EP0436757B1 - Railway track tamping machine - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a track tamping machine for tamping the sleepers of a track with a tamping unit which is immersed in the ballast and which can be provided with drives and vibratable tamping tools, a track lifting and straightening unit and a device for uniform ballasting of the track.

According to AT-PS 389 336, such a track tamping machine with a tamping and a track lifting straightening unit is already known. In the working direction, these two working units are preceded by a device designed as ballast storage for uniform ballasting of the track. The ballast storage has controllable outlet chutes and can be loaded with ballast via a conveyor belt arrangement and a center plow arranged at the front end region of the machine or a sweeping device. With such a tamping machine, for example, the discharge quantities of the cleaned ballast of a ballast bed cleaning machine which vary due to a different amount of overburden can be compensated for by picking up the ballast plow in areas with excess ballast and throwing it into the ballast storage via the conveyor belt arrangement. In track areas with too little ballast thrown off by the cleaning machine, the ballast stored in the ballast storage of the tamping machine is discharged onto the track via the outlet chutes as required. In this way, the different track ballast can be compensated to some extent.

It is also - according to DE-PS 32 36 723 - a mobile Track correction machine with a track lifting device and a device for blowing in bedding material, such as gravel, split or the like, known under the raised sleepers. The blowing device consists of a blowing pipe to be inserted into the ballast bed on the left and right of the rail on one long side of the sleeper and from a storage container that can be filled with the bedding material for blowing in additional bedding material. In the area of its tapered lower end, each injection tube has an outlet opening on the side facing the sleeper, the cross section of which is only slightly larger than the passage cross section of the entire injection tube. Between a storage container and the injection pipe, a metering device connected to a drive is provided for dispensing a precisely measured amount of ballast.

The object of the present invention is to create a track tamping machine of the type described in the introduction, with which track sections with insufficiently filled sleeper compartments can also be permanently tamped.

This object is achieved in that each tamping tool is assigned an outlet opening of the device for discharging ballast.

This direct assignment of the outlet openings to the respective tamping tools makes it possible for the first time to precisely fill the threshold compartments located directly in the tamping area immediately before the tamping process is carried out. The operator is able to dispense the required amount of ballast in a particularly advantageous manner at the same time as checking the track for the tamping. It therefore consists of the invention trained tamping machine the possibility of ensuring the durability of the tamping, especially in switch sections having differently filled sleeper compartments, so that these very expensive track sections can be optimally tamped even without the use of a separate ballast plow.

According to a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, it is provided that the outlet openings are designed so that they can be closed by a central control device and are arranged directly in front of the tamping tools in the direction in which they are provided. This makes it possible to perform the metering of the amount of ballast to be thrown even more precisely and, above all, to reduce the path of the ballast discharge for its rapid implementation to the short distance between the outlet openings and the ballast bed surface.

According to another development of the invention, the outlet openings form the end of at least partially flexible ballast distribution pipes which are connected to the tamping unit frame and whose other ends are connected to a funnel-shaped ballast distributor. The use of ballast distribution pipes designed in this way permits a continuous transport of ballast to the outlet openings without the work of the tamping units being impaired thereby.

According to another advantageous development of the invention, a ballast store connected to these is arranged above the outlet openings assigned to each tamping tool and the ballast distribution pipes or the ballast distributor. As a result of this training, it is ensured that even with prolonged use of the machine, enough ballast for one uniform containment of the threshold compartments is available.

Another preferred embodiment of the invention consists in that the ballast storage has a storage conveyor belt which can be set in motion by means of a drive. With such a storage conveyor belt, the amount of ballast to be thrown through the outlet openings directly in the area of the tamping tools can be precisely metered with little design effort. This metering can be carried out in a particularly simple manner by appropriately loading the drive assigned to the storage conveyor belt, the ballast falling from the discharge point of the storage conveyor belt being fed directly to the corresponding outlet openings via the ballast distribution pipes.

