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US 4,901,649 AGranted
Span bolster assembly
AssigneeThrall Car Manufacturing Company
InventorsEugene T. Fehrenbach, Joseph W. Lam
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A span bolster, for carrying a heavy load of a railroad car body and distributing the load to two four wheel two axle railroad bogies or trucks, is fabricated from steel plate and has top and bottom cover plates, top and bottom reinforcement doubler plates, longitudinal spaced apart webs separating the cover plates, body bolsters at each end and a central truck bolster, all formed of metal plate joined together by welding with all critical welds being full penetration welds, and with the span bolster being stress relieved after fabrication.
Claims35
A fabricated span bolster comprising:
- an elongated center sill having first and second ends;
- a lateral first body bolster at the first end of the center sill;
- a lateral second body bolster at the second end of the center sill;
- a lateral central bolster, located between the first and second body bolsters, comprising a pair of opposing arms extending laterally outward from the center sill;
- the center sill and the first, second and central bolsters having a common top cover plate;
- a center bowl located on the top cover plate in the center of the central bolster;
- the center sill having a reinforcement doubler plate on top of and in contact with and joined to the top cover plate on each side of the center bowl and extending substantially to the respective first and second body bolsters;
- a bottom cover plate common to the center sill and the first and second bolsters;
- the bottom cover plate portion of the center sill being laterally smoothly curved first downwardly and then upwardly to define a concave and convex portion having its major depth beneath the center bowl;
- a bottom doubler plate on top of and in contact with and joined to the bottom cover plate and extending for at least substantially the length of the center sill;
- the top and bottom cover plates being joined together through at least two longitudinal spaced apart substantially vertical and parallel web plates between the top and bottom cover plates, with the web plates being longitudinally aligned with, and extending for substantially the length of, the center sill;
- the first body bolster having a center plate joined to the bottom of the bottom cover plate located on the center between the bolster ends;
- the second body bolster having a center plate joined to the bottom of the bottom cover plate located on the center between the bolster ends;
- the first bolster center plate, the second bolster center plate and the center bowl being centered along a vertical plane through an axial line longitudinal to the center sill;
- and
- the first bolster center plate bottom and the second bolster center plate bottom being in substantially the same horizontal plane.
13 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.