Rail Vehicle Gas Spring Emergency Nesting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing gas spring systems in rail vehicles face challenges in ensuring derailment safety during deflated conditions, as auxiliary springs are not resilient enough, leading to dynamic overloading and insufficient contact pressure between wheels and rails, and adding emergency springs increases system height and diameter, compromising design space and vertical stiffness.
Innovation Solution
The emergency spring unit is positioned closer to the bellows, allowing it to share the same motion space and integrate its function, reducing overall design space requirements without compromising riding properties or flexibility, and can be connected to either housing part, with a compressive spring element and guide device for compact design.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If additional emergency springs are added to ensure derailment safety in deflated conditions, then emergency riding properties are improved, but system height and diameter increase, compromising design space
Solution Approach 1:
The emergency spring unit is nested within the gas spring chamber, positioned inside the bellows structure. This allows the emergency spring to occupy space already allocated for the gas spring operation, eliminating the need for additional external space while ensuring derailment safety when the gas spring deflates
Solution Approach 2:
The emergency spring is oriented with its longitudinal axis perpendicular to the bellows motion direction, allowing it to function in a different dimensional plane. This perpendicular arrangement enables the emergency spring to provide safety function without increasing the vertical height of the suspension system
2Reliability
If auxiliary spring stiffness is increased to ensure derailment safety, then emergency riding properties are improved, but vertical stiffness of the suspension system increases, compromising riding comfort
Solution Approach 1:
The emergency spring is designed to be dynamically activated only when needed - during normal operation, the gas spring bears the load and the emergency spring remains inactive. When the gas spring deflates, the emergency spring automatically engages to prevent derailment. This dynamic behavior allows high emergency stiffness without permanently increasing vertical suspension stiffness
Solution Approach 2:
The emergency spring is pre-positioned and pre-loaded within the gas spring chamber, ready to activate immediately upon gas spring deflation. This preliminary positioning ensures that when emergency conditions occur, the spring can provide immediate support without requiring additional reaction time or space
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
This configuration ensures good emergency riding properties while minimizing design space, maintaining flexibility and reducing the need for additional height or diameter, thus enhancing safety and performance without increasing the system's footprint.
Implementation Method 1
a bellows, the bellows moveably connecting the first housing part and the second housing part such that a substantially gas tight gas spring chamber is confined by the bellows
Implementation Method 2
The gas spring unit has an inflated state and a deflated state of the gas spring chamber. The gas spring unit is adapted to resiliently support the load exerted by the loading structure on the support structure in the inflated state of the gas spring chamber
Implementation Method 3
The emergency spring unit is adapted to resiliently support the load exerted by the loading structure on the support structure in the deflated state of the gas spring chamber
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
The invention relates to a gas spring device for a vehicle, in particular a rail vehicle, comprising a gas spring unit (106) and an emergency spring unit (107), the gas spring unit comprising a first housing part (106.1), a second housing part (106.2) and a bellows (106.3). The bellows (106.3) moveably connects the first housing part (106.1) and the second housing part (106.2) such that a substantially gas tight gas spring chamber (106.4) is confined by the bellows (106.3), the first housing part (106.1) and the second housing part (106.2). The first housing part (106.1) is adapted to be connected to a loading structure (102) while the second housing part (106.2) is adapted to be connected to a support structure (103) adapted to support a load exerted by the loading structure (102). The gas spring unit (106) has an inflated state and a deflated state, the gas spring unit (106) being adapted to resiliently support the load exerted by the loading structure (102) on the support structure (103) in the inflated state, the emergency spring unit (107) being adapted to resiliently support the load exerted by the loading structure (102) on the support structure (103) in the deflated state. The emergency spring unit (107) has a first end (107.3) and a second end (107.4) and a longitudinal axis (107.5) extending between the first end and the second end, the emergency spring unit (107) being connected to the first housing part (106.1) or the second housing part (106.2) in such a manner that one end (107.4) of the emergency spring unit (107), in the inflated state, is a free end. The free end (107.4) of the emergency spring unit (107) is located closer to the bellows (106.3) than the other end (107.3) of the emergency spring unit (107).