FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to Integrated water refilling arrangement with plumbing joints over pressure protection for Trains and Methods thereof.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It has been seen that there are not many proposals in the past regarding measurement of the liquid level on trains and the methods and procedures for detecting empty water tanks and refill them quickly.

In the prior arts  the train rake comprise of normally 10 to 26 coaches each with its separate water tanks to provide convenience to passengers. These tanks have refilling arrangements on each coach  such that if any tank gets empty it is attended by the crew and is refilled with water. However when train tanks gets empty they become difficult to identify and refill which is due to limited train stoppage schedules and the limited ability of the crew members to identify and refill them timely.

US2365644  Water supply system for passenger cars  teaches a method of providing water refilling from both sides of the railway coach with respect to the earlier system  where the refilling was from one side of the railway coach. This patent however doesn’t advice any method to refill the tanks at a faster pace or refill them jointly.

US2630078  Railroad train water supply system  provides a system in which a large water storage tanks is provided with the locomotive  and its outlet is connected to each coach through water lines. However such a system is not feasible for current train lengths which would require big tanks for water storage. There is another drawback with this approach  when the locomotive supply the water to the train it has to be passed through common water supply line which is difficult to maintain against leakages in mobile applications.

The problem to be addressed is by combining all the tanks of the train coaches together with snap-on type hose such that all the tanks inlet gets connected together   thereby enabling the refill crew to access all the tanks from few selected inlets. The filling system is equipped with water at pressure  so that the water is refilled as quickly as possible. The individual tanks are provided with water level sensors to measure the level inside each tank and open or close its inlet valve through electronic means. This is done to avoid high pressure water from destroying tanks plumbing joints and stop chances of leakages.

The tanks are further equipped with radio link to advice the operator regarding the status of water level of each tank.

The invention relates more particularly to ultrasonic type level sensors on water tanks but not by way of limitation  to such apparatus and method utilizing other sensors such as a radar level sensor  hydrostatic or other and similar types on different type of tanks used in mobile applications.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore the object of the device to enable the placement of a level measurement sensor at a convenient location where the fluid tanks comprise of multiple compartments and at location inaccessible for the sensors from its top side  by the placement of adapter at the bottom of the tanks and placing a parallel tube along the height of the tank. The tube is provided with a narrow beam ultrasonic sensor at its top to measure the level of the fluid rising or falling inside the tube which in-fact represents the tank level.

It is another object of the invention to provide an arrangement to connect all the water tanks of the entire train together with flexible snap-on type coupled hoses such that the tanks could be refilled at known selected locations.

It is another object of the invention to provide refilling water supply under pressure such that the tanks are refilled early.

A further objective of the invention is to provide solenoid valves on each tank at their respective inlet locations  such that the water filling supply could be cutoff by its onboard electronics to save the tank and plumbing system from damage caused by pressurized fluid.

A still further objective of the invention is to interface a Radio frequency link on each tank to fetch tank water level status and instruct its valves to open or close as desired.

A still further objective of the invention is to provide a switch at each coach such that when it is pressed it broadcasts the coach ID to the operator’s RF hand held device to update information /ID regarding any shunted coach.

A still further objective of the invention is to provide a RF hand held device onboard to communicate with each coach of the rake and report its water level status or other mechanical parameters such as brake binding status   hot axle etc to the onboard operator.

With the above and other objectives in view  as will hereinafter appear  various embodiments of the present invention are described hereunder.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to an embodiment of the invention  Integrated water refilling arrangement with plumbing joints over pressure protection for Trains  comprises; a tube arrangement having a tap at the bottom of the tank and ventilating holes at its top and placed parallel to the tank  wherein the tube and the tank works like a ‘U’ shaped tube and represents the tank level in a smaller cross-section area with reduced slosh level; an ultrasonic sensor with narrow beam width of measurement mounted on the top of the tube to measure the fluid level inside the tube at any given instant of time; connecting all the tanks of the train together with snap-on type hose such that all the tanks inlet gets connected together   thereby enabling the refill crew to access all the tanks from plurality selected inlets. The filling system is equipped with water at pressure  such that the water is refilled as quickly as possible. The individual tanks are provided with water level sensors to measure the level inside each tank and open or close its inlet valve through electronic means such that high pressure water is stopped from damaging the tanks plumbing joints and thereby preventing leakages.

According to another embodiment of the invention is to enable the placement of a level measurement sensor at a convenient location on the water tank where the fluid tanks comprise of multiple compartments and at location inaccessible for the sensors from its top side  by the placement of adapter at the bottom of the tanks and placing a parallel tube along the height of the tank. The tube is provided with a narrow beam ultrasonic sensor at its top to measure the level of the fluid rising or falling inside the tube which in-fact represents the tank level.

According to another embodiment of the invention is to provide a plumbing arrangement to connect all the water tanks of the entire train length together with flexible snap-on type coupled hoses such that the tanks could be refilled at known selected plurality locations.

According to another embodiment of the invention refilling water supply is provided under pressure such that the tanks are refilled fast.

According to another embodiment of the invention solenoid valves are provided on each tanks at their inlet locations  such that the water filling supply could be cutoff by its onboard electronics to save the tanks plumbing joints from damage caused by pressurized fluid.

According to another embodiment of the invention a Radio frequency transceiver/ link is provided on each tank such that tank water level status could be acquired at remote location on train and instruct its valves to open or close as desired.

