus as claimed in any of the preceding claims 3 or 4, characterized in that said supporting frame (9) further comprises an elongated upper supporting member connected to the upper ends of each of said bridges (11) extending along the whole body side of the car. An apparatus as claimed in any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said adjusting device (44) is movable along the longitudinal direction of said car, along the height direction and along a transverse direction of said car. An apparatus as claimed in claim 6, characterized in that said adjusting device (44) comprises an adjustment member (53, 55, 56) movable along a transverse direction to said car and a transverse bar (41), said transverse bar (41) being provided with a plurality of adjustment holes (50) into which a fixing pin (49) integrally connected with said adjustment member (53, 55, 56) is inserted, the cooperation between said adjustment member (53, 55, 56) and said transverse bar (41) providing the geometrical reference point for mutually positioning said plurality of body sides (5) and said roof (7). An apparatus as claimed in any of the preceding claims 2, 3, 6 or 7, characterized in that said welding devices (58) can simultaneously weld both said floor (3) to said plurality of body sides (5) and said plurality of body sides (5) to said roof (7). An apparatus as claimed in claim 4 or 8, characterized in that said welding devices (58) are spot welding devices. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4 or 8, characterized in that said welding devices (58) are CO 2 welding devices. A method for properly positioning in respect of each other component parts of a car to be welded together to form a railway or subway car, said car substantially comprising a floor (3), a plurality of body sides (5) and a roof (7), said method being characterised in comprising the steps of: arranging a supporting frame (9); mounting a plurality of leveling devices (20) on both sides of said supporting frame (9) for leveling said car floor (3); adapting said leveling devices (20) to adjustably and separately raise a portion of said floor (3) by an amount different from that of the other leveling devices (20) so as to bend said floor (3) according to a predetermined camber; mounting a plurality of anchoring devices (26) on both sides of said supporting frame (9) and arranging each of said anchoring devices (26) to cooperate with an adjacent one of said leveling devices (20) in order to anchor said floor (3) to said supporting frame (9) for further processing; clamping said floor (3) to said plurality of body sides (5) by means of a plurality of clamping devices (33); mounting a plurality of adjusting devices (44) carried by said supporting frame (9) and adjustably movable along three directions orthogonal to each other; positioning said plurality of body sides (5) with respect to said roof (7) by means of said adjusting devices (44); connecting said adjusting devices (44) to corresponding blocking devices (40) and blocking said plurality of body sides (5) to said roof (7) by means of said blocking devices (40). A method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising the steps of: mounting at least a pair of welding devices (58) slidably connected to and supported by said supporting frame (9); adapting said welding devices (58) to weld said floor (3) to said plurality of body sides (5), and said plurality of body sides (5) to said roof (7).

Inventors: BISIACH BRUNO, BISIACH, BRUNO
Applicants: BISIACH BRUNO, BISIACH, BRUNO
Application year: 1998
Main classification: B23K1
IPC codes: B23K37