EP0608679B1 - Machine for taking up ballast from a ballast bed under suction - Google Patents

Abstract

A machine (1) for taking up ballast from a track ballast bed (2) by suction has a machine frame (5) which is capable of travelling on the track (3) via rail running gear (4) and on which there are provided a suction arrangement (8), having an intake connection (22) with suction opening (23), and a clearing member (9) for transporting the ballast to the suction opening (23), which clearing member cooperates with said suction arrangement and is both height-adjustable and rotatable about a vertical pivot axis (37) via drives (44, 38). The clearing member (9) assigned to the suction arrangement (8) is constructed as an endless clearing chain (30) guided around a horizontally running clearing beam (31) with deflection rollers (32) provided at the ends thereof. The pivot axis (37) is provided at one end (34) of the clearing beam (31) and, in the working position, in the region in front of the sleeper end, and the suction opening (23) of the intake connection (22) is furthermore arranged height-adjustably in the region in front of the sleeper end. <IMAGE>

Description

The invention relates to a machine for suctioning ballast from a track ballast bed, with a machine frame which can be moved on the track via rail bogies, a suction arrangement having a suction nozzle with a suction opening, and a clearing element which interacts with it and can be rotated via drives both height-adjustable and rotatable about a vertical pivot axis for transporting the ballast to the suction opening.

Such a machine is already known from AT 384 446-B, which can be moved on a track by means of rail bogies provided on the end of a machine frame and has a suction arrangement for suctioning ballast from the track bed and a screening plant for cleaning the ballast. The suction arrangement consists of three suction nozzles arranged on a tool frame, which are connected via suction pipes to a compressor attached to the machine frame. The trailer-shaped tool frame can be unrolled on the track via its own running gear and can be moved in the machine longitudinal direction relative to the continuously moving machine frame, while the intake manifolds in the cross machine direction are arranged next to each other for immersion in the same sleeper compartment on both sides of each rail and can be adjusted in height and crosswise relative to the tool frame using drives .

At the lower end of each suction nozzle, which is provided with a suction opening, there is a clearing device which serves to loosen up the ballast and to convey it in the direction of the suction opening, and which for this purpose is provided with rotatable scraping wheels which have scratch fingers. These are attached at the end to a horizontally arranged, elongated housing which can be rotated about a vertical pivot axis via a drive. In work, the clearing device is aligned parallel to the sleepers, lowered into a sleeper compartment to below the lower edge of the sleeper and then swiveled horizontally by 90 ° in order to reach the ballast below the sleepers, while at the same time the clearing member is moved in the longitudinal direction of the sleeper by the sleeper compartment . The ballast that is extracted is either cleaned in the screening plant and put back into the track or - for the purpose of lowering, for example of the track - transported entirely via a conveyor. Due to the complicated and complex guiding of the broaching elements, which requires a large number of drives, the performance or working speed of this machine is relatively limited despite its continuous travel.

Another machine known from DE 22 26 612-A for excavating a ballast bed has two broaching members, each of which is fastened to a longitudinal side of a machine frame and which is designed as a broaching bar with a continuous endless broaching chain. The clearing beams can be rotated and adjusted in height about a swivel axis provided at one end and are folded up around a horizontal axis running in the cross-machine direction when the machine is shut down. For clearing the ballast, the clearing elements are lowered into the flank of the track bed and then swiveled under the track grate from both sides, the ballast transported to the flank of the track being fed to a screening plant for cleaning via an inclined conveyor system.

The object of the present invention is now to provide a machine of the type described in the introduction which, with a structurally simple design, enables a substantial increase in work performance.

This object is achieved with a machine of the type mentioned in that the clearing device assigned to the suction arrangement is designed as an endless clearing chain which is guided around a roughly horizontally extending clearing bar, each with deflection rollers provided at the ends thereof, with the pivot axis at one end of the clearing bar and in the working position in Threshold pre-head area is provided, and that the suction opening of the intake manifold is also arranged to be adjustable in height in the threshold pre-head area.

This combination of a clearing bar with a suction arrangement has the particular advantage that rapid start-up is possible in connection with removal of the ballast that can be achieved by means of very simple design. This eliminates the need for another endless clearing chain to pick up the ballast temporarily stored by the clearing beam in the sleeper head area by another clearing chain. Since only the intake manifold has to be arranged in the threshold front area, the machine according to the invention is in a particularly advantageous manner can also be used without problems in those track areas in which between the sleeper end and a structural device, eg. B. a platform edge, little space is available. In addition, the arrangement of the intake manifold in the area of the sleeper head offers the advantageous possibility of more efficient continuous use of the machine.

