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Timestamp: 2020-04-10 03:52:16
Document Index: 483685245

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 2', 'art 2', 'art 71', 'art 72', 'arts 73', 'arts 71', 'art 71', 'art 72', 'art 72', 'art 71', 'art 72', 'arts 73', 'art 81']

COLLISION ENERGY ABSORBING APPARATUS AND RAILWAY VEHICLE EQUIPPED WITH THE SAME - Mochida, Toshihiko
COLLISION ENERGY ABSORBING APPARATUS AND RAILWAY VEHICLE EQUIPPED WITH THE SAME
United States Patent Application 20070261592
Provided is a collision energy absorbing apparatus capable of mitigating loads to the car body proper, passengers and the like by adding a structure combining a prescribed static strength and collision energy absorption performance to an energy absorbing body of the collision energy absorbing apparatus. In a limited inner space of a car body, a cover 80 that covers energy absorbing bodies 51, 52 combines a prescribed static strength and collision energy absorption performance. The cover 80 prevents irregularities, such as the breakage of cylindrical bodies of aluminum alloy, i.e., the energy absorbing bodies 51, 52 in each of the stages of transportation, storage, assembling and the like of the collision energy absorbing apparatus 50. The cover 80 having static strength fulfills the role of withstanding a prescribed static load and in the event of a collision against an obstacle, the cover 80 is broken earliest and reduces a peak load of crush, with the result that part of the collision energy is used in the breakage of the cover 80. As a result of this, the cover 80 can contribute to the absorption and mitigation of the collision energy.
Nakamura, Hideyuki (Kudamatsu-shi, JP)
11/745527
188/377, 293/133
B61D15/06; F16F7/12
Download PDF 20070261592 PDF help
20070101897 Axle for radial stacker May, 2007 Stevick et al.
4. The railway vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the energy absorbing body is arranged in vertical alignment in a plurality of numbers, the cover is a single cover that covers the whole of the energy absorbing bodies arranged in alignment, the cover is provided with a breakage-intended path which is intended, in the case of a collision, to break the cover in a direction intersecting the collision direction, a slit to facilitate breakage is formed on the breakage-intended path, and the breakage-intended path is provided in a vertical middle zone that divides the cover into two parts of upper and lower portions.
5. The railway vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the energy absorbing body is arranged in vertical alignment in a plurality of numbers, the cover is a single cover that covers the whole of the energy absorbing bodies arranged in alignment, the cover is provided with a breakage-intended path which is intended, in the case of a collision, to break the cover in a direction intersecting the collision direction, a slit to facilitate breakage is formed on the breakage-intended path, the breakage-intended path is provided in a vertical middle zone that divides the cover into two parts of upper and lower portions, and the slit has a first slit formed in a front end part of the cover and a second slit formed in a side wall part of the cover.
6. The railway vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the energy absorbing body is arranged in vertical alignment in a plurality of numbers, the cover is a single cover that covers the whole of the energy absorbing bodies arranged in alignment, the cover is provided with a breakage-intended path which is intended, in the case of a collision, to break the cover in a direction intersecting the collision direction, a slit to facilitate breakage is formed on the breakage-intended path the breakage-intended path is provided in a vertical middle zone that divides the cover into two parts of upper and lower portions, the slit has a first slit formed in a front end part of the cover and a second slit formed in a side wall part of the cover, and the second slit is formed continuously or discontinuously, the width of the second slit being wide at the front of the collision.
7. A collision energy absorbing apparatus provided with an energy absorbing body that absorbs collision energy by being crushed upon collision, wherein the collision energy absorbing apparatus has a cover that covers the energy absorbing body, is supported in a cantilevered manner toward the front of the collision, and becomes broken on the occasion of the collision.
