Flat wheel detector
AssigneeGeneral Signal Corporation
InventorKlaus H. Frielinghaus
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Apparatus for detecting the presence of flat wheels on railroad cars, comprising a high frequency transmitter or source connected so that the rail feed points are staggered or offset with respect to the detector apparatus. As a result, the transmitter cannot be completely shorted by a wheel axle; also, the stagger arrangement permits the overlap of two test sections so that no part of the wheel circumference is missed by the detector. Also the use of current detection of the transmitted signal minimizes loading effects on the received signal by adjacent wheel axle sets.
Claims5
A system for detecting flat wheels on railroad cars, comprising
- a transmitter having a high frequency output;
- a pair of closed loops defining a pair of individual test sections for a measuring or testing area;
- said loops including portions of a pair of rails, and shorting means connected between said rails and defining end boundaries for said respective test sections, such that a high frequency current of substantially fixed magnitude normally flows in each loop through said respective shorting means when a wheel axle is absent from the corresponding test section;
- means for connecting said transmitter to said rails, said means including a staggered arrangement so as to produce overlap of said two test sections;
- a detection device in each loop for sensing the individual current flow in each loop and for providing, responsive to the presence of an axle in the respective test sections, a relatively high voltage output which differs substantially from an essentially zero voltage output in the absence of an axle therein.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.