Railroad car draft gear assembly with friction bore wear liners

Claim 2

A draft gear assembly for a railroad car coupler system to absorb and cushion impacting forces placed on the system during operation of said car, the improvement therein comprising: wear liner means to interact with a friction shoe carried by said assembly and moveable by said impacting forces, said liner means disposable in a recess formed in a housing of said gear assembly with said liner means initially deformed by said impacting forces transferred from said shoe to said liner means to increase areas of contact between said shoe and said liner means and between said liner means and said housing recess and work hardened to an operative Brinell hardness level of about 365 being about 100 Brinell points less than a hardness level of said shoe, wherein said deformability of said liner means reduces dimensional mismatches between said shoe, said liner means and said housing recess to improve seating therebetween, improves wear resistance between said shoe and said liner means and inhibits movement of said liner means during subsequent car operation, and said different levels of hardness of said liner means in said work hardened state and said shoe reducing abrasive wear therebetween.

Claim 3

A draft gear assembly as defined by claim 1 and further characterized by, said liner means having an inner face comprising a wear surface portion formed with a parallelogram-like grooved cutout for disposition of a like shaped lubricating insert and having an outer face formed with a peripheral rib to fit in a like shaped cutout formed in said housing recess.

Claim 4

A draft gear assembly as defined by claim 1 and further characterized by, said liner means having an inner face comprising a wear surface portion formed with an H-like shaped grooved cutout for disposition of a lubricating insert and having an outer face formed with an H-like shaped projection to fit in a like shaped cutout in said housing recess.

Claim 5

A draft gear assembly particularly adapted for a railroad car coupler system, said assembly comprising: a housing having an inner section defined by a pair of spaced apart sidewalls joined by a top and a bottom wall and connecting with an end wall to form an interior space with a spring package disposed therein, and an outer friction bore section connecting with said inner section and defined by sidewalls set in a hexagon array, a set of friction shoe seats formed in part by adjacent pairs of inner surfaces of said friction bore sidewalls joining at a radius corner and a recess aligned with said radius corner, said recess extending from a front wall of said outer section to an inner circumferential shoulder located next to said housing inner section with each said recess formed with a cutout, a set of wear liners each having on an outer face a raised area to fit in said recess and said recess cutout respectively with said liners having an inner face with an operative Brinell hardness level of about 363 points, a set of friction shoes positioned one each on said wear liners with each said shoe having a friction surface in contact with a wear surface portion on said inner face of said liner with said shoe friction surface having a Brinell hardness level about 100 points greater than said wear liner inner face wear surface portion, and a wedge having an outer end extending beyond said housing front wall and wedging surfaces in contact with sloped walls of said friction shoes, wherein impacting forces on said coupler system are transferred to said wedge to move said shoes in a first direction toward said housing end wall to compress said spring package and in a second direction to move said shoes radially apart to compressively engage said liners with said hardness level differential between said liner inner face wear portions and said shoe friction surfaces inhibiting abrasive wear therebetween to extend a useful life of said draft gear.

Claim 6

A draft gear assembly particularly adapted for a railroad car coupler system, said assembly comprising: a housing having an inner section defined by a pair of spaced apart sidewalls joined by a top and a bottom wall and connecting with an end wall to form an interior space with a spring package disposed therein, and an outer friction bore section connecting with said inner section and defined by sidewalls set in a hexagon array, a set of friction shoe seats formed in part by adjacent pairs of inner surfaces of said friction bore sidewalls joining at a radius corner and a recess aligned with said radius corner, said recess extending from a front wall of said outer section to an inner circumferential shoulder located next to said housing inner section with each said recess formed with a cutout, a set of wear liners each having on an outer face a raised area to fit in said recess and said recess cutout respectively with said liners having an inner face with an operative Brinell hardness level of about 363 points, a set of friction shoes positioned one each on said wear liners with each said shoe having a friction surface in contact with a wear surface portion on said inner face of said liner with said shoe friction surface having a Brinell hardness level about 100 points greater than said wear liner inner face wear surface portion, and a wedge having an outer end extending beyond said housing front wall and wedging surfaces in contact with sloped walls of said friction shoes, wherein impacting forces on said coupler system are transferred to said wedge to move said shoes in a first direction toward said housing end wall to compress said spring package and in a second direction to move said shoes radially apart to compressively engage said liners with said hardness level differential between said liner inner face wear portions and said shoe friction surfaces inhibiting abrasive wear therebetween to extend a useful life of said draft gear.

Claim 7

A draft gear assembly as defined by claim 4 and further characterized by, said liner wear surface portion formed with a grooved cutout, and a lubricating insert positioned in said grooved cutout to interface with said friction shoe friction surface.

Claim 8

A draft gear assembly as defined by claim 5 and further characterized by, said liner grooved cutout having a parallelogram-like shape defined by a pair of spaced apart circumferential groove portions connection with a pair of spaced apart angularly offset groove portions.

Claim 9

A draft gear assembly as defined by claim 5 and further characterized by, said liner grooved cutout having an H-like shape defined by a pair of spaced apart circumferential groove portions joining a connecting groove portion.

Claim 10

A draft gear assembly as defined by claim 7 and further characterized by, said liner raised area comprising an H-like shaped projection positioned to align with said grooved cutout, and said housing recess cutout shaped to receive said liner projection in a complementary manner.

Claim 11

A draft gear assembly as defined by claim 4 and further characterized by, said liners having an initial hardness level to allow an initial set of said impacting forces to deform said liners and promote a fit between said shoes, said liners, and said housing recesses respectively by reducing areas of non-engagement therebetween with said impacting force initial set effecting a workhardening of said liners to said operative hardness level.