JPS6044176B2 - Position control device for automatic coupler unlocking device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a comprehensive device for automatically unlocking a freight car coupler in a freight car operating yard where vehicles (hereinafter referred to as freight cars) are disassembled and reassembled.

At the freight car operation yard, a car organization operation is carried out in which freight cars gathered from nearby freight handling stations are sorted by destination.

For this reason, in large-scale freight car operation yards, conventionally the freight cars are pushed up a slightly elevated slope several meters in height by a push-up locomotive, where the freight car couplers are unlocked according to the sorting classification, and then each freight car is moved to its appropriate location. Cars are organized by rolling them onto the sorting lines. Conventionally, the work of unlocking such freight car couplers has generally been done manually, but this work requires a high level of skill as it must be completed while the freight car is running and within a limited time. The working environment is not good and it is dangerous. In addition, recently there has been a trend towards increasing the speed of work in order to increase the number of vehicles disassembled, but if the pushing speed becomes too high, manually unlocking the coupler becomes more dangerous. For this reason, the emergence of an automatic device for unlocking the coupler is expected, and various attempts have been made in recent years.

This type of automatic coupler unlocking device is required to synchronize the unlocking device with the speed of the freight car, to accurately control the position of the unlocking device in the coupler part, and to have a more reliable coupler unlocking function. Ru.

However, conventional systems use a separate drive system from the freight car to synchronize the unlocking device with the speed of the freight car, making it difficult to control the speed and lacking in reliability. In order to accurately bring the freight car to the coupler regardless of the type of freight car, it is necessary to program the type in advance and control it, or to reset the control settings. Furthermore, a construction limit area is established by law around the freight car running rails, and in order to avoid this limit, the coupler unlocking function is operated remotely, resulting in poor reliability of the above-mentioned unlocking function.

The present invention provides an automatic device that reliably unlocks the coupler of a moving freight car in accordance with the above-mentioned requirements. The traveling speeds of the locking device and the unlocking device are completely synchronized without using any other drive device, and the relative positions of the two are determined, and then the coupler position is automatically detected and the unlocking device is accurately positioned at the coupler position. This allows the user to easily carry out the unlocking action from a relatively short distance.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

In FIG. 1, 3 is the running rail of the robot vehicle 2,
A coupler unlocked section laid parallel to the freight car rail 1, a return section that curves downward from the end of the section to the lowest point, and a coupler unlocked section from the lowest point. It is constructed in a loop shape with a pull-up section that climbs uphill to the starting point.

A pusher is installed at the starting point.

The robot car 2 is configured to accelerate to the freight car traveling speed. The robot vehicle 2 can freely control the relative distance between the capturing vehicle 2A (hereinafter referred to as the first vehicle) equipped with the wheel capturing device A and the unlocking vehicle 2B (hereinafter referred to as the second vehicle) equipped with the coupler unlocking device B. Consists of connected structures. As shown in the figure, the wheel catching device A has a pair of wheel catching devices 10 and 11 installed on the side end surface of the first vehicle 2A.

The traps 10, 11 are provided at the tips of actuating cylinders 10a, 11a that freely protrude in the direction of the wheels W of the freight car, with main rollers 10b, 11b that face the wheels W and are freely rotatable, and on both sides below the main rollers. It is constructed by attaching a pair of guide rollers 10c and 11c. Each roller 10b, 11b, 10
c, 11c is a rigid body 10 having a supporting axis at the apex of a triangle.
It is rotatably supported by d and 11d.

The traps 10 and 11 having such a configuration are normally drawn to the end of the first vehicle 2A, but are housed within the first vehicle 2A when capturing. Compressed air from the air compressor 13 is first introduced into the actuating cylinder 10a of the trap 10 located forward in the direction of travel of the freight car (on the left side in FIG.
It is pushed out onto the running rail 1 in front, and the wheels W are pushed onto the main roller 1.
0b, immediately move the rear wheel catcher 11 to the wheel W.
It is pushed out onto the rear running rail 1, and the wheel w is captured from both sides by the two main rollers 10b and 11b.
For this reason, the robot car 2 is configured to follow the freight car T and move forward by rotating the main roller 10b1 while facing the wheels w. In this case, Daido roller 10-C,ll
c, the guide rollers 10c, 11c rotate in contact with the freight car running rail 1- to receive the vertical component force that the main rollers 10b, 11b receive from the wheel W;
can be followed smoothly. Therefore, the working cylinder 10a, -
This has the advantage that no unnecessary addition is made to 11-a. Although not shown, a hydraulic shock absorber is incorporated in the operating cylinder in order to absorb the collision energy when the wheel comes into impactful contact with the main roller 10b.

