Railroad car having multiple penetration resistant and protective structures
AssigneeCngmotive, Inc.
InventorsDavid I. Scott, Pedro T. Santos, Robert Thomas Scott
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A railroad car including a plurality of penetration resistant and protective structures including a penetration resistant and protective underframe, penetration resistant and protective first end, second end, and center bulkheads, penetration resistant and protective first, second, third, and fourth side walls, and protective first and second roof hatches, all configured to protect internal cylinder assemblies, the pipes that communicate the gas from the cylinders of the cylinder assemblies, and the safety critical valves, regulators, and other equipment connected to such cylinders and pipes of the railroad car in an accident (such as a derailment, crash and/or roll-over).
Claims18
A railroad car comprising:
- a first truck;
- a second truck;
- a underframe supported by the first truck and the second truck;
- a first end bulkhead connected to the underframe, the first end bulkhead including a first cylinder rack receiver;
- a second bulkhead connected to the underframe, the second end bulkhead including a second cylinder rack receiver;
- a center bulkhead connected to the underframe, the center bulkhead including a third cylinder rack receiver and a fourth cylinder rack receiver;
- a first cylinder assembly connected to the first end bulkhead and to the center bulkhead, the first cylinder assembly including a plurality of elongated first cylinders, a first cylinder holder rack received by the first cylinder rack receiver, a second cylinder holder rack received by the third cylinder rack receiver, and a plurality of spaced apart first cylinder force spreaders, each first cylinder force spreader positioned between two of the first cylinders;
- and
- a second cylinder assembly connected to the second end bulkhead and to the center bulkhead, the second cylinder assembly including a plurality of elongated second cylinders, a third cylinder holder rack received by the second cylinder rack receiver, a fourth cylinder holder rack received by the fourth cylinder rack receiver, and a plurality of spaced apart second cylinder force spreaders, each second cylinder force spreader positioned between two of the second cylinders.
A railroad car comprising:
- a first truck;
- a second truck;
- an underframe supported by the first truck and the second truck;
- a first bulkhead connected to the underframe;
- a second bulkhead connected to the underframe;
- and
- a cylinder assembly connected to the first bulkhead and to the second bulkhead, the cylinder assembly including a plurality of elongated cylinders and a plurality of spaced apart cylinder force spreaders, wherein each cylinder force spreader is positioned between two of the cylinders, wherein for one of the cylinder force spreaders, a radius of curvature of a cylinder engagement wall of that cylinder force spreader is different than a radius of curvature of a wall of the cylinder of the plurality of elongated cylinders adjacent to that cylinder force spreader.
A railroad car cylinder force spreader comprising:
- a first concave cylinder engagement wall;
- a second concave cylinder engagement wall, wherein the first concave cylinder engagement wall and the second concave cylinder engagement wall face in opposite directions and are engagable by outer rounded surfaces of two adjacent cylinders of a cylinder assembly;
- a connector wall;
- a first end wall;
- a second end wall;
- and
- an interior support structure,
- wherein the railroad car cylinder force spreader is positionable between the two adjacent cylinders of the cylinder assembly such that first concave cylinder engagement wall can be engaged one of the two adjacent cylinders and the second concave cylinder engagement wall can be engaged the other of the two adjacent cylinders, wherein a radius of curvature of each of the cylinders engagement walls is different than the radius of curvatures of the cylinders configured to engage the cylinder engagement walls.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.