The embodiment according to claim 2 represents the optimal arrangement of the suction opening relative to the clearing chain, with which the ballast conveyed to the track flank can be extracted more rapidly using the conveying movement caused by the clearing chain. It is possible to place the suction opening either at the end having the swivel axis or at the opposite end of the clearing beam.

The development according to claim 3 is particularly suitable for those track sections in which there is very little space available on one side between the sleeper end and a subsequent structural device. In this case as well, the entire ballast bed can be removed by providing the intake manifold in the opposite threshold front area.

The training set out in claims 4 to 6 enables a problem-free alignment of the clearing bar with respect to its working position below the track grate, but also an equally simple decommissioning and storage of the clearing member during the transfer run in a rest position lying within the clearance space profile or the machine profile.

With a machine equipped according to claim 7, the clearing beam can be tilted in a particularly simple manner with respect to the track level or horizontal level, in order to leave a formation surface with a cross slope required for optimal drainage after the ballast clearance.

The variant according to claim 8 ensures a smooth and complete suction and removal of the entire cleared ballast under a wide variety of operating conditions.

A particularly preferred embodiment is described in claim 9. With a machine equipped in this way, the work output can be increased further by setting the two broaching beams to different broaching depths and thus removing the track bed in two layers. On the other hand, the machine can also be used if one of the clearing beams on one side of the track cannot be lowered due to a track obstacle.

The arrangement according to claims 10 and 11 is an effective method to easily separate the extracted ballast from the suction air and to remove it, the development according to claims 12 and 13 creating the additional possibility of efficiently also sucking in the dust along with the ballast to be disposed of and to avoid dust pollution of the air in the work area that is disruptive for the operating personnel of the machine.

Finally, a machine equipped according to claim 14 can advantageously be used in the context of a complete track bed renovation.

The invention is described in more detail using an exemplary embodiment shown in the drawing.

• Fig. 1 eine Seitenansicht einer erfindungsgemäß ausgebildeten Maschine zum Absaugen von Schotter mit einer Räumorgane aufweisenden Sauganordnung,
• Fig. 2 eine schematisierte, stark vereinfachte Draufsicht auf die Maschine gemäß Fig. 1
• Fig. 3 eine vergrößerte Detailseitenansicht der Räumorgane der Maschine nach Fig. 1 und
• Fig. 4 eine Ansicht in Maschinenlängsrichtung gemäß Pfeil IV in Fig. 3.

Show it:

• 1 is a side view of a machine designed according to the invention for the suction of ballast with a suction arrangement having clearing elements,
• FIG. 2 shows a schematic, highly simplified top view of the machine according to FIG. 1
• Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail side view of the clearing members of the machine of Fig. 1 and
• 4 shows a view in the machine longitudinal direction according to arrow IV in FIG. 3.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show a machine 1 for removing ballast bed 2 from a track 3, which has a bridge-shaped machine frame 5 supported on its two longitudinal ends by rail carriages 4 and on the track 3 can be moved continuously in a working direction indicated by an arrow 6. To extract ballast 7 from the ballast bed 2, the machine 1 is equipped with a suction arrangement 8, which is provided in the front area of the machine frame 5 with respect to the working direction and which is described in more detail below. The suction arrangement 8 is assigned two clearing elements 9 for gravel feed - attached approximately in the longitudinal center of the machine frame 5 in the field of view of a working cabin 10. A conveying device 11, which is located below the suction arrangement 8 and which has a laterally pivotable transfer conveyor belt 12 projecting beyond the front end of the machine frame 5, serves to remove the extracted ballast 7. The ballast 7 can thus be loaded, for example, into an upstream silo wagon 13 connected to the machine 1. Via a further silo wagon 14 coupled to the other end of the machine 1, new ballast 15 is introduced into the track 3 by means of a ballast discharge arrangement 16 at a location downstream of the clearing elements 9 in the working direction, which is held in position in this area by a track lifting device 17. The freshly introduced new ballast 15 is immediately compacted on the basis of a track tamping unit 18 which is arranged in front of the rear rail chassis 4 and is adjustable in height. All drives, units and a travel drive 55 of machine 1 are supplied with energy via a central power source 19.

