GB659423A - Improvements in or relating to tamping machines - Google Patents

Abstract

659,423. Tamping machines. GODENIR, A., and NEELANDS, A. R. Feb. 2,1949, No. 2869. [Class 107] A tamping unit comprises an eccentric 13 connected by a spring 20 with a hammer 21 arrested during its downward travel, before the eccentric completes i t s downward stroke, by a displaceable tamping shoe plate 25, the eccentric being driven by 'power means 6 and the spring stiffness being substantially equal to the product of the mass of the hammer and the square of the angular velocity of the eccentric. Vertical side members 1 and top and bottom plate members 2, 3 are held together by rods 4 which also support a platform 5 on which is mounted a twostroke engine 6, the pulley 8 of which drives by a belt 12 and pulley 11 the eccentric device 13 on a shaft 10 mounted in bearings supported from the plate 2. The eccentric 13 is mounted in a ball-race 14 enclosed in a cage comprising upper and lower plates 15, 16 connected by four heavy bars 17 lying closely on either side of the shaft 10 so that the cage is restricted to a vertical reciprocating movement. The spring 20 is connected between the lower plate 16 and the hammer 21 which has a reduced portion 22 passing through an aperture in the lower plate 3 and contacting a boss 24 formed on the curved shoe plate 25 pivoted at 26 and connected to the frame by a spring 28. The pulley 8 of the engine 6 is double, and several tamping units may be coupled together side by side, the engines being synchronized out of phase by belts connecting the second groove of each pulley with a second pulley 11 on the shaft 10 of the adjacent unit. The coupled units may be carried by wheels running on rails and moved forward by a handle connected by sprocket and chain with the wheels. Angle brackets 27 on the shoe plates prevent uncompacted material clogging the machine. Loose material within the shoes is removed by releasing the springs 28.