US3385231A - Sequentially actuated mating hopper doors - Google Patents

Description

May 28, 1968 e. a. DOREY SEQUENTIALLY AC'IUATED MATING HOPPER DOORS 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 11, 1965 INVENTOR May 28, 1968 G. B. DOREY SEQUENTIALLY ACTUATED MATING HOPPER DOORS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 11, 1965 R m m m May 28, 1968 I G. B. DOREY 3,385,231

SEQUENTIALLY ACTUATED MATING HOPPER DOORS Filed Oct. 11, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 N y csxo United States Patent 3,385,231 SEQUENTIALLY ACTUATED MATING HOPPER DOORS George B. Dorey, Westmonnt, Quebec, Canada, assignor to Continental Transport Appliances Limited, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, a corporation of Canada Filed Oct. 11, 1965, Ser. No. 494,397 8 Claims. (Cl. 105-250) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An operating mechanism for paired hopper doors of railway hopper cars in which a winding mechanism is connected at one end to a rotatable shaft. The other end of the mechanism carries an equalizer bar with arms of unequal lengths having two links connected to it, one at each end of the bar and each link is connected to a hopper door. The linkage is so constructed that when the shaft is turned, the mechanism winds about the shaft and closes the doors, one door closing before the other so that its edge may overlap the edge of the first closed door.

The invention provides for the employment of winding linkage mechanism incorporatin an unbalancing equalizer whereby the overlapped door will be lifted to closed position in advance of the overlapping door and provision made for the latter to overtake the overlapped door towards the end of the lifting operation. The improvement contemplates forming the conventional type of equalizer bar with arms of unequal length and connecting the longer of the arms with the overlapping door, thereby causing the latter to trail behind the other door and overtake it only at the close of the door lifting movement.

The invention further resides in features of construction related to stop means for limiting swinging movernent of the equalizer.

For further comprehension of the invention reference may be had to the accompanying drawings wherein,

FIGURE 1 is an elevational transverse sectional view taken through the lower portion of a hopper car showing in full lines the doors in closed position and indicating by conventional dot and dash lines the doors in opened position.

FIGURE 2 is a fractional transverse sectional view similar to FIGURE 1 except that the doors are shown in partially closed position.

FIGURE 3 is a view similar to FIGURE 2 except that the doors are shown with the overlapped door in fully closed position and the overlappin door in trailing position.

FIGURE 4 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view taken on a line 4-4 of FIGURE 1.

Referring to the drawings wherein the improved operating mechanism is shown as applied to a railway hopper car adapted for discharge of lading between the rails -10 and the truck parts are conventionally indicated by the wheels 11--11. The body of the car is shown as including longitudinally extending side members 12-12 with downwardly inwardly converging sloping side floor walls 1313 which meet with transversely extending Walls 1414 and 1515 to form a pair of hoppers 16. The Walls 1414 combine to form a box-like or hood-like structure extending transversely of the car. The walls 14-14 slope downwardly to merge into vertical wall sections 1717 which constitute one of the end walls of the hoppers 16. Similarly the sloping end walls 15-15 merge into vertical extending wall sections 18.

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The lower portion of the sloping walls 13 are reinforced by angle-shaped members 19 formed with a bulb portion 20 reinforcing the lower margins of the sloping side walls. The lower margins of the end wall sections 17 and 18 are reinforced with angle shaped members 21 which preferably join with the members 19 to form a framing structure around the discharge opening.

The openings are adapted to be closed by oppositely facing swinging door sections 23 and 24 which are pivotally mounted at 25 on hinge brackets 26 which in turn are carried by the framing members 19. The door sections 23 and 24 are flanged upwardly as indicated at 27 to form a three-sided pan-shaped structure. The doors are adapted to meet in closed position in overlapping relation and to this end the overlapping door 23 is formed with an overlapping extension 28 adapted to underlie the overlapped door when said doors are in closed position. The doors are preferably arranged to slope downwardly from their pivot-a1 axes when in closed position thereby disposing the overlapping extension 28 at an upwardly extending angle when the doors are in closed position as seen in FIGURE 1.

