Transportation vehicle flat tire safety apparatus
AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.
InventorWilliam E. Schmitz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A rubber tired transportation vehicle for use in a mass transit system is provided with a disc member positioned adjacent to at least one vehicle support pneumatic tire operative with a condition sensing apparatus to detect the occurrence of a flat tire condition and to limit the vehicle axle drop in the event of a resulting loss of desired vehicle support because of that flat tire condition.
Claims5
In protection apparatus for a mass transit vehicle having support wheels operative with a roadway including spaced track surfaces and a vehicle restraining guide beam located between said track surfaces, said vehicle including at least one set of support wheels for traveling along one of said track surfaces and having guide wheels operative with said guide beam, the combination of:
- vehicle support means positioned between said one set of support wheels to travel along a movement path determined by said guide wheels, said vehicle support means normally being spaced a predetermined distance above the track surface along which said one set of support wheels travels,
- wheel condition sensing means coupled with said one track surface and positioned to extend above said one track surface in alignment with the movement path of the vehicle support means for determining the condition of said support wheels by sensing the vertical position of the vehicle support means traveling along said roadway track surface, and
- signal providing means coupled with said sensing means and responsive to the vertical position of said vehicle support means to provide an alarm signal when the vehicle support means moves in position below said predetermined distance to come in contact with said wheel condition sensing means.
In protection apparatus for a mass transit vehicle having a support axle at each end of the vehicle and a pair of support wheels at each side of the vehicle and at the respective ends of each axle, with said support wheels being operative with a roadway including first and second spaced track surfaces and a guide beam centrally positioned between said track surfaces and vehicle power collection rails located above said guide beam, the combination of:
- a vehicle support disc member positioned between each pair of support wheels and having a diameter in relation to the inflated diameter of the associated pair of support wheels such that when the associated support wheels become deflated, the disc member will drop in position and maintain the lowermost portion of the vehicle a predetermined distance above the power collection rails,
- first wheel deflation sensing means coupled with the first track surface and located in alignment with the movement path of the vehicle support disc members associated with said first track surface,
- second wheel deflation sensing means coupled with the second track surface and located in alignment with the movement path of the vehicle support disc members associated with said second track surface, and
- alarm signal indicator means coupled with the first and second wheel deflation sensing means to provide an alarm signal when a support wheel deflation condition drops one of said vehicle support disc members and is sensed by one of the first and second wheel deflation sensing means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.