Railway Disc Brake Linkage for Pad Parallelism Under Braking Torque
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional disc brake calipers for railway vehicles have suspension links that are enlarged in size due to bearing braking torque, leading to a desire for a compact and lightweight parallelism maintaining control mechanism that can maintain pad postures parallel to the disc rotor.
Innovation Solution
A disc brake apparatus with a parallelism maintaining control mechanism positioned near the oscillating center axis, utilizing a link arm composed of fixing, moving, and joint members, allowing the moving shaft to move in multiple directions while remaining parallel to the disc rotor, and incorporating a spring member for elastic biasing and protection, enabling compact and lightweight construction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If suspension links are used to maintain parallelism of brake pad holders, then parallelism is maintained, but the suspension links become enlarged in size due to bearing braking torque
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the parallelism maintenance function from the suspension links by introducing a separate parallelism maintaining control mechanism. This allows the suspension links to focus solely on bearing braking torque while the dedicated control mechanism handles parallelism maintenance, enabling both components to be optimized independently.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the functions of the suspension system into two independent parts: suspension links for bearing braking torque and a separate parallelism maintaining control mechanism for maintaining pad holder alignment. This functional segmentation allows each component to be minimized in size for its specific purpose.
2Stability of the object's composition
If suspension links bear braking torque to maintain parallelism, then parallelism is maintained, but the mechanism becomes heavy and large
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the parallelism maintenance function from the load-bearing suspension links and assigns it to a separate, lightweight control mechanism. This allows the suspension links to be optimized for strength and torque bearing, while the control mechanism can be minimized in weight for its specific control function.
3Manufacturing precision
If the parallelism maintaining control mechanism is positioned away from the oscillating center axis, then control effectiveness is improved, but the mechanism size increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent positions the parallelism maintaining control mechanism near the oscillating center axis of the brake arm, where it can effectively control parallelism through the geometric relationship of the link arm configuration rather than requiring distant positioning for leverage.
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 maintains pad postures parallel to the disc rotor, reduces excessive load on the control mechanism, and prevents eccentric wear and drag, ensuring effective braking performance even on curved tracks.
Implementation Method 1
a spring member (45) which elastically biases the abutment surface (71) of the pressure plate (49) in a direction in which the abutment surface (71) is pressed against the pad holding member (19)
Implementation Method 2
The link arm (47) has a fixing shaft (61), a moving shaft (57), at least two joint members (65, 67) and a connecting shaft (63)
Data Source
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AI summary
In a disc brake apparatus (11), a parallelism maintaining control mechanism (23) for pressing lining surfaces (41) of pads (39) against a disc rotor in parallel includes a pressure plate (49) which is brought into abutment with a pad holding member (19), a link arm (47) having a fixing shaft projecting from a caliper body (25) in parallel to a side surface of a disc rotor, a moving shaft disposed in parallel to the fixing shaft and pivotally supporting the pressure plate (49), joint members which connect the fixing shaft and the moving shaft in parallel to each other and a connecting shaft (63) for pivotally connecting the joint members to each other, and a spring member (45) for pressing the pressure plate (49) against the pad holding member (19).