Also, the capturing vehicle 2A may capture another part of the freight car instead of capturing the wheels, and the first vehicle 2A and the second vehicle 2B
The relative distance is controlled by a drive device. That is, the drive device is the actuation cylinder 14 mounted on the second vehicle 2B,
An output rod 14a of the cylinder 14 is connected to the first wheel 2A. Therefore, the output rod 14a expands and contracts due to the operation of the actuating cylinder 14, so that the first wheel 2A and the second wheel 2B move relative to each other. Reference numeral 15 denotes an air vibrator that supplies air from the air compressor 13 mounted on the first vehicle 2A to various operating cylinders such as the above-mentioned operating cylinder 14, which will be described later, of the second vehicle 2B.

The air vibrator 15 is constituted by an expansion joint consisting of multiple vibrators that can be freely expanded and contracted in accordance with the relative movement of the first vehicle 2A and the second vehicle 2B. Therefore, when a flexible vibrator such as a rubber hose is used instead of multiple vibrators, contact with the ground due to hanging of the pipe is prevented, and the problem of cracking of the vibrator due to expansion and contraction does not occur. The robot vehicle further detects that the coupler unlocking device B is located approximately in the middle of the two freight cars T and D, and activates a first position detection device that restricts the movement of the second car 2B to the left in the figure by the drive device. have

In this embodiment, this detection device is configured as a connection surface detection device that detects the connection surfaces T and t'' of two freight cars T and 1. It consists of two light transmitters and receivers 16 and 17, and a reflector plate 18 installed above the ground in front of the starting point C to block sunlight, as shown in FIG.
The car 2B moves to the left in the figure due to the operation of the actuating cylinder 14, and the first car 2
By increasing the distance from A, the light projected from the light transmitters and receivers 16 and 17 is reflected by the reflector plate 18 when both light transmitters and receivers 16 and 17 are located on the connecting surface of the freight cars T and D. Since the reflected light is received, the operation of the operating cylinder 14 is stopped at this time to ensure complete operation of the coupler unlocking device B. The purpose of blocking the sunlight by the reflecting plate 18 is to prevent the light transmitter/receiver 16J17 from receiving any light other than the one projected by itself. The reason why two light transmitters/receivers 16 and 17 are provided is that if only one light transmitter/receiver is provided, there would be a delay in response to the stop of the drive device due to the detection signal from the light transmitter/receiver, and the second vehicle would go too far to the left. Therefore, if two light transmitters/receivers are provided, it becomes possible for the two light transmitters/receivers to both stop at a position where they can detect the freight car connecting surfaces T, t''.

The coupler unlocking device B is composed of a dog-shaped arm mechanism rotatably supported on a fixed shaft of the second wheel 2B, and a wrist for operating a release lever that is pivotally supported on a support shaft at the tip of the arm. .

In the arm mechanism, an upper arm 21 and a lower arm 22 are rotatably connected by a connecting shaft 25 in a dogleg shape.

A base end of a rotating lever 24 that is rotatably connected to the output rod of an operating cylinder 23 is integrally fixed to the lower end of the lower arm 22. The lower arm 22 is rotated around a fixed axis. The lower arm 22 is hollow and has a bevel gear mechanism inserted therein. And upper and lower arms 21, 2
2 is always folded onto the second car, and the second car itself is extremely compact. As shown schematically in FIG. 2, the bevel gear mechanism has idle gears 27 and 28 fixed to both ends of a gear shaft 26 that passes through the lower arm 22, and gears that mesh with the respective idle gears 27 and 28 at a rotation angle of 900. One of the fixed gears 29 is connected to the fixed shaft 3 of the second wheel 2B.
1, and the other driven gear 30 is pivotally attached to the upper arm 21 and further to the connecting shaft 25.

