US3900392A

US3900392A - Ballast cleaner

Info

Publication number: US3900392A
Application number: US419876A
Authority: US
Inventors: Martin J Speno; Anthony T Bruno
Original assignee: Speno International SA
Current assignee: Speno International SA; Frank Speno Railroad Ballast Cleaning Co Inc
Priority date: 1973-11-28
Filing date: 1973-11-28
Publication date: 1975-08-19
Anticipated expiration: 1992-08-19
Also published as: JPS50127308A; DE2456027A1; CA1012843A; FR2252446A1; BR7409932A; AU7550974A; IT1023424B; AR201394A1

Abstract

Ballast cleaner mechanism carried by a railroad car along a railroad track in which an infeed conveyor supported on the car receives the dirty ballast and divides it into a multiplicity of substantially equal streams of ballast which are discharged laterally on opposite sides of the conveyor at predetermined locations along its length onto a similar plurality of shaker screens. The clean ballast from these screens is discharged onto a clean ballast conveyor, disposed beneath and generally parallel to the infeed conveyor for delivery to a suitable discharge point, while dirt conveyors disposed on opposite sides of and parallel to the clean ballast conveyor are located beneath the respective screens for reception and removal of the dirt sifted through the screens from the dirty ballast.

Description

United States Patent [1 1 Speno et al.

[ 1 Aug. 19, 1975 1 1 BALLAST CLEANER [73] Assignee: Frank Speno Railroad Ballast Cleaning Company, lnc., lthaca, N.Y.

22 Filed: Nov. 28, 1973 211 Appl. No.: 419,876

[52) US. Cl. 209/241; 209/421; 37/104; 171/16 [51] Int. Cl. B078 H00 [58] Field of Search "37/104,107; 171/16', 209/420, 421 241, 240, 243, 247, 254; 198/188, 66

156] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 679,500 7/1901 Edison H 209/241 X 1,575,352 3/1926 Maclaren. t. 198/188 X 1,793,339 2/1931 Elmer 209/420 X 1,982,824 12/1934 Miltenberger t l t 198/188 2,718,959 9/1955 Van Otteren 198/188 X 2,734,730 2/1956 Talboys l 171/16 3.366.238 H1968 Holley l l 209/421 X 3,721,331 3/1973 Holbrook 198/66 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATlONS 417,745 10/1934 United Kingdom 171/16 Primary Liraminer-Robert Halper Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Watson, Cole, Grindle & Watson [5 7 ABSTRACT Ballast cleaner mechanism carried by a railroad car along a railroad track in which an infeed Conveyor supported on the car receives the dirty ballast and divides it into a multiplicity of substantially equal streams of ballast which are discharged laterally on opposite sides of the conveyor at predetermined locations along its length onto a similar plurality of shaker screens. The clean ballast from these screens is discharged onto a clean ballast conveyor, disposed beneath and generally parallel to the infeed conveyor for delivery to a suitable discharge point, while dirt conveyors disposed on opposite sides of and parallel to the clean ballast conveyor are located beneath the respective screens for reception and removal of the dirt sifted through the screens from the dirty ballast.

1] Claims, 7 Drawing Figures PATENTED AUG 1 9 I975 Fig. 2

PATENTED AUG 1 91975 BALLAST CLEANER This invention relates to improvements in a ballast cleaner of the type such as generally disclosed in and exemplified by the prior Speno US Pat. Nos. I,-)5l,45l of Mar. 20, I934 and 3,316,666 of May 2. 1967.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In prior ballast cleaning machines, such as exemplified by the foregoing patents. the ballast cleaner was carried by a flat car to be pulled by a locomotive in the usual manner at a comparatively slow rate of speed. By means of suitable scoops carried by one or more cars in advance of the cleaning mechanism, the dirty ballast was picked up from the road bed lying along the side of the track just beyond the ends of the cross ties and delivered by suitable conveying and feeding mechanism to the ballast cleaning machine or apparatus.

The ballast cleaning apparatus included a vibrating screen, generally inclined in the direction of travel of the train to sift the dirt through said screen onto a suitable dirt discharge conveyor and to deliver the cleaned stone by gravity onto a suitable stone conveyor or conveyor system for return to the roadbed adjacent the ends of the ties.