A case where a railroad vehicle collides against a large object is considered here. When a collision against a large object occurs, a large impact acts on the railroad vehicle due to this collision against the object. There exists a conception that the collision energy is absorbed by positively deforming part of the structure of the railroad vehicle in order to protect the crew and passengers aboard on the railroad vehicle from this impact. That is, this conception is such that a space in which the structure of the railroad vehicle where the crew and passengers are on board is not crushed upon the collision against the object (this space is hereinafter called “a survival zone”) and a space in which the collision energy is absorbed by positively deforming the structure of the railroad vehicle upon collision against the object (this space is hereinafter called “a crushable zone”) are separately provided.
The car body of a railroad vehicle is constituted by an underframe, two side structures, a roof structure and two end structures. Center sills and side sills are attached to the underframe and hence the underframe has strong rigidity. Wiring and piping are attached to a lower part of the underframe. Because in the event of a collision, in a railway vehicle, particularly, in a train organized by coupling a plurality of railroad vehicles together, it is necessary to consider a collision between car bodies in the train. The underframe of a railroad vehicle is fabricated to have a robust structure. For this reason, when car bodies in a train collide against each other due to a collision of a vehicle at the head or trail of a train (hereinafter referred to as “a forefront vehicle” including both cases), the underframes collide against each other. Even when the underframes collide against each other, the underframes are not crushed because they are robust, with the result that it is impossible to mitigate the impact.
In order to solve the above-described problem, the railway vehicle according to the present invention is equipped with a collision energy absorbing apparatus constituted by an energy absorbing body that absorbs the impact energy by being crushed upon collision and also a cover that covers the energy absorbing body and is broken upon collision.
FIG. 1 is a bottom sectional view that shows part of a forefront vehicle equipped with a collision energy absorbing apparatus according to the present invention, the front right half of the collision energy absorbing apparatus cut in the center height position of the apparatus being viewed from the bottom side of the vehicle;
Next, on the basis of FIGS. 1 to 9, a description will be given of an embodiment which is applied to a car end part, i.e., a forefront part of a forefront vehicle, which is a railway vehicle equipped with a collision energy absorbing apparatus of the present invention. In a forefront vehicle of the embodiment shown in the figure, the profile of a forefront part 2 thereof is formed so as to provide a convex curved surface forward. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a collision energy absorbing apparatus 50 that absorbs part of the collision energy generated upon collision against an obstacle and the like is arranged in the forefront part 2.
The collision energy absorbing apparatus 50 is installed on each of both sides in the width direction of the forefront vehicle. In FIGS. 1 and 2, only one side in the width direction of the car body is shown. That is, a collision energy absorbing apparatus 50a and a collision energy absorbing apparatus 50b that have the same construction are symmetrically installed on both sides in the width direction of the car body. The reference numeral 10 denotes a coupler that is installed in the forefront part to couple a vehicle and another vehicle together. The coupler 10 is installed, with the longitudinal direction thereof set along the longitudinal direction of the car body, in the center position of the width direction of the car body. The collision energy absorbing apparatuses 50a, 50b are attached to the car end part in the longitudinal direction of the underframe 4.
The collision energy absorbing apparatuses 50a, 50b are constructed by arranging a plurality of energy absorbing bodies in vertical alignment. That is, in each of the collision energy absorbing apparatuses 50a, 50b, a first energy absorbing body 51 and a second energy absorbing body 52, which absorb the collision energy by being crushed upon collision of an obstacle and the like from the car end side, are arranged in two layers in vertical alignment. The first and second energy absorbing bodies 51, 52 are attached to a common support plate 58 in positions near the middle of the car body in the longitudinal direction of the car body. One common third energy absorbing body 53 is connected to a surface near the middle of the car body in the longitudinal direction of the car body, i.e., to a surface on the rear side of the support plate 58. The third energy absorbing body 53 is connected to the underframe 4 via a frame 54 in an end part near the middle of the car body, i.e., in the rear end part. Each of the collision energy absorbing apparatuses 50a, 50b is constituted by the first and second energy absorbing bodies 51, 52, the support plate 58, and the third energy absorbing body 53.
