The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 12, 1978
Filed:
Jan. 30, 1978
Frank A Svet, Churchville, NY (US);
General Signal Corporation, Rochester, NY (US);
Abstract
Method and apparatus for detecting the presence of flat wheels on railroad cars, comprising an electro-acoustic transducer located on the track wayside so as to pick up the vibrations generated by a passing train. If a flat wheel is present it will generate a periodic clanging sound at a frequency proportional to train speed and wheel diameter. The invention capitalizes particularly on the measurement of train speed to control the response of an adaptive filter so as to enhance the periodic clanging frequency with respect to the background noise, thereby to improve the signal-to-noise ratio; the enhanced signal is further autocorrelated for ten wheel revolutions and if a periodic signal is present in the narrow frequency band of interest, a large periodic autocorrelation output will result and, as a consequence, any wheel flat will be readily detected and will act to trigger an alarm to alert the train crew of the condition.