In such prior machines, the entire volume of dirty ballast to be treated was delivered onto the single vibrating screen which, as above mentioned, was inclined in the direction of travel so as to achieve a gravity feed of the ballast to the lower discharge end of the screen, while the screen was generally, substantially parallel to the bed of the flat car in a transverse or lateral direction, so as normally to be horizontal when proceeding along straight portions of the track. However. the super elevation of the tracks at curves resulted in a lateral tilting of the vibrating screen, causing the ballast thereon to gravitate to its low side and to reduce the screening area and capacity.

All of the ballast during the cleaning process was required to proceed over the same screening area, thereby limiting the capacity of the apparatus.

The invention has been conceived with the foregoing considerations in mind and has as its primary objects: to provide a ballast cleaner which achieves a maximum cleaning capacity with the use of a minimum bulk of machinery and. in particular. which provides a maximum effective screening area within the space normally available on a common railroad flat car; to provide such apparatus which may fully utilize the entire screening area, regardless of the tilting resulting from passage around curves; and to provide such apparatus in which substantially equal portions of dirty ballast are simultaneously fed to and acted upon by a plurality of shaker conveyors. Also, it is an incidental object to provide such a machine or apparatus in which the conveyor which normally delivers the ballast simultaneously to the plurality of shaker screens, may readily be adapted to bypass these screens and instead to deliver it directly to the dirt discharge conveyor for discharge to a suitable location. somewhat remote from the track in the event it is intended to completely replace such ballast.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, the ballast cleaner mechanism is adapted for transport along a railroad track by a generally conventional flat car and includes an infeed conveyor for carrying the dirty ballast generally horizontally and parallel to the rails, together with means for discharging the dirty ballast laterally from the infeed conveyor in substantially equal streams at longitudinally spaced locations along the infeed conveyor. Shaker screens beneath the infeed conveyor at the respective longitudinally spaced locations receive said streams of dirty ballast and discharge it onto a common longitudinally moving clean ballast conveyor. Dirt conveyers extend longitudinally beneath the shaker screens for reception and removal of the dirt from the respective said screens.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in detail in the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. I is a plan view of a ballast cleaner in accordance with the invention, supported on a generally conventional flat car for movement along a railroad track.

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of said ballast cleaner.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged end elevation of one of the shaker screen units of the preferred embodiment, the various conveyors being shown in vertical section.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary side elevation at the intake end of the infeed conveyor and the adjacent shaker screen unit.

FIG. 5 is a sectional elevation substantially on the line 5-5 of FIG. 4, and;

FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic plan view showing the preferred geographic arrangement of the two rows of shaker screen units and their drive mechanisms.

FIG. 7 is an end view showing the respective drive mechanisms for two of the screen units in their respec tive rows.

Referring now in detail to the accompanying drawings. and more particularly to the general arrangement of components as illustrated more or less diagrammatically in FIGS. 1 and 2, the letter A designates a generally conventional flat car supported on flanged wheels for rolling movement along a railroad track defined by the parallel rails B. supported on cross ties C on a usual road bed, wherein the ties themselves are embedded in ballast, usually consisting of crushed rock, extending beneath the cross ties and outwardly a substantial distance beyond their ends.

As is well known and as shown by the prior Speno US. Pat. Nos. I.95l,45l and 3.316.666, above mentioned, the flat car A which carries the ballast cleaning mechanism of the invention, normally is part of a train of several cars which are pulled by a locomotive at a comparatively slow rate of speed in a direction toward the left as seen in FIGS. 1 and 2. Through the use of suitable scoops carried by one or more cars in advance of the flat car A, as exemplified in the said Speno patents. dirty ballast is picked up from the roadbed along the sides of the track just beyond the ends of the cross ties and delivered by suitable conveying mechanism, here represented fragmentarily by the discharge end of a supply conveyor D. which discharges into the generally conventional infeed hopper E for delivery onto and distribution completely across the infeed conveyor F of the ballast cleaning mechanism of the invention.

