Railway cushioning apparatus
AssigneeHalliburton Company
InventorCharles T. Bomgardner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A cushioning apparatus for a railway car includes a housing having a cylinder bore disposed therein with an end plate closing one end of the cylinder bore. A piston assembly includes a shaft extending through the end plate and a piston disposed on the shaft and slidably received within the cylinder bore. The piston is slidable between an axially innermost position furthest from the end plate and an axially outermost position closest to the end plate. A limit pin has an interference fit within a pin bore of the end plate and extends outward therefrom toward the piston for initially limiting axially outward movement of the piston short of its axially outermost position to thereby limit a length of the cushioning apparatus prior to installation of the cushioning apparatus in a railway car.
Claims15
A cushioning apparatus for a railway car, comprising:
- a housing having a cylinder bore disposed therein, and an end plate closing one end of said cylinder bore;
- a piston means including a shaft extending through said end plate, and a piston disposed on said shaft and slidably received in said cylinder bore, said piston being slidable between an axially innermost position furthest from said end plate and an axially outermost position closest to said end plate;
- displaceable limit means, located internally within said housing and operably associated with said piston means, for initially limiting axially outward movement of said piston short of its said axially outermost position to thereby initially limit a length of said cushioning apparatus prior to installation of said cushioning apparatus in said railway car, wherein said displaceable limit means comprises:
- abutment means, carried by one of said piston and said end plate, for abutting the other of said piston and said end plate upon movement of said piston toward said end plate;
- and
- release means, operatively associated with said abutment means, for permitting said abutment means to move axially relative to said one of said piston and said end plate upon application of an axially outward force to said shaft in excess of a predetermined value;
- wherein said abutment means is further defined as cylindrical pin means received in pin bore means of said one of said piston and said end plate and extending axially from said pin bore means toward the other of said piston and said end plate;
- and
- wherein said release means is provided by an interference fit between said pin means and said pin bore means, said interference fit being such that an axially outward force applied to said shaft in excess of said predetermined value is sufficient to drive said pin means into said pin bore means.
A stroke limiting apparatus, comprising:
- a housing having a cylindrical bore disposed therein;
- a piston means including a piston slidably received in said cylindrical bore, and including a shaft extending from said piston through said housing;
- one of said housing and said piston means having a pin bore fixedly disposed therein;
- a limit pin means for initially limiting axial movement of said piston, said limit pin means being initially assembled with said pin bore in an initial position so as to have a first end of said limit pin means received in said pin bore and a second end of said limit pin means initially extending out of said pin bore toward the other of said housing and said piston means;
- and
- release means, operatively associated with said limit pin means and said pin bore, for preventing said limit pin means for moving from its initial position to a position further received within said pin bore until an axial force in excess of a predetermined value is applied to said limit pin means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.