The suction arrangement 8 essentially consists of a compressor 20 arranged on the machine frame 5 and a flexible suction pipe 21 connected to it, which bifurcates in the area above the clearing elements 9 and opens into two suction ports 22. These are each assigned to one of the clearing elements 9 in the front area of the sleeper and have a suction opening 23 for sucking the ballast 7 out of the ballast bed 2. The air flow conveying the ballast is guided through a cyclone separator 24, which is integrated into the suction pipe 21 between the intake manifold 22 and the compressor 20, in which the ballast 7 is separated in a known manner from the tangentially introduced suction air flow by centrifugal force and falls down. The lower end of the cyclone separator 24 can be covered airtight by a closure flap 49. Another cyclone separator, which is arranged directly underneath and also has a closure flap, forms an airlock 25, via which the sucked-in ballast 7 subsequently arrives at the conveying device 11 for removal. The suction air is then passed through an air filter system 26, in the a dust filter 27, the dust particles contained in the air are filtered out and collected in the lower area of the system. The dust collected in a storage container is cyclically transferred to the conveyor 11 with the machine 1 at a standstill by means of a discharge device 29 designed as a screw conveyor 28 and transported away together with the ballast 7 via the transfer conveyor belt 12.

3 and 4, the two clearing elements 9 for feeding the ballast 7 to the associated intake manifold 22 are each designed as an endless clearing chain 30, which is provided around an approximately horizontally extending clearing bar 31 with both ends thereof Deflection rollers 32 is guided. The two broaching bars 31 are arranged on the machine 1 in mirror image with respect to a vertical plane of symmetry running in the longitudinal direction of the machine, but offset from one another or spaced apart from one another in the longitudinal direction of the machine. Each broaching beam 31 is equipped at its one end 34 located in the sleeper front area with a rotary drive 50 for the clearing chain 30 and is connected to a supporting frame 36 via a vertical, columnar support 35. This is distanced from the clearing bar 31 in the vertical direction and extends in the cross machine direction. The carrier 35 is rotatably mounted on the support frame 36 and thus forms a vertical pivot axis 37 about which the clearing bar 31 can be pivoted in a horizontal plane by means of rotary drives 38 articulated on the support frame 36.

Each support frame 36 has a bar-shaped design and is adjustably mounted in a transverse guide 39 designed as a hollow profile in the transverse direction of the machine. The support frame 36 is also connected to a transverse displacement drive 40 and rests on a bearing roller 41 for the purpose of transverse displacement. The transverse guide 39 is in turn attached to the lower end of a vertically extending guide column 42, which is mounted for height adjustment in a vertical guide 43 mounted on the machine frame 5 and is displaceable by means of a height adjustment drive 44. For additional support in relation to the machine frame 5 in the longitudinal direction of the machine, each transverse guide 39 is equipped with a support roller 45, which can be rolled in the vertical direction in the course of the height adjustment on a support rail 46 connected to the machine frame 5. The transverse guide 39 is fastened to the guide column 42 via an axis shaft 47 oriented in the longitudinal direction of the machine, so that the support frame 36 in a transverse direction of the machine extending vertical plane can be pivoted or tilted. For this purpose, tilt drives 48 are arranged between the guide column 42 and the transverse guide 39.

In the use or working position shown in FIG. 4, the swivel axis 37 of the clearing member 9 is located in the fore-head region of the sleepers 51 of the track 3. The length of the clearing bar 31 is designed in accordance with the respective sleeper length of the track to be processed and is in the case of a normal-gauge track about 3.25 meters (the length of the clearing bar is correspondingly shorter for a machine intended for use in narrow-gauge tracks). The suction opening 23 or the suction nozzle 22 is likewise arranged in the front of the sleeper at the end 34 of the clearing bar 31 which has the pivot axis 37 and is placed directly above the deflecting area 33 of the clearing chain 30 in the working direction directly in front of the latter. However, an arrangement of the suction opening in the working direction behind the clearing chain 30 would also be conceivable. The intake manifold 22 is connected to the support 35 in a height-adjustable manner via a drive 52, with which the suction opening 23 can be adjusted in the vertical direction with respect to the ballast brought in by the clearing chain 30. In the suction opening 23 on the outside of the machine adjacent area of the broaching member 9, a vertical deflection plate 53 is provided which is connected to the broaching bar 31 or carrier 35 and which - in the deployed position of the broaching member 9 - runs parallel to the machine longitudinal direction and interacts with the broaching chain 30 to keep the ballast in Accumulate the deflection area 33 and concentrate it under the suction opening 23.

