US 5,954,211 AGranted

Roller equipped uncoupling cam

AssigneeWestinghouse Air Brake Company

InventorsCurtiss A. Grau, Steven C. Rumsey

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Abstract

A hook-type coupler for attachment to an end of a railway transit vehicle for joining adjacent ends of a pair of railway transit vehicles wherein the hook-type coupler has a hook member pivotally mounted therein being pivotal between a latch position and an unlatch position and adapted to engage a second pivotally mounted hook member in a second hook-type coupler of compatible design and includes an uncoupling cam for forcibly pivoting the hook member to the unlatch position and a roller rotatably secured to the uncoupling cam to rollably engage a surface of the hook member when the uncoupling cam is activated through a partial rotation thereby pivoting such hook member to the unlatch position without significant sliding frictional engagement between the uncoupling cam and the hook member.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A hook coupler for attachment to an end of a railway transit vehicle for joining adjacent ends of a pair of such railway transit vehicles, said hook coupler comprising:

(a) a coupler head;
(b) a hook member pivotally mounted to said coupler head, and being pivotal between a latch position and an unlatch position, and adapted to engage a second pivotally mounted hook member on a second hook coupler of compatible design when said coupler head is brought into contact with a second coupler head of compatible design and both of said pivotally mounted hook members are pivoted to said latch position;
(c) a biasing means attached to said coupler head for pivotally biasing said pivotally mounted hook member to said latch position;
(d) an uncoupling cam rotatably attached to said coupler head for forcibly pivoting said hook member to said unlatch position, said uncoupling cam is a solid body having a uniform polygonal cross-section having at least two oblique side surfaces;
and
(e) a roller, to which two of said at least two oblique side surfaces of said uncoupling cam are tangent, rotatably secured to said uncoupling cam and adapted to rollably engage a surface of said hook member when said uncoupling cam is activated through a partial rotation thereby pivoting said hook member to said unlatch position with a minimum of sliding frictional engagement between said uncoupling cam and said hook member.

3 more elements

A hook coupler for attachment to an end of a railway transit vehicle for joining adjacent ends of a pair of such railway transit vehicles, said hook coupler comprising:

(a) a coupler head having a gathering core;
(b) a hook member pivotally mounted within said gathering core, and being pivotal between a latch position and an unlatch position, and adapted to engage a second pivotally mounted hook member in a second hook coupler of compatible design when said coupler head is brought into contact with a second coupler head on said second hook coupler of compatible design and both of said pivotally mounted hook members are pivoted to said latch position;
(c) a biasing means within said gathering core for pivotally biasing said pivotally mounted hook member to said latch position;
(d) an uncoupling cam within said gathering core for forcibly pivoting said hook member to said unlatch position, said uncoupling cam is a solid body having a uniform polygonal cross-section having at least two oblique side surfaces;
and
(e) a roller, to which two of said at least two oblique side surfaces of said uncoupling cam are tangent, rotatably secured to said uncoupling cam and adapted to rollably engage a surface of said hook member when said uncoupling cam is activated through a partial rotation thereby pivoting said hook member to said unlatch position without significant sliding frictional engagement between said uncoupling cam and said hook member.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.