According to another embodiment variant of the invention, the ballast store can also have two conveyor belts arranged next to one another in the transverse direction of the machine in a common horizontal plane, each with its own drive, with each discharge point being assigned its own ballast distributor pipe, each connected to one of the two tamping units. This arrangement of two mutually independent conveyor belts as the floor surface of the ballast store enables the ballast thrown off in the area of the respective tamping units to be metered independently of one another with only little additional construction effort. This means that the sleeper compartments located in the area of the sleeper to be tamped can be filled differently in the respective tamping support area, so that, for example, if a sleeper cannot be tamped due to a track obstacle, the opposite sleeper compartment area can still be ballasted without hindrance.

Above the ballast storage one can In another embodiment of the invention, a discharge end of a conveyor belt arrangement may be provided, the receiving end of which is assigned to a height-adjustable sweeping device. With this design, an automatic filling of the ballast storage in track sections with excessive track ballast is possible, so that even longer track sections can be ballasted evenly without the time-consuming interruptions in the right of way required for filling the ballast storage.

A further advantageous embodiment of the invention consists in that between the outlet openings assigned to each tamping tool and the sweeping device following in the working direction of the machine, a height-adjustable center plow and on each longitudinal side of the machine a flank plow arranged upstream thereof are provided. With the aid of the middle plow and the side plows, excess ballast can be transferred from the side areas of the ballast bedding to the track center area and then fed to the ballast storage or the outlet openings in the area of the tamping tools via the sweeping device.

According to a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the outlet openings are arranged in the lower end region of the tamping unit frame, the latter being partially hollow to form the ballast distribution pipes. With this design, the ballast can be fed to the outlet openings in the area of the tamping tools with little additional design effort and without impairing the height adjustment of the tamping unit and the availability of the tamping tools.

Another advantageous development of the invention consists in that the ballast distribution pipes between the tamping unit frame and the funnel-shaped ballast distributors arranged above the tamping unit frame are flexible. These allow an unimpeded transverse displacement of the tamping unit frame together with the tamping units to center them over the corresponding rail.

According to another advantageous embodiment of the invention, on each side of each tamping unit running parallel to the longitudinal direction of the machine, a ballast distributor pipe, each with two outlet openings, is fastened to the center of the tamping unit frame of the tamping unit between the two longitudinally opposite tamping tools. This arrangement of the ballast distribution pipes is particularly suitable for retrofitting in tamping machines that are already in use. It is also possible to quickly retrofit the tamping machine for tamping in a normally ballasted track without ballast distribution pipes.

Finally, there is a further advantageous embodiment of the tamping machine in that an approximately vertical ballast distribution pipe is arranged in the center between the two tamping units each associated with a rail, the transverse distribution pipes with one tamping tool each running in its lower end region transverse to the two tamping units and fastened to the tamping unit frame has associated outlet openings. Due to the central feeding of the ballast to the two tamping units, no structural changes are necessary on them.

The invention is described in more detail below with reference to several exemplary embodiments shown in the drawing.

Show it:

• 1 shows a side view of a track tamping machine designed in accordance with the invention with a device for even ballasting the track in the form of ballast outlet openings assigned to each tamping tool,
• 2 shows a schematically illustrated plan view of the track tamping machine according to FIG. 1,
• 3 shows a side view of a further exemplary embodiment according to the invention of a continuously movable track tamping machine with a ballast storage wagon arranged downstream in the working direction,
• 4 shows an enlarged side view of the tamping unit provided in the track tamping machine according to FIGS. 1 and 2 with the outlet openings assigned to each tamping tool for ballast discharge,
• 5 shows a further view of the tamping units each assigned to a rail according to arrow V in FIG. 4,
• 6 shows a plan view of the tamping units with a centrally arranged ballast accumulator according to arrow VI in FIG. 3,
• 7 shows a cross section through the tamping units along the section line VII-VII in FIG. 6,
• 8 shows another embodiment of a tamping unit with a device for even ballasting the track and
• 9 shows a further view of the tamping unit according to arrow IX in FIG. 8.

