Railway Cars Manufactured With Self Piercing Rivets

Abstract

Railway cars are provided with sidewalls having an optimum number of support posts formed from a first material such as, but not limited to, steel and an optimum number of support posts formed from a second material such as, but not limited to, aluminum to optimize empty car weight and service of life of each railway car. Endwall assemblies, roof assemblies, floor assemblies and other components associated with a railway car may be fabricated from different types of material and an optimum number of supporting structures to reduce manufacturing cost, reduce repair costs, increase service life and increase load carrying capacity. Self piercing rivets may be used to attach two or more layers of material, particularly two or more layers of dissimilar materials. The use of self piercing rivets may also reduce manufacturing and repair costs, increase service life and load carrying capacity of a railway car.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 60 / 752,328 entitled “Railway Cars Manufactured with Self Piercing Rivets” filed Dec. 20, 2005, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0002]This application is related to copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 371,982 filed Mar. 9, 2006 which claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 662,687, filed Mar. 17, 2005, and entitled “Railway Cars with Combined Material Structures and Method.”TECHNICAL FIELD[0003]The present disclosure is related in general to railway cars having side sheets, side stakes and other components attached with each other using self piercing rivets.BACKGROUND ART SECTION[0004]Railway cars are often used to transport bulk commodities and raw materials. It is generally desirable to use railway cars which have relatively large load carrying capacity and relativel...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]In accordance with teachings of the present disclosure, a railway car may be formed using self piercing rivets to attach side sheets and side stakes with each other to substantially reduce or eliminate disadvantages and problems associated with previous railway cars. Self piercing rivets may also be used in accordance with teachings of the present disclosure to attach end sheets, floor panels and roof panels with associated supporting structures. One aspect of the present disclosure may include forming a railway car with at least one sidewall have side sheets attached to a plurality of side stakes or support posts using self piercing rivets. The side stakes may be spaced from each other along the length of the railway car.

[0009]Another aspect of the present disclosure may include using self piercing rivets to attach aluminum sheets to aluminum support posts, steel sheets to steel support posts, aluminum sheets to steel support posts and steel sheets to aluminum support posts. The use of self piercing rivets to attach metal sheets with metal supporting structures in accordance with teachings of the present disclosure may eliminate or substantially reduce distortions associated with welding metal sheets with metal supporting structures.

[0010]Technical benefits of the present disclosure may include, but are not limited to, reducing the cost and time required to attach metal sheets with supporting structures as compared with typical welding procedures used to form railway cars. The use of self piercing rivets to attach metal sheets with supporting structures in accordance with teachings of the present disclosure may also provide increased fatigue resistance and / or crack resistance as compared with welding the metal sheet to the supporting structure. Weld distortion of metal sheets (particularly thin metal sheets) may be reduced by using self piercing rivets which may improve the quality and may lower costs of manufacturing a railway car. The use of self piercing rivets in accordance with teachings of the present disclosure will generally eliminate the need for drilling and matching holes in metal sheets and associated supporting structures which may lower the cost of fabricating a railway car.

[0013]Technical advantages of the present disclosure may include optimizing the number of side posts and materials used to form each side post and associated side sheets to reduce manufacturing costs and repair costs and to increase load carrying capacity and operating life of an associated railway car. The number of end beams and materials used to form each end beam and associated end sheets may also be optimized to reduce manufacturing costs and repair costs and to increase load carrying capacity and operating life of the associated railway car. For example, aluminum side sheets may be attached with both aluminum support posts and steel support posts. Steel and other types of metal side sheets may be attached with both aluminum support posts and steel support posts. The number of aluminum support posts and the number of steel support posts may be varied in accordance with teachings of the present disclosure to optimize manufacturing costs, repair costs, load carrying capacity and service life of the associated railway car. Various welding procedures and / or mechanical fasteners may be used as appropriate to fabricate an associated railway car. Various aspects of the present disclosure may be satisfactorily used with box cars, insulated box cars, gondola cars, covered hopper cars, open hopper cars or any other railway car having metal sheets or metal panels attached to associated supporting structures.

[0014]The present disclosure may allow forming railway cars without side stakes or support posts. For example, on or more layers of adhesive material may be disposed between overlapping portions of two adjacent side sheets. One or more rows of self piercing rivets may then be inserted into the overlapping portions of the side sheets. The resulting joint may provide structural strength comparable with attaching the same side sheets to a support post but without the added weight of a support post. For some applications, a railway car body may be formed with alternating joints of side sheets attached to a conventional support post and side sheets attached to each other using only layers of adhesive material and self piercing rivets. The use of adhesive layers may also provide substantially water tight joints.

[0015]The present disclosure may allow adjusting the thickness of associated metal sheets and the number and thickness of side posts or other supporting structures to optimize the interior volume of an associated car body while providing the desired strength and load carrying capability for the associated railway car. The present disclosure is not limited to using only self piercing rivets to attach metal sheets with a metal supporting structure.

Problems solved by technology

Without careful quality control weld distortions may occur in side sheets, particularly thin side sheets.

Also, welding dissimilar metals such as aluminum with steel may often be difficult.

The cost and time required to drill and align matching holes in respective side sheets and support posts may be significant.

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