Floating Caliper Brake Restoration to Prevent Shoe Dragging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional floating caliper brake devices for railroad vehicles face issues with caliper retracting mechanisms that rely on rubber rings with variable elastic force, making it difficult to adjust the amount of restoration and leading to unnecessary wear of brake shoes due to dragging.
Innovation Solution
A floating caliper brake device featuring a support frame with a cylindrical portion, a slidable support pin, a caliper with intersecting arm portions, an elastic member, a stopper member, and a moving member, where the moving member is frictionally engaged with the support pin to ensure a greater maximum static friction than the elastic member's restoring force, allowing adjustable restoration and preventing brake shoe dragging.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a rubber ring with H-shape or U-shape cross section is used as a restoring force mechanism, then the caliper can be restored after braking, but the elastic force of the rubber ring changes during use, making it difficult to adjust the amount of restoration
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the rubber ring with a coil spring, changing the elastic component type to enable adjustable restoration force. The coil spring's characteristics can be modified by adjusting parameters such as wire diameter, coil diameter, number of turns, and material properties, allowing precise control over the restoration amount while maintaining reliable caliper return function.
2Power
If the caliper is designed to press brake shoes against the rotor during braking, then braking force is generated, but the other brake shoe remains in contact with the rotor after braking release, causing unnecessary wear
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs the coil spring as a counteracting force mechanism that opposes the braking force. During braking, the spring is compressed and stores energy. After braking release, the spring expands, generating a restoring force that pushes the caliper and brake shoes away from the rotor, preventing dragging and unnecessary wear while maintaining effective braking during operation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution allows for adjustable restoration, maintaining consistent gaps between brake shoes and the rotor, thereby preventing brake shoe dragging and ensuring proper wear distribution.
Implementation Method 1
an elastic member that is supported by the cylindrical portion and is expandable and contractible in the axial direction
Implementation Method 2
a moving member that is frictionally engaged with the support pin on the second side from the elastic member so as to be slidable in the axial direction, wherein a maximum static friction occurring between the support pin and the moving member is greater than a restoring force of the elastic member
Data Source
AI summary
A floating caliper brake device for a railroad vehicle includes: a support pin that is supported by a cylindrical portion of a support frame in such a manner as to be slidable in a direction X; a caliper; a first and second brake shoe; a pressurizing device that moves the first brake shoe back and forth; an elastic member that is expandable and contractible in the direction X; a stopper member that is immovable relatively to the cylindrical portion in the direction X; and a moving member that is frictionally engaged with the support pin so as to be slidable in the direction X.