A track tamping machine 1 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 has a two-part, articulated machine frame 2 and can be moved via running gears 3 on a track 6 formed from sleepers 4 and rails 5. An energy center 8 is provided for supplying energy to a travel drive 7 and the further hydraulic drives. A work cabin 9 with a central control device 10 is located approximately in the middle between the two front carriages 3. In the work direction represented by an arrow 11, the work cabin 9 is immediately followed by a track lifting and straightening unit 12 with lifting and straightening drives 13 .

A tamping unit 14 downstream of the track lifting and straightening unit 12, which is described in more detail in FIGS. 4 and 5, has a device 15 for uniformly ballasting the track 6 with outlet openings 17 assigned to the tamping tools 16 for discharging ballast. These outlet openings 17 can optionally be closed via the central control device 10. Above the tamping unit 14, two ballast stores 18, 19 are connected to the machine frame 2, each of which has conveyor belts 20, 21 arranged next to one another in a common horizontal plane as the bottom surface. In the rear end region of the two conveyor belts 20, 21 provided as a discharge point, a funnel-shaped ballast distributor 22, 23 is connected to the machine frame 2. These ballast distributors 22, 23 are connected via ballast distribution pipes 24 to the outlet openings 17 provided in the area of the tamping tools 16.

Above the two ballast stores 18, 19 there is a discharge end 25 of a conveyor belt arrangement 26 formed from two conveyor belts, the receiving end of which End of a height-adjustable sweeper 27 is assigned. Between the two tamping units 14 and the subsequent sweeping device 27, a middle plow 28 which is height-adjustable via drives and a height-adjustable and side-adjustable side plow 29 are provided on each longitudinal side of the machine.

As can be seen in particular in FIGS. 4 and 5, each tamping unit 14 has two tamping tool pairs 16 that can be provided and vibrated via drives 30, 31, each individual tamping tool 16 having two tamping picks 33 that can be pivoted independently of one another via their own drives 32. The tamping unit 14 can be adjusted in height by means of a hydraulic drive 34 via vertical guide columns 35 which are fastened on a tamping unit frame 36. This is mounted on horizontal guide columns 37 which run transversely to the machine longitudinal direction and can be displaced transversely. The outlet openings 17 are arranged in a distributor pants 38 which is detachably fastened in the lower end region of the tamping unit frame 36. Each distributor trousers 38 has two outlet openings 17 spaced apart from one another in the transverse direction of the machine, so that the ballast transported in via the ballast distribution pipes 24 is thrown off in the sleeper compartment area on the inside and outside of the rail. The distributor pants 38 form an extension of the ballast distributor pipe 24, which is partially formed by a hollow design of the tamping unit frame 36. This is designed flexibly in the transition area between ballast distributor 22, 23 and the tamping unit frame 36. Each conveyor belt 20 or 21 serving as the bottom surface of the ballast stores 18, 19 has its own drive 39.

The operation of the track tamping machine 1 is described in more detail below.
During the work assignment is made by appropriate Control of the flank plows 29 excess gravel from the flank areas towards the track 6 highly promoted and, if necessary, concentrated in the track center area with the aid of the center plow 28. This excess ballast is thrown onto the conveyor belt arrangement 26 by the sweeping device 27 and transported by the latter into both ballast stores 18, 19. In track sections, in particular switch sections with insufficiently filled sleeper compartments, ballast is thrown into the sleeper compartments located below the two tamping tools 16 immediately before or simultaneously with the tamping. For this purpose, the two drives 39 of the two conveyor belts 20, 21 are acted on until they are thrown from this ballast into the two ballast distributors 22, 23 and from these are fed to the individual outlet openings 17 via the ballast distribution pipes 24. A remote-controlled flap provided in the lower end region of the ballast distribution pipes 24 provides the possibility that, on the one hand, the ballast supply can be carried out very quickly and, on the other hand, in the case of a track obstacle located under the assigned outlet opening 17, for example in the form of a switch tongue, there is no ballast supply in this area. Since the upper end region of the ballast distribution pipes 24 is flexible, the tamping units 14 can be moved without restriction for the point processing. The distributor pants 38 are detached from the tamping unit frame 36 before the transfer run begins.