The infeed conveyor F. includes means designated generally by the letter G for dividing the inflowing dirty ballast on the conveyor into a plurality of substantially uniform longitudinal bands or streams and discharging the respective streams transversely at predetermined longitudinal locations, preferably on both lateral sides of that conveyor.

Two rows of longitudinally aligned shaker screens H. respectively, beneath the opposite side edges of the infeed conveyor E are located at and beneath the respective discharge locations for simultaneous reception of the plurality of discharge streams of dirty ballast, whereby the entire plurality of shaker screens may simultaneously receive and screen out the dirt from the dirty ballast.

The said screens are arranged to discharge the clean ballast beneath the infeed conveyor F onto a clean ballast or stone conveyor J which extends generally horizontally beneath and in substantial vertical registry with the infeed conveyor F.

The clean ballast conveyor then discharges the clean ballast in a forward direction with respect to the travel of the car A for reception in a generally conventional clean ballast return hopper K, more commonly referred to as a stone box, by which it is returned to the roadbed to replace the dirty ballast previously scooped up for processing by the ballast cleaner mechanism of the present invention.

Extending longitudinally beneath the respective rows of shaker screens H are dirt conveyors L. These con veyors respectively are disposed on opposite, lateral sides of the centrally located clean ballast conveyor J and preferably in substantially a common horizontal plane therewith, so that each dirt conveyor has its operative run disposed directly beneath one row of the shaker screens H. The operative runs of the respective dirt conveyors carry the dirt rearwardly with respect to the travel of the flat car A and deliver it onto intermediate dirt conveyors M which elevate and discharge the dirt into a dirt hopper N for delivery onto a dirt discharge conveyor P, which may be of generally conventional construction and is therefore but diagrammatically illustrated. The illustrative form of dirt discharge conveyor P is of the boom type, the frame of which supports the dirt hopper N. The entire conveyor is supported for swinging movement about a substantially vertical axis at its receiving end extending through the center of the dirt hopper, whereby the latter may always be located properly for reception of the dirt discharged from the intermediate dirt conveyors M, At the same time, the free end of the dirt discharge conveyor may be directed to either lateral side of the track to discharge the dirt at a location comparatively remote from the roadbed.

As was earlier indicated, the supply conveyor D for the dirty ballast and the infeed hopper B may be conventionally constructed and arranged, their details constituting no part of the instant invention. The infeed conveyor F per se also may constitute a conventional belt conveyor, the opposite ends of which are supported around rolls such as 11 in FIGS. 3 and 4, the shaft of each roll being suitably, rotatably supported by upright frame members such as 13-13 in FIG. 3. [t is to be understood that the upper operative horizontal run of the conveyor F is driven rearwardly with respect to the direction of travel of the flat car A, or in a direction from left to right in FIGS. I and 4 of the drawings.

For assisting the infeed hopper E in distributing the incoming dirty ballast uniformly across the surface of the infeed conveyor F, there may be provided suitable means, such as the driven eccentrics l0, engaging the under surface of the operative run of the conveyor for imparting vertical vibration thereto.

The means for dividing and deflecting the conveyed dirty ballast, so as to discharge it at predetermined longitudinal locations from opposite sides of the conveyor, is here exemplified as a series of uniformly spaced, parallel and vertical divider plates or partitions l5, fixedly supported above the operative run of the conveyor F to define a plurality of parallel troughs of uniform width through which substantially equal amounts of dirty stone are conveyed and divided into equal portions.

For laterally discharging the said portions from opposite sides of the conveyor F, each partition 15 merges with and terminates in a transversely outwardly directed downstream end portion in the form of a deflector 16. The said deflectors are spaced uniformly in a longitudinal direction along the conveyor to thus define a uniformly spaced series of predetermined discharge locations, said locations along each side of the conveyor being respectively located immediately above the respective shaker screens H of the row of shaker screens extending along its respective side.

The rows of shaker screens H in the preferred embodiment are supported by a rigid framework consisting of longitudinal rows of upright'standards 17 anchored to the floor or deck of the flat car A and tied together at their upper ends by longitudinal and transverse

horizontal beams

18 and 19, respectively, as best illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4. Also, medially of the height of the standards 17 of each transversely opposed pair, the same are interconnected by a transverse beam 20.

