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AssigneeTRN Business Trust
InventorsAllen E. Norton, Stephen W. Smith, William A. Knapp, Alex K. Hoover, Dustin L. Troutman
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Pultruded panels having a first longitudinal edge profile and a second longitudinal edge profile may be used to form a floor assembly mounted on a railway car underframe. The pultruded panels may also be used to form walkways, bridges, piers and other structures. A bead may be placed on at least one of the longitudinal edge profiles to form a gap between an adjacent pultruded panel. An adhesive may be placed within the gap to couple or bond adjacent pultruded panels with each other. Void spaces may be formed within the pultruded panel and filled with foam to provide improved resistance to heat transfer through the respective panel. Respective coverings may be placed on opposite ends of each panel to block access to the associated void spaces.
A floor assembly mounted on a railway car underframe comprising:
A floor assembly mounted on a railway car underframe comprising:
A floor assembly mounted on a plurality of longitudinal stringers of a railway car underframe comprising:
A pultruded panel comprising:
A pultruded panel comprising:
A railway car comprising:
A railway car comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
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Construction details of vehicle bodies: with bodies characterised by use of plastics materials
Connections between superstructure sub-units: the sub-units being construction modules
With bodies of metal; with composite, e.g. metal and wood body structures: floors
With bodies of metal; with composite, e.g. metal and wood body structures: roofs
Term end not estimated
The present invention is related to pultruded panels, which have multiple uses including forming portions of a floor assembly associated with a composite box structure mounted on a railway car underframe.
Over the years, general purpose railway boxcars have progressed from relatively simple wooden structures mounted on flat cars to more elaborate arrangements including insulated walls and custom designed refrigeration equipment. Various types of insulated boxcars are presently manufactured and used. A typical insulated boxcar includes an enclosed structure mounted on a railway car underframe. The enclosed structure generally includes a floor assembly, a pair of side walls, a pair of end walls and a roof. The side walls, end walls and roof often have an outer shell, one or more layers of insulation and interior paneling.
The outer shell of many railway boxcars often has an exterior surface formed from various types of metal such as steel or aluminum. The interior paneling is often formed from wood and/or metal as desired for the specific application. For some applications the interior paneling has been formed from fiber reinforced plastic (FRP). Various types of sliding doors including plug type doors are generally provided on each side of conventional boxcars for loading and unloading freight. Conventional boxcars may be assembled from various pieces of wood, steel and/or sheets of composite materials such as fiberglass reinforced plastic. Significant amounts of raw material, labor and time are often required to complete the manufacture and assembly of conventional boxcars.
For a more complete understanding of the present invention, and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following written description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1A is a schematic drawing showing an isometric, exploded view with portions broken away of a panel formed in accordance with teachings of the present invention;
FIG. 1B is a schematic drawing showing an end view of the panel of FIG. 1A.
Preferred embodiments of the invention and its advantages are best understood by reference to FIGS. 1A-16 of the drawings, like numerals for like and corresponding parts of the various drawings.
Various aspects of the present invention will be described with respect to forming a floor assembly and interior bulkheads associated with a railway car using pultruded panels. However, the present invention is not limited to panels formed using pultrusion technology (pultruded panels). Panels may be formed in accordance with teachings of the present invention by a wide variety of techniques including injection molding and extrusion technologies. Panels formed in accordance with teachings of the present invention may be satisfactorily used in a wide variety of applications including, but not limited to, commercial buildings, residential building, walkways, bridges, chemical plants, transportation, mass transit and truck trailers (not expressly shown).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,487 entitled “Pultrusion Apparatus” assigned to Creative Pultrusions, Inc. (the '487 patent) describes one example of equipment and procedures, which may be used to form pultruded panels. Pultruded panels 82a, 82b, 82c and 282 may be formed from a wide variety of commercially available materials. Examples of some commercially available materials generally include any of the various known heat curable thermosetting polymeric resin compositions such as those based upon unsaturated polyesters, vinyl esters and epoxies, heat curable thermosetting methacrylate resins, modified phenolic resins, bismaleimide resins, addition polymerization thermosetting compositions (e.g., reactive prepolymers, oligomers, or monomers; fillers; pigments; mold release agents; flame retardants; low profile agents; catalysts; inhibitors; air release agents; impact modifiers; and the like), which are described in the '487 patent. Additionally, the commercially available materials of the '487 patent may include reinforcing fibers such as filaments, yarn, roving, mats, felt, ribbon, tape, and fabric (e.g., metal fibers, glass fibers, carbon fibers [graphite], boron fibers ceramic fibers, Kevlar® fibers, synthetic organic fibers such as polyamide and polyethylene fibers, and various other inorganic or organic fibrous materials such as cellulose, asbestos, cotton) that may be in continuous form, usually aligned parallel to the flow of material and including stitched or braided fibers, or any combination thereof. Other examples of commercially available materials include fiber reinforced plastic, thermoset, thermoplastic, urethane and phenolic resins with reinforcement materials such as glass fibers, roving woven mat, continuous strand mat, stitched material mat and carbon fiber.