A tamping machine 40 shown in FIG. 3 can be moved continuously during operation with the aid of a travel drive 41, while an aggregate frame 44 located between the carriages 42 and having a carriage 43 can be moved discontinuously from tamping to tamping point with the aid of a drive 45. On the unit frame 44 there is a track lifting and Straightening unit 46 and an adjustable and vibrating tamping tool 47 having a height-adjustable tamping unit 48. For the supply of ballast into the sleeper compartments adjacent to the sleeper to be tamped, outlet openings 49 of ballast distribution pipes 50 of a device 15 are provided for uniformly ballasting the track. The upper ends of the ballast distribution pipes 50 are connected to a ballast distributor 51 attached to the assembly frame 44. Above the same is a hopper 52 connected to the machine frame 60, which can be loaded with ballast by a conveyor belt arrangement 53 formed from a plurality of conveyor belts. The track tamping machine 40 is connected to a ballast storage wagon 54 which has a conveyor belt which can be driven in the direction of the arrow as the bottom surface.

As can be seen in particular in FIGS. 6 and 7, the funnel-shaped ballast distributor 51 is arranged centrally between the two tamping units 48 each associated with a rail and is connected in each case to a vertical, centrally arranged ballast distributor pipe 50 in both longitudinal end regions. In its lower end region, this has transverse distribution pipes 56 which run transversely to the longitudinal direction of the machine and are each fastened to a tamping unit frame 55. These end in distributor openings 58 having outlet openings 57. Each tamping tool 47 connected to two tamping pins 59 is associated with such an outlet opening 57, so that the ballast located in the ballast distributor 51 is assigned to the tamping tools 47 via the ballast distributor pipes 50, the transverse distributor pipes 56 and the distributor pants 58 Threshold subjects can be dropped. For the optional discharge of the ballast, remotely controllable flaps or the like can expediently be located in the area of the distribution pants 58 or the transverse distribution pipes 56. be arranged.

During the continuous work advance of the tamping machine 40, there is a cyclical relative displacement of the aggregate frame 44 with respect to the continuously advancing machine frame 60. Since the ballast distributor 51 is fastened to the aggregate frame 44, there is also a cyclical relative displacement of the ballast distributor 51 with respect to that connected to the machine frame 60 Funnel 52. As can be seen in particular in FIG. 7, the outlet openings 57 of a distributor 58, which are opposite one another in the machine transverse direction on the inside and outside of the rail, are arranged such that the ballast flowing out of the outlet openings 57 in the immersion area of the tamping tools 47 or the tamping pick 59 is closed comes to lie. This ensures that there is enough gravel available in this area for the tamping.

A switch tamping unit 62 shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 has tamping tools 65 which can be provided or vibrated via drives 63, 64. This is connected in each case to stuffing picks 67 which can be swiveled independently of one another via drives 66. The tamping unit 62 connected to a height adjustment drive 68 is mounted in a height-adjustable manner in a tamping unit frame 70 which can be displaced along guide columns 69. On each side of each tamping unit 62 running parallel to the machine or track longitudinal direction, a ballast distributor pipe 71 is fastened to the tamping unit frame 70 in the middle between the two longitudinally opposite tamping tools 65, each with two outlet openings 73 located in the area of a distributor hose 72. The distributor pants 72, each having two outlet openings 73 opposite one another in the longitudinal direction of the machine, are detachably fastened to the ballast distributor pipe 71 by means of a screw connection 74. With the help of a drive 75 is in the lower end of the Gravel distribution pipe 71 located flap for optional termination of the ballast supply remote controlled. The distributor pants 52 are each bent in the direction of the rail 76, so that the ballast thrown into the sleeper compartments which are adjacent to the sleeper 77 to be stuffed comes to rest in the immersion area of the darning tools 65 or the darning ax 67. The ballast distributor pipe 71 is telescopically extendable and articulated in the upper, transverse section 78, so that the tamping unit 62 can be moved freely.