The shaker screens H of the respective rows of such screens slope downwardly and inwardly toward the longitudinal center line of the car A with their lower discharge end over the clean ballast conveyor so that the ballast, after having had the dirt sifted therefrom through the several shaker screens of the respective conveyors, is delivered onto the clean ballast return hopper or stonebox K and eventual return to the roadbed.

In each inclined shaker screen unit, the perforated screen 21 is supported in a rigid framework, including relatively longitudinally spaced channel members defining vertical end walls 22. Each end wall is swingably suspended by relatively parallel links 23 for horizontal vibration which is imparted thereto from any suitable drive means.

Such drive means includes an eccentric shaft 24 rotatably supported in the shaker frame as shown in FIGS. 3, 4 and 5. Each shaft 24 has keyed thereon a sheave wheel 25 through which rotary motion may be imparted to the shaft 24 by way of a flexible drive from a suitable power source supported by the rigid shaker frame.

The eccentric shaft 24 for each shaker unit has a pair of

eccentrics

28 and 29 at each end thereof. The eccentrics 28 transmit vibration through connecting rods 30 to the left hand shaker unit screen A of each transversely opposed pair of such units. To this end, the connecting rods 30 are provided at one end with bearings 31 which are joumalled on the respective eccentrics 28, while at its opposite end each connecting rod has a bearing 32 joumalled on a cross shaft 33 afiixed to its associated shaker unit H.

Similarly, the eccentrics 29 of each cross shaft are connected by the connecting rods 30' to cross shafts 33' of the shaker units of the transversely opposed row of such units.

Preferably the eccentrics 28 are located in opposite phase to the eccentrics 29 so that each pair of relatively transversely opposed shaker screens will be caused to vibrate in opposite phase to each other, whereby the vibrations ofone row of said units will be in opposition to and substantially cancel the vibrations of the other row and thus greatly reduce the resulting stresses on the supporting frame structure and the flat car A.

In order to permit the disposition of the greatest possible number of shaker units on a flat car A, it is desirable as shown in FIG. 6, that the eccentric shafts 24 of adjacent shaker screen units and their drive shafts 25, be relatively laterally offset with respect to each other.

The clean ballast conveyor J onto which the clean ballast is delivered from both rows of shaker screens, and also the dirt conveyors LL, may conveniently comprise conventional belt conveyors driven in any suitable manner, the details of the conveyors and their drive means constituting no part of the present invention and thus not being shown or described in detail.

OPERATION The mode of operation of the preferred embodiment, which is believed to be readily apparent from the accompanying drawings and the foregoing detailed description, is as follows: Dirty ballast delivered to the ballast cleaner by the supply conveyor D is received in the hopper E and delivered thereby substantially across the entire surface the infeed conveyor F, such distribution across the surface of the infeed conveyor being assisted by vibration of the receiving end of that conveyor by means of the rotating eccentrics 10. The supply of dirty ballast is then carried along by the operative upper run of the conveyor F in a direction from left to right as seen in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4. During its movement on the conveyor, the dirty ballast is divided by the longitudinal partitions into a plurality of substantially equal bands or streams which are discharged from opposite sides of the conveyor at predetermined locations determined by the deflectors 16.

The discharged streams of dirty ballast are thus received upon the respective shaker screens H of each of the two rows of said shaker screens respectively on opposite sides of the infeed conveyor. After being cleaned by sifting of the dirt therefrom, the clean ballast from both rows of conveyors is discharged by gravity onto the common clean ballast conveyor J for delivery to the stone box K and return to the roadbed, to replace the dirty stone originally scooped up therefrom.

Because of the advantageous arrangement and combination of the infeed conveyor, the longitudinal rows of shaker screens therebeneath, all discharging onto the common clean ballast conveyor and their respectively associated dirty conveyors, it will be readily apparent that the ballast cleaner of the invention is capable of achieving an extremely efiicient and rapid cleaning action on a large volume of dirty ballast. It will be particularly apparent that because of the foregoing arrangement and combination, there is achieved a maximum cleaning capacity through the use ofa maximum effective screening area, and yet the space requirements for such apparatus are no greater than is nor mally required in less efficient types of ballast cleaners as heretofore known in the prior art.

