Door finger guide for doors on auto rack cars
AssigneeZeftek, Inc.
InventorMichael K. Murphy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A door finger guide for doors an auto rack cars to guide the upper ends of the doors along an upper track during opening and closing operations. The door finger guide includes a metal supporting member or base plate having a lower end secured to the door and an upper end in alignment with the upper door track. Plastic bearing means is secured to the upper ends of the door guides which are mounted in opposing relation for coaction with the track. The door guides and plastic bearing portions are diminished so that the tolerance with the track is minimized to reduce vibration in the door and all components associated with the door and located below the guides.
Claims30
A door finger guide for a door on an auto rack car, said door finger guide adapted to be mounted adjacent the upper end of the door in opposing relation to a second guide to coact with and guide the upper end of the door along a metal track fixed to the car during opening and closing of said door, each guide including a metal supporting member having a lower end adapted to be mounted on the door and an upper end aligned with the track, said upper end being offset from the lower end in a direction away from the track, wear pad means secured to the upper ends of said guides including a plastic bearing for engagement with said track, said plastic bearing being of a high compressive strength, self-lubricating, wear-resistant plastic material, and said plastic bearings being dimensioned to provide a relatively close fit with the track in order to minimize the tolerance with said track and thereby reduce vibration in the door and associated components located beneath the guides.
A finger door guide for the upper end of a door on an auto rack car adapted to be mounted in opposed relation to a second guide as a pair for coacting with opposite sides of a vertically extending steel track on the car to support the upper end of the door in an upright position and to guide the door along the track during opening and closing of the door, each said guide including a lower end mounted on the door and an upper end in aligned position with the track, and wear pad means fixed on said upper end for engaging said track, said wear pad means including a pad of high compressive strength, self-lubricating, wear-resistant plastic material, and said guides and pads being dimensioned and mounted on the door to provide a relatively close fit with the track and define a relatively tight tolerance in order to reduce vibration to the door and components of the door located below the guides.
In combination with an auto rack car having a car body with upstanding side walls and a roof collectively defining opposed open ends, a plurality of levels in the car for receiving vehicles, door mounted on the car body at the opposed open ends which are movable between open and closed positions, hardware for mounting the doors and locking them in predetermined positions including lower and upper assemblies, each said upper assembly including a vertically extending steel track fixed to the car body, a pair of vertically extending door finger guides fixed to the door and coating with the track to support the door in an upright position and to guide the door during opening and closing operations, the improvement being in said door finger guides which comprise an elongated steel bar mounted at one end on the door and having the other end in alignment with said track, a wear pad fixed to the end of the bar aligned with said track, said wear pad including a bearing pad of high compressive strength, self-lubricating, wear-resistant plastic material having a low coefficient of friction, and said guides being dimensioned with said wear pads to define a relatively close fit relation with the track to reduce the tolerance with the track in order to materially reduce movement between the guides and track and thereby substantially reduce vibration to the door and hardware located below the guides.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.