Back to results
US 4,915,504 AGranted
Optical rail gage/wear system
AssigneeNorfolk Southern Corporation
InventorDavid F. Thurston
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is a method and apparatus for determining the gage and/or wear of railroad tracks in which optical scanning techniques are used in conjuction with a programmable computer for determining the gage and/or wear of the rails.
Claims28
Apparatus for the non-contact measurement of rail parameters, comprising:
- means for illuminating at least one of the left and right rails of a track;
- means for detecting a selected portion of light reflected from at least one of the left and right rails and generating video signals representative thereof;
- said means for illuminating and said means for detecting being mounted for movement along said rails;
- and
- means for processing said video signals to determine at least one of the gage and wear of said rails using a repetitive frame scanning pattern formed by a grid of lines perpendicular to the profile of said rails with each line including a number of pixels, and including means for determining a line and the location of a pixel therein representative of at least a gage point on the gage face of at least one of said left and right rails for selected frames of said repetitive frame scanning pattern.
2 more elements
A method for the non-contact measurement of rail parameters, comprising:
- illuminating at least one of the left and right rails of a track;
- detecting a selected portion of light reflected from at least one of the left and right rails and generating video signals representative thereof;
- moving the illumination and detection along said track;
- processing said video signals to determine at least one of the gage and wear of said rails using a repetitive frame scanning pattern formed by a grid of lines perpendicular to the profile of said rails with each line including a number of pixels;
- and
- determining a line and the location of a pixel therein representative of at least a gage point on the gage face of at least one of said left and right rails for selected frames of said repetitive frame scanning pattern.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.