Therefore, when the lower arm 22 rotates around the fixed shaft 31 due to the operation of the operating cylinder 23, the idle gears 27, 28
The driven gear 30 rotates through the same rotation angle as the rotation angle of the lower arm 22. Therefore, the angles α, α″ (α
= α″) always match, and the upper support shaft 3 of the upper arm 21
The wrist portion 33, which is pivotally supported by the wrist member 2, always moves up and down in the vertical direction. That is, the bevel gear mechanism described above can be said to be a vertical drive device. The upper and lower arms 21, 22 have a parallel movement mechanism that keeps the wrist portion 33 always in a constant direction regardless of the operation of the vertical drive device. The parallel movement mechanism consists of a link 34 installed parallel to the upper arm 21 and a link 35 installed parallel to the lower arm 22. The link 34 includes a lever portion 33a that extends one end of the wrist portion 33 to the opposite side of the support shaft 32, and a lever portion 33a that extends one end of the wrist portion 33 to the opposite side of the support shaft 32, and a lever portion 33a that extends one end of the wrist portion 33 to the opposite side of the support shaft
5 and one end of a bell crank 36, which is rotatably connected to the bell crank 36, respectively. One end of the other link 35 is rotatably supported by the other end of the bell crank 36, and the other end is slidably supported in the axial direction by a bracket (not shown) fixed to the second wheel 2A. A compression spring 38 is interposed between the bracket and a spring receiver 37 provided on the link 35. When the arm mechanism rotates, the wrist portion 33 provided at the tip moves vertically up and down while maintaining a constant direction unless an external force is applied to the wrist portion 33 due to the action of the parallel movement mechanism, and the hook of the wrist portion 33 moves up and down vertically due to the action of the parallel movement mechanism. The release lever of the coupler can be gripped securely.

The link 35 releases the compression spring 38 only when an external force is applied.
By sliding the bracket against the force of
Rotation around the support shaft 32 of No. 3 is permitted. The second car 2B further moves due to the operation of the actuation cylinder 14, and the wrist part 33 of the coupler unlocking device B is released by the release lever 4 of the freight car coupler J.
It has a second position detection device that detects that it is located directly below 0. In this embodiment, the detection device is configured as an underframe end face detector that detects the underframe end face 41 of the freight car T. In this detection device, two parallel links 51 and 52, each having a detector 50 connected to the upper end thereof, are rotatably supported at the tip of the upper arm 21 (one is supported rotatably on a support shaft 32 at the wrist). ), the output end of an actuating cylinder 53 fixed to the upper arm 21 is rotatably supported at the intermediate portion of one link 52.

The actuating cylinder 53 communicates with the links 34 and 35 of the vibrator-like parallel movement mechanism, and compressed air from the air compressor 13 is supplied through the links 34 and 35 and the inside of these connecting portions.

The end face detector 50 is normally kept folded up parallel to the upper arm 21 and made compact by the operation of the actuating cylinder 53, but it is constructed so that it is placed in the upright state shown in FIG. 1A at the time of detection. The contact 50a at the tip of the detector 50 has a coil spring shape, and its tip touches the frame end surface 41.
When the contactor 50a comes into contact with the contactor 50a, it slides in the axial direction to activate the switch of the detector 50, and in the event that an external force in the right angle direction is applied to the contactor 50a, the coupling is configured to absorb deformation.
Next, the operation process of the apparatus of this embodiment having the above configuration will be sequentially explained. Although four robot cars 2 are used in this embodiment, several to ten or more robot cars are used depending on the rate of disassembly of the freight cars, and they are always gathered at the lowest point.

A breakdown table of freight trains for one day is stored in advance in the central control unit by a computer. Each time one train starts to be disassembled, the robot car 2 is pulled up to the starting point and placed on standby in response to a command signal from the central controller. When the central control unit learns that the vehicle whose coupler is to be unlocked is approaching, the robot vehicle 2 is activated and accelerated by the pusher to a speed that is approximately synchronized with the freight car speed.

At the same time, the wheel catching device A operates one of the operating cylinders 10a to project the wheel catching device 10 onto the running rail 1 in front of the wheels W. When the wheel w hits the main roller 10b, the other actuating cylinder 11a is actuated, the catcher 11 is projected onto the running rail 1 behind the wheel W, and the main roller 10b and 1
1b captures the wheels W from both sides, and thereafter the robot vehicle 2 follows the freight vehicle T and moves forward. When the capture of the wheel W is completed in this way, the control section within the robot vehicle 2 is activated (the following robot operations are performed according to commands from this control section).
The actuating cylinder 14 for positioning is driven to move the second car 2B away from the first car 2A, and the connecting surface detection device detects the freight cars T and the connecting surfaces T, t'' with the above configuration, and the coupler unlocking device When it is confirmed that there is no problem with the operation of B, the detection signal causes the actuation cylinder 14 to stop.Subsequently, the vertical drive device of the coupler unlocking device B moves upward by driving the actuation cylinder 23, and the tip of the upper arm 21 wrist part 33
When the hook portion of the lower arm 22 rises to the height of approximately the lower end of the release lever 40 of the freight car coupler J, an arm position detection switch (not shown) incorporated in the bearing portion of the lower arm 22 is activated to temporarily stop the arm from rising.