Claims (12)

1. A railway track tamping machine (1; 40) for tamping the sleepers of a track, comprising a tamping unit (14; 48; 62) having tamping tools (16; 47; 65) which are immersible in the ballast and are squeezable and vibratable by way of drives, a track lifting and lining unit (12; 46) and a device (15) for evenly ballasting the track, characterised in that an outlet opening (17; 49; 73) of the device (15) for discharging ballast is directly associated with each tamping tool (16; 47; 65).
2. A tamping machine according to claim 1, characterised in that the outlet openings (73) are designed to be closable by means of central control equipment (10) and are in each case disposed immediately in front of the tamping tools (65) in the squeezing direction thereof.
3. A tamping machine according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the outlet openings (17) form the end of ballast distributing tubes (24) which are designed to be at least partially flexible and are connected to the tamping unit frame (36), the other ends thereof being connected to a hopper-shaped ballast distributor (22, 23).
4. A tamping machine according to one of claims 1, 2 or 3, characterised in that above the outlet openings (17) associated with each tamping tool (16) and the ballast distributing tubes (24) or the ballast distributor (22, 23) is arranged a ballast store (18, 19) which is connected to these.
5. A tamping machine according to claim 4, characterised in that the ballast store (18) has as the base surface a store conveyor belt (20) which may be set in motion by means of a drive (39).
6. A tamping machine according to claim 4, characterised in that the ballast store (18, 19) has as the base surface two conveyor belts (20, 21), arranged side by side in the tranverse direction of the machine in a common horizontal plane, each having its own drive (39), a separate ballast distributing tube (24) connected in each case to one of the two tamping units (14) being associated with each discharge position.
7. A tamping machine according to claim 4, characterised in that above the ballast store (18, 19) there is provided a discharge end of a conveyor belt arrangement (26), the receiving end of which is associated with a vertically adjustable sweeping device (27).
8. A tamping machine according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterised in that a vertically adjustable centre plough (28) is provided between the outlet openings (17) associated with each tamping tool (16) and the sweeping device (27) disposed after them in the working direction of the machine (1), and a shoulder plough (29) disposed before the said centre plough is provided on each longitudinal side of the machine.
9. A tamping machine according to one of claims 1 to 8, characterised in that the outlet openings (17) are arranged in the lower end region of the tamping unit frame (36) and the latter is designed to be partially hollow so as to form the ballast distributing tubes (24).
10. A tamping machine according to claim 9, characterised in that the ballast distributing tubes (24) are designed to be flexible between the tamping unit frames (36) and the hopper-shaped ballast distributors (22, 23) arranged above the tamping unit frame (36).
11. A tamping machine according to one of claims 1 to 8, characterised in that on each side, extending parallel to the longitudinal direction of the machine, of each tamping unit (62) a ballast distributing tube (71), comprising two outlet openings (73) in each case, is secured to the tamping unit frame (70) of the tamping unit (62) centrally between the two tamping tools (65) which lie opposite one another in the longitudinal direction.
12. A tamping machine according to one of claims 1 to 11, characterised in that there is arranged centrally between the two tamping units (48), each of which is associated with one rail, an approximately vertical ballast distributing tube (50) which in its lower end region has transverse distributing tubes (56) extending transversely to the two tamping units (48) and secured in each case to the tamping unit frame (55) and comprising the outlet openings (57), each of which is associated with one tamping tool (47).

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