As shown in FIG. 9, each of the first to third energy absorbing bodies 51 to 53, which constitute the collision energy absorbing apparatuses 50a, 50b, is constituted by a cylindrical body 70 that has an octagonal section and a hollow structure inside. The cylindrical bodies 70 are arranged in alignment in a direction in which the axis lines thereof are substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction (fore-and-aft directions and travel directions) of the railway vehicle. This cylindrical body 70 is formed from units to provide an octagonal section as a whole, each unit consisting of an outer wall part 71, an inner wall part 72 and radial wall parts 73 that connect corner parts corresponding to the wall parts 71, 72 on both sides and extend radially, the wall parts having different outside dimensions. The outer wall part 71 and the inner wall part 72 have similar figures in sectional shape. On the inner side of the inner wall part 72 that forms a cylindrical body, there is formed a space 15 that extends axially along the axial direction. In an annular gap between the outer wall part 71 and the inner wall part 72, there is formed a space 74 partitioned by the plurality of radial wall parts 73, 73. The energy absorbing bodies 51 to 53 have the same sectional shape in their axis line directions. Therefore, the energy absorbing bodies 51 to 53 can be manufactured by using extruded sections of aluminum alloy as the material. The first energy absorbing body 51, the second energy absorbing body 52 and the third energy absorbing body 53 are constructed in such a manner that the nearer to the middle of the car body in the longitudinal direction of the car body, i.e., to the rear part they are installed, the larger the sectional area of these energy absorbing bodies will be.
The support plate 58 is formed to provide a peripheral edge of a rough quadrangle, and a guide cylinder 59 with a roughly quadrangular cylindrical shape is attached to the peripheral edge. The guide cylinder 59 is fitted into the guide cylinder plate 60 so that a peripheral surface 59a thereof is slidable on an inner surface 60a of the guide cylinder plate 60. The guide cylinder plate 60 is attached to the car body. Therefore, when the railway vehicle collides against an obstacle and the like, first, the first energy absorbing body 51 and the second energy absorbing body 52 are crushed, and subsequently the third energy absorbing body 53 is crushed. In connection with the crush of the third energy absorbing body 53, the guide cylinder 59 along with the support plate 58 moves toward the middle of the car body in the longitudinal direction of the car body, i.e., rearwards while being guided by the guide cylinder plate 60. Because the first and second energy absorbing bodies 51, 52 are guided by the inner surface 60a of the guide cylinder plate 60 in an intermediate position of the collision energy absorbing apparatus, it is possible for the first and second energy absorbing bodies 51, 52 to exhibit the collision energy absorbing action along the full length without being buckled in the intermediate position. The guide cylinder plate 60 is installed on the car end side of the underframe 4 in the longitudinal direction of the car body. A motorman's cab is constructed near the middle of the car body compared to the guide cylinder plate 60, i.e., at the rear. A flying object protection plate 61 is installed in the car end position of the motorman's cab and the front side of the motorman's cab is covered with the flying object protection plate 61. The guide cylinder plate 60 is installed in an opening formed in the flying object protection plate 61.
As shown in FIG. 3, the leading end positions in the collision direction of the first and second energy absorbing bodies 51, 52 are shifted to a plurality of positions in the longitudinal direction of the car body. That is, the first and second energy absorbing bodies 51, 52 have slightly different lengths in the collision direction, and in the condition supported by the support plate 58, the leading end position of the first energy absorbing body 51 lies on the car end side slightly (ΔL, for example, on the order of 100 mm) compared to the leading end position of the second energy absorbing body 52, i.e., at the front. Due to the difference in the leading end position of these energy absorbing bodies, in the event of a collision the first energy absorbing body 51 begins to be crushed earlier than the second energy absorbing body 52. For example, an example of a concrete crushed condition of the energy absorbing body 51 (52) of FIG. 9 is shown in FIG. 10. The crush of the first and second energy absorbing bodies 51, 52 proceeds, while the cylindrical bodies that constitute each energy absorbing body repeating microbuckling in their axis directions, with their axis lines kept, and being crushed virtually in straight lines. At this time, the first and second energy absorbing bodies 51, 52 absorb the collision energy while the whole being deformed like an accordion hose, and not undergoing total buckling like elbowed bending. This deformation of the first and second energy absorbing bodies 51, 52 is called crush. The first and second energy absorbing bodies 51, 52 after crush obtain, for example, a bellows structure in a shrunk condition. The reference numerals 51a, 51b denote end plates of the energy absorbing body 51 (52), the reference numerals 14a, 14b denote joint plates, and the reference numeral 16 denotes a buckling preventing member. The energy absorbing body 51 (52) shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 has a construction different from that of the energy absorbing body shown in FIG. 3, and is of a construction provided with the two joint plates 14a, 14b. The buckling preventing member 16 is fixed to the joint plate 14a and disposed so as to pierce through an opening of the joint plate 14b. This buckling preventing member 16 fulfills the role of preventing the total buckling of the energy absorbing body 51 (52).
