Drive for railroad ballast tamper apparatus
AssigneeNordco Inc.
InventorPatrick Pritzl
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A tamper drive includes a wobble shaft rotatable about a central axis. The wobble shaft includes an eccentric hub recess within a movable bearing coupled to a yoke. The movable bearing rotates when the wobble shaft rotates to induce reciprocal movement of the yoke. In another tamper drive, an eccentric portion of a wobble shaft is rotatable within a bearing coupled to or integrated with an offset lobe having a pin slidingly disposed therein. Still another tamper drive includes an arm having a shaft fixedly coupled to one end, and first and second cam followers disposed at the other end. A rotatable cam provides a cam surface for each of the first and second cam followers.
Claims20
A tamper drive apparatus comprising:
- a wobble shaft rotatable about a central horizontal axis and disposed within a first bearing, the wobble shaft including an eccentric portion of the wobble shaft fixedly coupled to an eccentric hub recess;
- the eccentric hub recess being disposed within a movable bearing, wherein the axial rotation of the wobble shaft causes the eccentric hub recess to rotate within the movable bearing to induce rotation movement in the movable bearing;
- a yoke coupled to the movable bearing such that rotation movement of the movable bearing causes the yoke to reciprocate horizontally;
- and
- a drive shaft fixedly coupled to the yoke;
- wherein the reciprocal horizontal movement of the yoke and the drive shaft results in vibration of the yoke.
A tamper drive apparatus comprising:
- a wobble shaft rotatable within a first bearing along a vertical central axis, the wobble shaft including an eccentric portion that is rotatable within a second bearing coupled to or integrated with an offset lobe, wherein rotation of the eccentric portion of the wobble shaft causes the offset lobe to rotate;
- the offset lobe including a slide portion through which a horizontal pin of a crank arm is disposed for reciprocal linear sliding movement, wherein the slide and pin transmit a horizontal movement direction to the crank arm to reciprocally rotate an end of the crank arm about a second vertical axis;
- a drive shaft fixedly coupled to the crank arm for reciprocally rotating about the second vertical axis;
- and
- one or more tamper arms fixedly coupled to the drive shaft for reciprocating movement.
A tamper drive, comprising:
- an arm;
- a vertically extending shaft fixedly coupled to one end of the arm, the shaft rotatable about a vertical axis;
- one or more tamper arms fixedly coupled to a lower end of the shaft;
- first and second laterally opposed cam followers disposed at the other end of the arm;
- and
- a rotatable cam providing a cam surface for each of the first and second cam followers;
- wherein rotation of the cam causes a reciprocal rotation of the arm and a reciprocal rotation of the shaft about the vertical axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.