During the transfer to the work station, the two clearing elements 9 are in a raised position, pivoted parallel to the longitudinal direction of the machine, entirely within the clearance profile 54 (indicated by dash-dotted lines in FIG. 4) (see dash-dotted outline lines 56 of the clearing elements in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4) ). The transfer of the clearing elements 9 into the working position begins when the transverse displacement drives 40 are acted on until the clearing beams 31 come to lie above the threshold front area. The support frames 36 are then lowered using the height adjustment drives 44. As soon as the clearing chains 30 contact the surface of the ballast, the rotary drives 50 are also switched on, as a result of which the clearing beams 31 cut into the ballast bed 2 until the upper sides of the clearing beams 31 are below the undersides the thresholds 51 are located. (If necessary, a corresponding recess must be made beforehand to accommodate the clearing beam in the sleeper front area). The broaching bar 31 is then pivoted horizontally by approximately 90 ° by means of the rotary drives 38 and the compressor 20 is switched on in order to start the ballast extraction. Via the tilt drives 48, each broaching beam 31 is pivoted, if necessary, in a vertical plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the machine, in order to give the surface of the surface exposed by the broaching chain 30 the necessary cross slope that favors the drainage of the ballast bed. During the ballast extraction, the drive 1 55 is subjected to a continuous work advance of the machine 1. The terms "horizontal" and "vertical" used in the text refer to the situation in which the machine is on a straight track running in a horizontal plane .

The combination of a suction arrangement with a clearing beam according to the invention can of course also be used in connection with a continuous cleaning of the absorbed ballast by a screening plant.

Claims (14)

1. A machine (1) for removing ballast of a track ballast bed (2) by suction, comprising a machine frame (5) designed for travelling on the track (3) by means of on-track undercarriages (4), a suction arrangement (8) having a suction pipe stub (22) with a suction opening (23), and an excavating member (9) for transporting the ballast to the suction opening (23), the excavating member cooperating with the said suction arrangement and being both vertically displaceable and rotatable about a vertical pivot axis (37) by means of drives (44,38), characterized in that the excavating member (9) associated with the suction arrangement (8) is designed as an endless excavating chain (30) guided around an excavating beam (31) extending approximately horizontally with guide rollers (32) provided on each end, the pivot axis (37) being provided at one end (34) of the excavating beam (31) and in the operating position being provided in the sleeper end region, and in that in addition the suction opening (23) of the suction pipe stub (22) is arranged for vertical displacement in the sleeper end region.
2. A machine according to claim 1, characterized in that the suction opening (23) is arranged directly above a deflection region (33) of the excavating chain (30) or of the excavating member (9).
3. A machine according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the excavating beam (31) is constructed with a length of at least 2.60 m up to preferably about 3.25 m.
4. A machine according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the excavating beam (31) is attached at its end (34) having the pivot axis (37) by means of a vertical support (35) to a support frame (36) extending in the transverse direction of the machine and distanced in the vertical direction away from the excavating beam (31).
5. A machine according to claim 4, characterized in that the beam-shaped support frame (36) is mounted for displacement with respect to its longitudinal direction in a transverse guide (39) supported on the machine frame (5) and is connected to a transverse displacement drive (40).
6. A machine according to one of claims 4 or 5, characterized in that the transverse guide (39) on which the support frame (36) and the excavating beam (31) are mounted is connected to a guide column (42) arranged in a vertical guide (43) on the machine frame (5) and is vertically displaceable relative to the machine frame (5) by means of a vertical displacement drive (44).
7. A machine according to claim 6, characterized in that the transverse guide (39) is mounted on the guide column (42) by means of a shaft (47) extending in the longitudinal direction of the machine and is pivotable relative to the said guide column by means of a tilting drive (48) in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the machine.
8. A machine according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that associated with the excavating beam (31) in the region adjoining the suction opening (23) on the exterior side of the machine is a baffle plate (53) which extends approximately vertically and perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the excavating beam (31).
9. A machine according to one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the machine (1) is provided with two excavating beams (31) situated opposite one another with respect to a vertical plane of symmetry running in the longitudinal direction of the machine and arranged at a distance from one another in the longitudinal direction of the machine.
10. A machine according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the suction arrangement (8) has a cyclone separator (24) arranged between the suction pipe stub (22) and a compressor (20), a conveyor (11) for transporting away the separated ballast (7) being associated with the said cyclone separator, with an air lock (25) connected therebetween.
11. A machine according to claim 10, characterized in that a transfer conveyor belt (12) projecting over one end of the machine frame (5) is associated with the conveyor (11).
12. A machine according to one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that the suction arrangement (8) is provided with a dust filter (27) for the suction air, arranged between the cyclone separator (24) and the compressor (20).
13. A machine according to claim 12, characterized in that a discharge device (29), designed as a screw conveyor (28), is associated with the dust filter (27) for discharging the filtered-out dust onto the conveyor (11).
14. A machine according to one of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that the machine (1) is provided with an operator's cab (10) arranged on the machine frame (5) in the region of the excavating members (9), a track lifting device (17), a ballast discharge arrangement (16) - arranged following the excavating members (9) with respect to the operating direction of the machine - for introducing new ballast (15) into the track (3), and with a track tamping unit (18).

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