Railway Windscreen Housing Sanding System Container

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing railway vehicles face challenges in maintaining effective adhesion between wheels and rails due to contaminants like snow, ice, and grease, and current sanding systems often encroach on passenger space or require cumbersome maintenance, particularly when placed under seats or in walls.

Innovation Solution

Integrating a windscreen with a detachable shell design that houses a sanding system container, allowing it to be positioned near doorways, thus eliminating the need for under-seat or wall-mounted sandboxes and enabling easy access for maintenance, while maintaining windscreen functionality and passenger safety.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Device complexity

If sandboxes are placed under passenger seats, then the sanding system is integrated into the vehicle interior, but the ADA seating area is encroached upon and maintenance access becomes cumbersome

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveintegration of sanding systemVSAvoidmaintenance access
Core Design Contradiction:
Device complexityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The sanding system container is relocated from traditional under-seat or wall-mounted positions to the windscreen housing, utilizing the vertical space above the passenger compartment. This dimensional relocation eliminates encroachment on ADA seating areas while providing superior maintenance access from above, resolving both the integration and accessibility contradictions

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

2Device complexity

If sandboxes are placed in walls, then the sanding system is integrated into the vehicle structure, but maintenance staff must clean around obstacles creating maintenance difficulties

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestructural integrationVSAvoidmaintenance accessibility
Core Design Contradiction:
Device complexityVSEase of manufacture

Solution Approach 1:

The sanding system container is extracted from the wall-mounted configuration and relocated to the windscreen housing. This extraction eliminates the obstacle creation in passenger areas while maintaining structural integration, allowing maintenance staff to access the container easily from above without navigating around wall-mounted obstacles

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

3Ease of operation

If the windscreen is made detachable with shell elements, then maintenance access to the sanding system is improved, but the windscreen structure becomes more complex

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvemaintenance accessibilityVSAvoidwindscreen structure
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The windscreen is segmented into detachable shell elements that can be removed to provide access to the sanding system container. This segmentation enables easy maintenance access while the modular design actually simplifies the overall structure compared to traditional integrated windscreen designs, resolving the contradiction between accessibility and structural complexity

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentEP3334633B1Windscreen for housing a sanding system, railway vehicle with sanding system, and method for installing a sanding system in a railway vehicle
Publication Date: 2019.11.27 SIEMENS MOBILITY INC
  • EP3334633B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3334633B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3334633B1 patent drawingFigure 3~5

AI summary

A windscreen (160, 210, 300) for housing a sanding system, a railway vehicle (100, 200) with a sanding system, and a method (500 for installing a sanding system in a railway vehicle (100, 200) are described. The windscreen (160, 210, 300) includes a first shell element (310) and a second shell element (320), the first shell element (310) being detachably connected to the second shell element (320), wherein the first and second shell elements (310, 320), when assembled, form an interior space (330). A container (190, 270, 370, 400) is in communication with a sanding system for housing material used when the sanding system is in operation, wherein the container (190, 270, 370, 400) is configured to be positioned in the interior space (330) formed by the first and second shell elements (310, 320) of the windscreen (160, 210, 300).