Rail contact element and drop off detection unit
AssigneeThales Management & Services Deutschland GmbH
InventorsThomas Gebert, Michael Becker, Rainer Klemm, Ingo Rath
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A rail contact element for drop off detection is disclosed, wherein the rail contact element is mountable to a rail and includes a spring element, a main body which holds the spring element and an optical fiber. The spring element is in a tension state or in a relax state depending on a mounting state of the rail contact element. The optical fiber includes an outlet surface for emitting a light beam and the rail contact element further includes a reflector element. The spring element, the reflector element and the optical fiber are arranged so that the influence of the reflector element on the light beam is different in the tension state than in the relax state.
Claims16
A rail contact element for drop off detection, wherein the rail contact element is mountable to a rail and comprises:
- a spring element;
- a main body which holds the spring element;
- and
- an optical fiber;
- wherein the spring element is in a tension state or in a relax state depending on a mounting state of the rail contact element;
- wherein, when the rail contact element is not mounted to the rail the spring element is in the relax state and not in direct or indirect contact with the rail, and wherein, when the rail contact element is mounted to the rail the spring element is in the tension state and is elastically deformed by direct or indirect contact with the rail;
- wherein the optical fiber comprises an outlet surface for emitting a light beam;
- wherein the rail contact element further comprises a reflector element;
- and
- wherein the spring element, the reflector element and the optical fiber are arranged where the influence of the reflector element on the light beam is different in the tension state than in the relax state.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.