Truss Rail Layout With Fewer Welds for Roller Coaster Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing truss rails for roller coasters have manufacturing-related issues due to thick wall thicknesses, high material consumption, and numerous welded joints, which affect stability and cost efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A truss rail design with reduced vertical truss profiles, specifically omitting post profiles at connection areas, allowing for larger diameters and thinner walls, and direct connections between vertical diagonal profiles and rail tubes, reducing welding and material usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If vertical diagonal profiles are inserted into post profiles and horizontal diagonal profiles into cross profiles to ensure stable truss rail construction, then manufacturing simplicity and reliability are improved, but wall thickness becomes excessively thick leading to increased material consumption and weight
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes post profiles from the connection areas of vertical diagonal profiles to the chord tube, extracting unnecessary structural elements. This extraction allows the vertical diagonal profiles to be directly connected to the chord tube, eliminating the need for thick wall sections in post profiles while maintaining structural stability through the optimized truss configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the connection function by directly joining vertical diagonal profiles to the chord tube, eliminating the intermediate post profile structure. This direct connection combines the load-bearing and stiffening functions into a more efficient integrated structure, reducing material requirements while maintaining reliability.
2Strength
If numerous post profiles and vertical truss profiles are used to stiffen the rail tubes and chord tube, then load-bearing capacity and stability are improved, but the number of welded joints increases leading to higher manufacturing complexity and cost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts post profiles from the connection areas, reducing the number of components that require welding. By eliminating these intermediate connection elements, the patent directly connects vertical diagonal profiles to the chord tube, significantly reducing the total number of welded joints while maintaining load-bearing capacity through the optimized truss structure.
3Reliability
If thick wall thickness is used in underlying profiles to ensure stability according to standards, then structural reliability is improved, but manufacturing complexity and material costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes post profiles that would require thick wall sections, thereby eliminating the need for complex thick-walled manufacturing processes. The direct connection of vertical diagonal profiles to the chord tube allows for thinner, more easily manufactured profiles while maintaining structural stability through the optimized truss configuration and reduced number of connection points.
Data Source
Figure 1
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AI summary
The invention relates to a truss rail for an amusement ride, comprising two rail tubes directly accessible by a car assembly, a non-accessible chord tube, and vertical truss profiles that stiffen the rail tubes and the chord tube and include vertical diagonal profiles that run diagonally between the chord tube and the respective rail tube, alternating between rising and falling slopes. It is provided that in at least one connection area of the vertical diagonal profiles to the chord tube, no further vertical truss profile is connected to it.