According to another embodiment of the invention a switch interfaced to onboard electronics is provided at each coach such that when it is pressed the device broadcasts the coach ID multiple times with unique registration ID to the hand held operator device to update information regarding the address of any newly shunted coach in the rake.

According to another embodiment of the invention a hand held RF device is provided to onboard operator which communicates with the train coaches of the assigned rake and reports the water level status and/or other mechanical parameters related to brake  hot axle etc  to the onboard operator.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 shows a detailed view of various components according to an embodiment of the present invention as interface to the water tank of each coach.

Figure 2 shows a detailed view of various components of the device in a manner when all the water tanks of the train is combined.

Figure 3 shows a detailed view of various components of the RF hand held device.

For a better understanding of the embodiments of the invention and to show how it may be performed  it will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention can be better understood by reading the following detailed description of some of the embodiments  with reference made to the accompanying drawings. It will be understood that a particular system embodying the invention is shown by way of illustration only and not as a limitation of invention. The principles and features of this invention may be employed in various numerous embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention. References are made to accompanying drawing in which its novel feature and advantages will be apparent.

As can be seen in Figure 1  it shows the elements of the present invention as interfaced to the storage fluid tank 1  for liquid level measurement. In many places the water tanks are inaccessible from the top surface and yet they require level measurement and that too in operating conditions which provides large amount of slosh. Such tanks have pre installed partitions inside to reduce slosh. This makes the placement of the sensors still more difficult. To overcome this present invention uses an external tube 3  which is placed parallel to the tank’s height  providing a smaller diameter as compared with the tank and is connected to the bottom of the tank through connecting pipe line of desired length  which enables the placement of the tube at convenient location away from the tank. The external tube 3  is provided with ventilation holes 3A  on its top surface to enable the free rise and fall of the fluid thereby working as a ‘U’ shaped tube but with significantly reduced diameter. The external tube 3  is attached with an ultrasonic level sensor 2  at its top side emitting narrow beam ultrasound for level measurement. The external tube 3  reduces the slosh considerably due to its reduced surface area as compared to its storage fluid tank 1. The present invention incorporate the use of inlet hose 7  which is a main coupling hose connecting all the plurality water tanks of the train. The inlet hose 7  is thus able to provide water to all the tanks simultaneously   without the need of refilling crew to search and water the empty tanks which takes considerable effort and time. The inlet hose 7  can be provided with plurality refill inlets at known locations of the rake where the refill crews could attach the refill hose and provide service in timely and efficiently manner. The inlet hose 7  is supplied with water under pressure which decreases the refill time considerably  the tank is provided with a drain pipe 8  to make the refill easy and avoiding any air pressure buildup inside the tanks. However drawbacks were seen in this approach as the water under pressure is forced to refill the tanks  it exerts hydraulic forces on the tanks pipe fittings and plumbing joints after the tanks gets fully filled  thereby causing unwanted leakages or ruptures . To avoid this the present invention incorporates the solenoid valve main 4  at the plurality tank inlets . The said valve is controlled via ultrasonic level sensor 2  which instructs the said valve to shut off the water supply the moment the tank gets filled to the required level. A similar valve namely solenoid valve side 5  is provided to cutoff the water inlet supply in case an individual coach is refilled. The plurality ultrasonic sensor 2  can be programmed to monitor the tank level to open or close the valve as required. The present invention incorporates an RF transceiver 14  with the device to transmit water level status to a centralized control (which could be a hand held paired RF device ) and fetch actions from the centralized control. The RF link can be utilized to selectively open or close the desired water tanks as per operator action  priority and necessity for example if there is no empty tanks but operator desires to get the selective tanks to top up to a certain amount etc. The device has control electronics 10  which comprise of microcomputer and other driving electronics to sense the level sensor and operate the valves 4  and valve 5  accordingly . It also has a display 12  interface to provide audio and/or visual alarm to the crew about the tank water status. The control electronics 10  microcomputer also interfaces to RF transceiver 14  to relay tank status to its paired hand held device and fetch commands from it. The invention incorporates a unique press button 13  which is designed to activate the RF transceiver 14  and relay coach ID in a unique manner such that the particular coach could be registered with the handheld device RF link during the time of new train formation or when a coach gets shunted from the rake. The hand held device in the similar manner has an acknowledgement key to accept the coach number with it.

As can be seen in Figure 2  it shows the integration of the system as a whole   when all the plurality train coaches gets combined together manually. The Rail coach 9  inlet hose 7  is connected with its next coach 9A through snap-on hose coupler 7B and so on with Rail coach 9B and all plurality coaches through their respective plurality snap-on hose couplers . The hose closing adapter 7C  which can be a manual valve or threaded cap  which can be provided at each coach to close the vented pipe at the extreme end of the train . This is done to prevent water from spilling unnecessarily and enable it divert maximum pressure inside the train’s plurality storage fluid tank 1.

As can be seen in Figure 3  it shows the elements of the RF hand held device 18  which comprise of and RF module 14  to fetch or convey data from its slave coaches   a display module 15  to alarm the operator audio and/or visually about the status of the coaches. The device has keypad 16  to enable operator to give commands or make acknowledgements from its slaves. The device also have a GSM module 17  to broadcast the status via cellular service to a centralized control for necessary action.