The doors are operated by a rotatable operating shaft 29 housed in the transverse hood structure and mounted in bearings 30 and 31. The shaft which is preferably of noncircular section is fitted at each bearing with a circularly-shaped sleeve 32 to provide a circularly shaped journal. The door sections adjacent their swinging ends are longitudinally united by beam members 33 which in preferred form include a pair of channel shaped members united by a cover plate 34. The beamsare provided with screwthreaded U shaped bolts 35 secured by screwthreaded nuts 36 which in turn are retained against lengthwise displacement by angle-shaped brackets 37.

Connecting the shaft 29 and doors is a winding linkage mechanism assembly generally indicated by the reference 38 and wound around a hub member 39 nonrotatably mounted on the shaft and having a link 40 pivotally connected at 41 with a hook shaped hanger 42. The hanger 42 is formed with a depending shank portion 43 having a pair of jaws 44-44 between which an equalizing bar 45 is inserted and pivotally united therewith by a pivot 46.

The equalizing bar 45 is formed with oppositely extending arms of different lengths as indicated at 47 and 48 respectively to connect with the respective doors 23 and 24, by means of connections as indicated at 49 and 50 respectively. The longer of the arms 47 connecting as it does with the overlapping doors 23 operates to produce an overbalanced condition which results in the overlapping door opening to a greater extent than the facing door. The extent of the overbalanced movement is limited by means of abutment means 51 on the hanger making contact with the upper surface 52 of the short arm 48.

With the doors in open position, as seen by conventional dot and dash lines in FIGURE 1, it will be noted that the overlapping door 23 is opened to a greater extent than the companion door by reason of the unbalanced condition introduced by the unequal equalizer arms, to the extent limited by the abutments 51 and 52. Upon winding movement of the linkage to lift the doors it will be noted that the overlapping door trails behind the companion door as seen by reference to FIGURE 2. The trailing condition is maintained until the overlapped door reaches final closed position and abuts the lower edge 53 of the hopper vertical walls as shown in FIG- URE 4 whereupon the longer equalizer arm 47 is swung upwardly by the winding action of the linkage mechanism to bring the overlapping door to full closed position.

The shaft may be rotated by any of the conventional types of lever, pawl and ratchet mechanisms (not shown) fitted to the ends of the shaft.

What is claimed as new is:

1. In a railway car having an opening for discharge of lading and oppositely swinging doors for closing the opening adapted to meet in overlapping relation when in closed position, operating mechanism for lifting the doors to closed positon with the overlapped door in advance of the overlapping door comprising:

(a) a rotatable shaft,

(b) linkage mechanism mounted on and adapted to be wound around the shaft,

(c) an equalizer pivotally mounted on the linkage mechanism and having arms of unequal lengths ex tending in opposite directions from said pivotal mounting,

(d) a connection between the end of one arm and a door, and a connection between the end of the other arm and other door,

(e) the connection with the overlapping door being with the longer arm whereby to provide a greater opening swing of said door in relation to the overlapped door to effect closing movement of the latter door in advance of the overlapping door when said linkage mechanism is wound on said shaft.

2. The invention set forth in claim 1 wherein interengaging abutmetns are provided on the linkage and equalizer for limiting relative swinging movement between said linkage and equalizer to maintain the said relation between the respective doors throughout the major extent of door liftin movement.

3. The invention set forth in claim 2 wherein stop means limit upward movement of the overlapped door to provide overtaking closing movement of the overlapping door incidental to upward swinging movement of the longer equalizer arm about its pivotal connection with the linkage.

4. The combination of claim 1, in which the linkage mechanism consists of an articulated means having one end axially secured to said shaft and the other end pivotally mounted on said equalizer between the ends of its arms.

5. The combination of claim 1, in which the mounting of the linkage mechanism on said shaft is upwardly spaced from the pivotal mounting of the equalizer on the linkage mechanism.

6. The combination of claim 1, in which said shaft is rotatably mounted on an axis extending transversely of the hinge axes of the doors.

7. The combination of claim 1, in which the equalizer is a rigid bar.

8. The combination of claim 1, in which the railway car is a hopper car and the said operating mechanism is contained in a box-like enclosure extending transversely of the hopper car between hoppers, said enclosure being formed by the walls of the hoppers.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 605,620 6/1898 Acklin 214-60 722,299 3/1903 Hansen 105-290 X 979,488 12/1910 Heberling 298-37 1,064,448 6/1913 Daniels 298-33 1,765,519 6/1930 Zimmer 105290 X ARTHUR L. LA POINT, Primary Examiner.

H. BELTRAN, Assistant Examiner.

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