Brake monitoring systems for railcars
AssigneeAmsted Rail Company, Inc.
InventorAndrew H. Martin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for detecting the operational status of a brake system on a railcar. The system receives from a sensor an indication of the magnitude of a braking force applied by the braking system in response to an instruction to increase or decrease the braking force. It compares the response to possible responses of the braking system in view of the instruction provided. Based on the comparison, the system generates at least one of a message and/or an alert indicating the status of the brake system. Additional sensors, including a pressure sensor on a brake pipe of the railcar, can be added for additional functionality.
Claims20
A system for detecting the operational status of a brake system on a railcar of a train consist, the system comprising:
- a first sensor located on the railcar and configured to generate an output indicative of a magnitude of a braking force applied by a braking system on one or more wheels of the railcar;
- a second sensor located on the railcar and configured to sense air pressure within the braking system;
- and
- a computing device communicatively coupled to the first and second sensors and comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the computing device to:
- receive from the first sensor an indication of the magnitude of a braking force applied by the braking system on at least on wheel of the railcar, in response to an instruction to increase or decrease the braking force;
- using the air pressure sensed by the second sensor to differentiate between braking applied by the braking system and braking applied by a hand brake;
- compare the response to possible responses of the braking system to the instruction to increase or decrease the braking force;
- and
- based on the comparison and the differentiation, generate at least one of a message and an alert indicating the status of the brake system.
A system for detecting the operational status of a brake system on a railcar of a train consist, the system comprising:
- a sensor located on the railcar and configured to generate an output indicative of a magnitude of a braking force applied by the braking system;
- and
- a computing device communicatively coupled to the sensor and comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the computing device to:
- receive from the sensor an indication of the magnitude of a braking force applied by the braking system in response to an instruction to increase or decrease the braking force;
- compare the response to possible responses of the braking system to the instruction to increase or decrease the braking force;
- and
- based on the comparison, generate at least one of a message and an alert indicating the status of the brake system;
- and
- a pressure sensing device communicatively coupled to the computing device and configured to measure air pressure within a brake pipe of the railcar;
- wherein the one or more programming instructions, when executed, further cause the computing device to determine the time which a predetermined rate of decrease in the air pressure within the brake pipe occurs;
- to compare the time to the times at which a predetermined rate of decrease in the air pressure within the brake pipes of other railcars in the train consist occurred;
- and, based on the comparison, determine a location of the source of a transient event that caused an undesired emergency brake event in the train consist.
A system for detecting the operational status of a brake system on a railcar of a train consist, the system comprising:
- a sensor located on the railcar and configured to generate an output indicative of a magnitude of a braking force applied by the braking system;
- and
- a computing device communicatively coupled to the sensor and comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the computing device to:
- receive from the sensor an indication of the magnitude of a braking force applied by the braking system in response to an instruction to increase or decrease the braking force;
- compare the response to possible responses of the braking system to the instruction to increase or decrease the braking force;
- and
- based on the comparison, generate at least one of a message and an alert indicating the status of the brake system;
- and
- a pressure sensing device communicatively coupled to the computing device and configured to measure air pressure within a brake pipe of the railcar;
- wherein the pressure sensing device comprises an analog pressure sensor and digital pressure switch, where the pressure sensor is configured to begin sampling the air pressure when the digital pressure switch senses an increase or decrease in the air pressure above or below a predetermined threshold.
A method for detecting the operational status of a brake system on a railcar of a train consist, comprising:
- receiving an indication of the magnitude of a braking force applied by a braking system in response to an instruction to increase or decrease the braking force;
- receiving a measurement of an air pressure in the braking system;
- using the measurement of the air pressure to differentiate between braking applied by the braking system and braking applied by a hand brake;
- comparing the response to possible responses of the braking system to the instruction to increase or decrease the braking force;
- and
- based on the comparison and the differentiation, generating at least one of a message and an alert indicating the status of the brake system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.