At the same time as the above-mentioned vertical upward movement of the wrist starts, the upper arm 2
The underframe end face detector 50 attached to the underframe 1 stands up by driving the actuating cylinder 53. Next, when the arm position detection switch detects that the wrist portion 33 has risen to a specified position, the positioning actuating cylinder 14 is driven (pull operation) in response to the detection signal, and the second car 2B is moved to the first car 2A.
The underframe end face detector 50 is brought close to the underframe end face 41 of the freight car T.
is brought close to and brought into contact with the end face 41. A signal that the contact 50a of the detector 50 is in contact with the end surface 41 of the underframe, that is, the wrist portion 3
3 is directly below the coupler release lever 40, the positioning actuating cylinder 14 is stopped and positioning is completed.

When the end face detection is completed, the underframe end face detector 50 is folded in parallel to the upper arm 21 by the actuation cylinder 53.

The upper and lower arms 21 and 22 start their upward movement again by the actuation of the actuation cylinder 23, and as shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, the hook part of the wrist part 33 grasps the tip lever part 40a of the release lever 40 and lifts it up. , the lever rotation stopper 55 of the lever insertion hole 55a of the lever support bracket 55 installed on the end face of the freight car.
Remove from b.

When the arm further rises, the upper surface 40b of the release lever 40 comes into contact with the inner surface 55c of the lever insertion hole 55a, and the vertical upward movement of the release lever 40 is stopped, so a component force is generated in a direction perpendicular to the end surface of the freight car, and this component force is applied to the wrist portion. 33, the lever portion 40a of the release lever 40 is rotated clockwise (up to about 600 degrees) as shown in the drawing against the spring force of the compression spring 38 via the links 34 and 35 of the parallel movement mechanism. (Figure 3 C, D
) By turning the lever portion 40a, the lock pin of the coupler attached to the tip of the release lever is pulled up, and the coupler is unlocked. When the locking is completed in this way, the wrist part 3
The lifting operation of the arm is stopped by a turning angle detection switch (not shown) provided at 3. The robot car 2 continues to run with the lock unlocked, and when it passes a ground element installed on the travel rail 3 approximately 20 meters away from the starting point, the robot car 2 sends a signal to the central control unit to unlock the coupler. Transmit an indication signal of completion. When the robot vehicle 2 travels to the end of the coupler unlocking section, the coupler unlocking device B of the robot vehicle 2 receives a signal from the central controller via the ground element installed in the traveling rail 3. It is folded up compactly by the opposite effect to the above, and at the same time, the wheel catching device A is retracted. Since the travel rail 3 in the return section from the end point of the unlocked section to the lowest point is provided with a downward slope, the robot vehicle 2 is driven back to the origin, that is, the lowest point. In addition to the above explanation, the characteristic effects of this embodiment are enumerated as follows.

A part of the freight car is captured by the capture car and moved in one direction by the traveling force of the freight car, and the coupler is unlocked during this time, so the robot car's traveling drive device and the freight car speed detection device are , there is no need for a device to synchronize the speed of the robot car and the freight car, making the operation simple and highly reliable.

Also, the protruding position of the main roller does not require much precision;
The relative speed between the main roller and the wheels may also be rough in accuracy.

Furthermore, since a servo mechanism is not required for capturing the vehicle connection surface, it is simple and highly reliable. The end face detector is designed to be retracted except when detecting, so it does not interfere with the unlocking operation.

As described above, the present invention automatically performs the unlocking work of a freight car coupler, which conventionally required manual labor, by capturing a part of the freight car in the position control of the unlocking device, which is considered to be the most difficult point. Since the unlocking device follows the locking device, the relative position between the freight car and the unlocking device can be easily identified.Then, the connecting portion of the freight car is detected and the temporary position control of the unlocking wrist is performed.Then, the unlocking wrist is placed directly below the coupler. Because the lock is brought in, the coupler can be reliably unlocked regardless of the type of freight car, and its reliability is extremely high.