That is, the energy absorbing body 51 (52) is partitioned by the joint plates 14a, 14b in the longitudinal direction. The buckling preventing plate 16 is fixed to the joint plate 14a, and the trailing end of the buckling preventing plate 16 pierces through the joint plate 14b. When the distance from the joint plate 14a to the joint plate 14b in the energy absorbing body 51 (52) shrinks due to crush, the buckling preventing member 16 pierces through the joint plate 14b. Because of this, the energy absorbing body 51 (52) is crushed like an accordion hose without undergoing total buckling. For the energy absorbing body 51 and the energy absorbing body 52, also the longitudinal position of one of the joint plates 14a protrudes from the other as with the positions of the end plates 51a, 52a.
In the two energy absorbing bodies 51, 52 having different lengths, a peak load due to collision is distributed by a slight difference in the crush start period. Therefore, the crush peak loads of the energy absorbing members 51, 52 are reduced and it is possible to mitigate the impact on the car body, passengers and the like. How a peak load is distributed is shown in FIG. 11 as an example. In the case of an arrangement in which the energy absorbing bodies are disposed with their leading ends aligned with each other, as indicated by a thin line in FIG. 11, the crush start begins simultaneously, with the result that a very high peak load occurs at the beginning of the crush start. However, because of the difference in the period of crush start corresponding to the shift ΔL of the position of the energy absorbing bodies 51, 52 as in this embodiment, there occurs a shift in the period of a peak load as indicated by a thick line in FIG. 11, with the result that it is possible to suppress the peak load.
When the railway vehicle collides against an obstacle, a large impact load acts on the car end side, i.e., the front end part 81 of the cover 80. The condition in which the cover 80 is broken in this case is shown in FIG. 8. Because in the cover 80, the parts of the first slit 84 and the second slits 85, 86 have lower strength than other parts, they become parts that are easily broken, and they are broken along the breakage-intended path M. For the cover 80, a condition in which the cover 80 is vertically divided into two portions as a broken piece 80a and a broken piece 80b is the most ideal condition. FIG. 8 schematically shows how the cover 80 is broken by being divided into two parts in the vertical direction intersecting the collision direction (the direction indicated by the arrow in FIG. 3 (the direction substantially along the longitudinal direction of the car body)). The broken pieces 80a, 80b are deformed so as to open vertically. Therefore, because there are relatively few members that provide obstacles in the vertical direction of the cover 80, the behavior of the broken pieces 80a, 80b is allowed in the limited interior of the car body. On the occasion of this breakage, the cover 80 can complement the absorption function of the energy absorbing bodies 51, 52 by absorbing part of the collision energy. And after its opening, the cover 80 does not prevent the energy absorption function of the energy absorbing bodies 51, 52. Incidentally, it is also conceivable to adopt a construction in which further slits are provided in positions of the bottom wall part and top wall part near the middle of the car body in order to promote the deformation of the cover 80, thereby dividing the cover 80 into two portions in the vertical direction. Incidentally, the rigidity of the cover 80 is lower than that of the energy absorbing bodies 51, 52 and hence the cover 80 is deformed by a slight impact. Therefore, even if the deformation of the cover 80 is such that the cover 80 is not divided into two portions in the vertical direction, the cover 80 does not exert an adverse effect on the energy absorption function of the energy absorbing bodies 51, 52.
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