Moreover, it is to be particularly noted that because of the use of the longitudinal partitions or dividers 15 in association with the infeed conveyor, and the fact that the slope or inclination of each shaker screen is substantially greater than the tilt that will be imparted to the flat car A during movement around a curve, any such tilting will have no appreciable effect on reducing the amount of screening area which is in effective use at any time and moreover will not detract from the substantially equal distribution of dirty ballast to the respective shaker screens, so that all of them may continue to operate both uniformly and efficiently.

In this application, I have shown and described only the preferred embodiment of the invention, simply by way of illustration of the practice of the invention, but without any intention of limiting it to the specific embodiment and details thereof, herein disclosed. Quite obviously, the invention is capable of other and different embodiments and its several details may be moditied in various respects by persons skilled in the art, all without departing from the invention as defined in the accompanying claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A ballast cleaner for transport by a railroad car along the rails of a railroad track comprising: An infeed conveyor for dirty ballast supported on said car and having an operative run at an elevation substantially above said car, moving longitudinally of the car in a direction parallel to the said rails; means for removing dirty ballast in lateral directions continuously and in substantially equal streams from said conveyor at locations spaced apart longitudinally thereof; a longitudinal row of shaker screens beneath the infeed conveyor at the respective said locations for reception of the respective increments of dirty ballast; said screens all having discharge ends beneath said infeed conveyor for discharge of cleaned ballast, transversely to the infeed conveyor movement; a longitudinally moving a clean ballast conveyor disposed for simultaneous reception of clean ballast from the discharge ends of the respective said shaker screens and for conveying said clean ballast to a predetermined discharge point; and a dirt conveyor extending longitudinally beneath all of the screens of said row for reception and removal of the dirt sifted through said screens.

2. A ballast cleaner as defined in claim 1 including two said rows of shaker screens beneath said infeed conveyor both discharging clean ballast onto said clean ballast conveyor, and a pair of said dirt conveyors disposed respectively beneath the said rows of screens on opposite sides of said clean ballast conveyor.

3. A ballast cleaner as defined in claim 2 in which said clean ballast conveyor and said dirt conveyors are all disposed at a common horizontal level.

4. A ballast cleaner to be carried by a railroad car along a railroad track for treating the ballast from the road bed of said track, comprising: an infeed conveyor supported on said car for receiving and transporting dirty ballast from the road bed, said conveyor having an operative run at an elevation above the car and moving longitudinally thereof in a direction parallel to the railroad track; means for simultaneously deflecting the conveyed dirty ballast in opposite lateral directions from said conveyor at each of a plurality of predetermined longitudinal locations on opposite sides thereof; two rows of longitudinally aligned shaker screens, said rows of shaker screens being located respectively beneath the opposite sides of said infeed conveyor at said respective predetermined longitudinal locations for simultaneous reception of said dirty ballast; each of said shaker screens discharging clean ballast beneath said infeed conveyor; and a longitudinally moving clean ballast conveyor disposed beneath said infeed conveyor and between said rows of shaker screens for reception of clean ballast from the respective said shaker screens and for conveying said clean ballast longitudinally to a point of discharge.

5. A ballast cleaner as defined in claim 4 including longitudinally moving dirt conveyors disposed on opposite side of and parallel to said clean ballast conveyor beneath the respective shaker screens for reception and removal of the dirt sifted through said screens.

6. A ballast cleaner as defined in claim 5 in which said dirt conveyors move in an opposite direction from said clean ballast conveyor.

7. A ballast cleaner for transport along the rails of a railroad track comprising: an infeed conveyor for dirty ballast having an operative generally horizontal run moving longitudinally in a direction parallel to the said rails; means for simultaneously deflecting the dirty ballast laterally from the infeed conveyor in substantially equal streams at longitudinally spaced locations along the infeed conveyor; a row of longitudinally aligned shaker screens beneath said infeed conveyor at the respective longitudinally spaced locations for simultaneously receiving the streams of dirty ballast from said infeed conveyor; said shaker sew I iping downwardly transversely to the sin: mfced conveyor and having discharge ends aligned longitudinally at a common level; and a longitudinally moving stone conveyor disposed for reception of the cleaned ballast from all of said screens and for conveying said cleaned ballast to a predetermined discharge point.

