Wedge-Shaped Shim for Canted Rail Fastening
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing rail fastening systems are complex and laborious to manufacture, especially when attempting to achieve a canted mounting surface for rails in points, requiring costly and intricate concrete constructions to support canted rails.
Innovation Solution
A rail fastening point design featuring a shim with a wedge-shaped configuration, where the shim is thinner on one side and thicker on the other, allowing for easy mounting and adjustment, with interlocking recesses and projections to secure the guide plates and distribute forces effectively, eliminating the need for complex concrete constructions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If complex concrete constructions are used to support canted rails in points, then stable rail orientation is achieved, but manufacturing complexity and cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
A wedge-shaped shim is introduced as an intermediary element between the base and the rail foot. The shim has a contact area with the rail foot and a supporting surface with the base, where these surfaces enclose an acute angle. This intermediate component provides the necessary cant without requiring complex concrete constructions, thereby resolving the contradiction between reliability and device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The shim's geometry is designed with specific parameters: the contact area and supporting surface enclose an acute angle, and the shim thickness varies across its surface. By changing the geometric parameters of the shim (angle, thickness distribution), the rail can be mounted at different cant angles without modifying the base structure, thus reducing manufacturing complexity while maintaining stable orientation.
2Manufacturing precision
If angled guide plates with interlocking shoulders are used to secure rails under high load, then positioning accuracy is maintained, but the overall system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guide plates are designed with asymmetrical features: an angled shoulder at the bottom and a corresponding recess in the base, both oriented parallel to the longitudinal extension of the rail. This asymmetrical interlocking design provides secure positioning under high impact loads while maintaining relatively simple plate geometries, balancing manufacturing precision with system complexity.
3Measurement precision
If multiple layers and components are added between rail and base to achieve precise cant, then rail orientation accuracy improves, but material expenditure and assembly complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The functions of providing cant, supporting the rail, and distributing loads are merged into a single wedge-shaped shim component. This consolidation eliminates the need for multiple separate layers and components, achieving precise rail orientation while reducing material expenditure and simplifying assembly.
Data Source
AI summary
A rail fastening arrangement in which a rail for a rail vehicle is fastened to a base, and to a shim. The rail fastening arrangement includes two guide plates, of which one guide plate respectively is associated with one of the longitudinal sides of the rail, and a shim which is arranged between the base and the rail. The shim, at its top, has a contact area on which the rail is supported, and, at its bottom, has a supporting surface by way of which the shim is supported on the base. The contact area and the supporting surface of the shim, viewed in a section located transversely to the longitudinal extension of the rail, enclose an acute angle. The edge at which the shim is thinner is arranged beneath the rail, fastening of rails oriented at a cant relative to the vertical in the region of points.