Furthermore, since the piping that communicates the fluid pressure operating system between the capture device and the unlocking device is an expandable piping consisting of multiple pipes, compared to the case where a flexible vibrator is used, it is less likely that the piping will sag between the devices and come into contact with the ground, causing damage. It does not cause any cracks due to expansion and contraction.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a plan view, front view and side view of the robot car, Figure 2 is a
The figure shows the internal structure of the bevel gear mechanism of the arm.
The figure is a process chart showing the unlocking operation of the freight car coupler at the wrist.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A coupler unlocking device that includes a wrist portion that unlocks the coupler by operating a release lever of the vehicle using a vertical vertical movement device, which includes a capture device that captures a part of the vehicle. a capturing vehicle; an unlocking vehicle including the vertical movement device and a wrist portion; a first detection device provided on the unlocking vehicle and detecting that the wrist portion is located between vehicles to be unlocked; a second detection device that is provided on the unlocking vehicle and detects that the wrist is located directly below the coupler position; and a second detection device that is connected to the capturing vehicle and the unlocking vehicle and detects the relative relationship between the two vehicles by the signals of the two detection devices; A position control device for an automatic coupler unlocking device, comprising: a drive device for controlling distance; and; 2. The wheel catching device has a wheel catching device that is pushed out onto the vehicle rail by an actuating cylinder from the catching vehicle when catching, and the wheel catching device has a main roller that freely rotates in contact with the wheel tread and a pair that rotates on the vehicle rail. It consists of a guide roller and
2. A position control device for an automatic coupler unlocking device according to claim 1, wherein these rollers are pivotally supported by a rigid body so as to be located at apex positions of a triangle. 3. The wheel catching device has a pair of wheel catching devices that are in contact with the road surface in front of the wheels and the road surface behind the wheels, and after one wheel catching device comes into contact with the tread in front of the wheels, the other wheel catching device is pushed out to the tread behind the wheels, The position control device for an automatic coupler unlocking device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the device is configured to capture from both the front and rear sides of a wheel. 4. The coupler according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the wheel capturing device incorporates a hydraulic shock absorber for absorbing collision energy when capturing a wheel. Position control device for automatic unlocking device. 5. The vertical vertical movement device has an arm mechanism in which an upper arm having a wrist support shaft and a lower arm rotatably supported by the robot vehicle are supported in a dogleg shape, and the arm mechanism is moved by an actuating cylinder. 5. A position control device for an automatic coupler unlocking device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the support shaft is vertically raised by bending or extending. 6. The vertical vertical movement device has a built-in bevel gear mechanism, and the bevel gear mechanism has two idle gears built into the lower arm that mesh with a driven gear fixed to the upper arm and a fixed gear fixed to the unlocking wheel, respectively. Claims 1 to 5 are characterized in that the gear shift is configured by being fixed to both ends of the gear shift, and the upper arm rotates at an angle equal to the rotation angle of the lower arm by the operation of the bevel gear mechanism.
A position control device for an automatic coupler unlocking device according to any one of paragraphs. 7. The automatic coupler solution according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first position detection device is a coupling surface detection device that detects coupling surfaces of two adjacent vehicles. Position control device for locking device. 8 The connecting surface detection device consists of two sets of light transmitters and receivers separated in the direction of vehicle travel, and the light emitted from each light transmitter passes through the vehicle joint space and passes through a reflector installed to block sunlight from outside. The automatic coupler unlocking device according to claim 7 is configured to detect a coupling surface of a vehicle by being reflected by a plate and a light transmitting/receiving device receiving the reflected light. Position control device. 9. Claim 1, wherein the second position detection device is an underframe end surface detection device whose sensing tip is formed in the shape of a coil spring and detects when the tip comes into contact with the end surface of the underframe of the vehicle. 9. A position control device for an automatic coupler unlocking device according to any one of items 1 to 8. 10. The automatic coupler unlocking device according to claim 9, characterized in that the underframe end face detection device is configured to take an operating position only when detection is activated by an operating cylinder, and take a stored position at other times. Position control device. 11. In a coupler unlocking device equipped with a wrist part that unlocks the coupler by operating a release lever of the vehicle using a vertical vertical movement device, a capture vehicle equipped with a capture device that captures a part of the vehicle;
an unlocking vehicle including the vertical movement device and a wrist; a first detection device provided in the unlocking vehicle and detecting that the wrist is located between vehicles to be unlocked; a second sensor for detecting that the wrist portion is located directly below the coupler position;
a detection device; a drive device that connects the captured vehicle and the unlocked vehicle and controls the relative distance between the two vehicles based on the signals from the two detection devices; 1. A position control device for an automatic coupler unlocking device, comprising: a pipe for connecting a fluid pressure operating system; and the pipe is an expansion joint made of two or more cylindrical multiple pipes.