8. A ballast cleaner as defined in claim 7 including a dirt conveyor having an operative run beneath said row of shaker screens and moving parallel to said clean ballast conveyor for reception and removal of dirt sifted through said screens.

9. A ballast cleaner as defined in claim 8 in which all of said conveyors and said row of shaker screens are substantially longitudinally coextensive said clean ballast conveyor and said dirt conveyor being at a common horizontal level, whereby to achieve a compact arrangement of said ballast cleaner.

10. A ballast cleaner as defined in claim 8 in which said clean ballast conveyor is spaced beneath and parallel to said infeed conveyor, the discharge ends of said shaker screens projecting between the said dirty ballast and clean ballast conveyors.

11. A ballast cleaner as defined in claim 10. wherein said discharge ends of the shaker screens project between the said dirty ballast conveyor and stone conveyor from opposite lateral sides of the respective conveyors.

Claims

1. A BALLAST CLEANER FOR TRANSPORT BY A RAILROAD CAR ALONG THE RAILS OF A RAILROAD TRACK COMPRISING: AN INFEED CONVEYOR FOR DIRTY BALLAST SUPPORTED ON SAID CAR AND HAVING AN OPERATIVE RUN AT AN ELEVATION SUBSTANTIALLY ABOVE SAID CAR, MOVING LONGITUDINALLY OF THE CAR IN A DIRECTION PARALLEL TO THE SAID RAILS: MEANS FOR REMOVING DIRTY BALLAST IN LATERAL DIRECTIONS CONTINOUSLY AND IN SUBSTANTIALLY EQUAL STREAMS FROM SAID CONVEYOR AT LOCATIONS SPACED APART LONGITUDINALLY THEREOF, A LONGITUDINAL ROW OF SHAKER SCREENS BENEATH THE INFEED CONVEYOR AT THE RESPECTIVE SAID LOCATIONS FOR RECEPTION OF THE RESPECTIVE INCREMENTS OF DIRTY BALLAST, SAID SCREENS ALL HAVING DISCHARGE ENDS BENEATH SAID INFEED CONVEYOR FOR DISCHARGE OF CLEANED BALLAST, TRANSVERSELY TO THE INFEED CONVEYOR MOVEMENT, A LONGITUDINALLY RECEPTION OF CLEAN BALLAST FROM THE DISCHARGE ENDS OF THE RESPECTIVE SAID SHAKER SCREENS AND FOR CONVEYING SAID CLEAN BALLAST TO A PREDETERMINED DISCHARGE POINT, AND A DIRT CONVEYOR EXTENDING LONGITUDINALLY BENEATH ALL OF THE SCREENS OF MOVING A CLEAN BALLAST CONVEYOR DISPOSED FOR SIMULTANEOUS SAID ROW FOR RECEPTION AND REMOVAL OF THE DIRT SIFTED THROUGH

7. A ballast cleaner for transport along the rails of a railroad track comprising: an infeed conveyor for dirty ballast having an operative generally horizontal run moving longitudinally in a direction parallel to the said rails; means for simultaneously deflecting the dirty ballast laterally from the infeed conveyor in substantially equal streams at longitudinally spaced locations along the infeed conveyor; a row of longitudinally aligned shaker screens beneath said infeed conveyor at the respective longitudinally spaced locations for simultaneously receiving the streams of dirty ballast from said infeed conveyor; said shaker screens sloping downwardly transversely to the said infeed conveyor and having discharge ends aligned longitudinally at a common level; and a longitudinally moving stone conveyor disposed for reception of the cleaned ballast from all of said screens and for conveying saiD cleaned ballast to a predetermined discharge point.

9. A ballast cleaner as defined in claim 8 in which all of said conveyors and said row of shaker screens are substantially longitudinally coextensive, said clean ballast conveyor and said dirt conveyor being at a common horizontal level, whereby to achieve a compact arrangement of said ballast cleaner.

11. A ballast cleaner as defined in claim 10, wherein said discharge ends of the shaker screens project between the said dirty ballast conveyor and stone conveyor from opposite lateral sides of the respective conveyors.