Railway safety apparatus
OwnerIan Thomson, Peter Dooleyinventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for inspecting rail tracks for loose connections (4, 7) employs moulded plastic caps (8). The caps carry arrows (9) or other indicators aligned with a datum direction such as the direction of the rails. Any loosening of the connectors (4, 7) is immediately apparent from the fact that the arrows are no longer aligned. The invention avoids the need for individual manual torquing of each connector during routine safety inspections.
Claims18
A railway safety apparatus for detecting looseness of a screw-threaded connector characterized by a rotation indicator associated with the connector so as to indicate rotation from a correctly tightened position.
A railway safety system for detecting looseness in screw-threaded connectors, the system comprising a transmitter or responder associated with a connector and arranged to give a signal indicating looseness.
A screw threaded connector comprising means for containing separately two chemicals which, when mixed, react in such a way as to emit thermal or visible radiation;
- and means for causing such mixing in response to undesired loosening of the connector.
(canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.