TRAINS AND M ETHOD FOR OPERATING SUCH A SYSTEM

DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to a system for manipulating the load in bulk rail cars of a bulk rail train, which bulk rail cars are loaded with bulk material like coal, ore, burden material or the like by means of a train loading station.

PRIOR ART

In the mining industry it is necessary to transfer bulk material from a mining area to a further processing area, and a huge scale of bulk material must be transported by bulk rail trains. The loading of bulk rail cars of a bulk rail train with the bulk material requires a train loading station, and the bulk material may be fed to the train loading station by a conveyor belt and the train loading station comprises a reservoir for forming a buffer for the bulk material. The bulk material gets into the bulk rail cars via a chute, and the bulk rail train is moved with low speed under the chute. Unfortunately, it is quite challenging to meet the permitted load of each bulk rail car when filling the bulk rail cars with bulk material, and in addition to exploit the obtained maximum capacity of load of each bulk rail car it is also necessary to distribute the load within the bulk rail car, in order to stress the bogeys of the bulk rail cars with the same scale of bulk material.

The train loading station is impacted by the flow of e.g. ore forming the bulk material from a conveyor belt, and it is known that the ore features inconsistent densities; moreover the loading system is impacted by the train speed or by the filling height of the ore in the reservoir of the train loading station. Currently to maintain bulk rail car loads and in particular bogey loads below certain limits, the maximum load per bulk rail car is limited underneath the provided maximum capacity of the bulk rail car and thus the optimum of loading the bulk rail car is not reached. On the other hand, overloads are currently treated by stopping the train again and using a construction industry type excavator to remove bulk material from the bulk rail car again, to avoid overload of the bulk rail car or of the bogeys of the bulk rail car. For this propose a scale is provided downstream the outgoing side of the train loading station but upstream the excavator position in order to provide information for a person who operates the excavator to load and unload the bulk rail car by means of adopted mass quantities of bulk material. Currently train loading is controlled to limit total axle loads of bulk rail cars to prevent localised loads on bridges of the railway and the track exceeding the design limits. Due to the above said variances in the loading practices, which is a combination of variables such as height of the bulk material in the bulk rail car, train speed, density granularity, bulk size distribution in particular of lumps and fines, the repose angle and the bunker filling height. The variance typically range from 0,2 tons to 5 tons depending on these variables. Bogeys are weighed on the track scales approximately two bulk rail car length from the outgoing side of the train loading station. The activity to remove overloads leads to longer train loading times and train cycle times to unload, in particular by using an excavator for unloading peak loads. Accordingly, it is an objective to remove the arising time delay to both loading and consist cycled times.

It is known from WO 2015/003776 A1 to improve the operating modus of a train loading station. The disclosure relates to a loading system for loading at least one bulk rail car of a bulk rail train with bulk material, comprising a ciosable outlet opening for metering the bulk material, which outlet opening is arranged on a dispensing device of a bulk material reservoir, forming a reservoir for the bulk material, wherein the bulk rail train can be moved under the outlet opening on rails and at least one measuring device having an evaluating device which is arranged in order to detect bogey loads, in particular wheel loads, axle loads, bogey loads and/or the total load of the bulk rail car. The ciosable outlet opening for metering the bulk material is controlled by the measured loads, to adopt the required load distribution within the bulk rail car.

In order to improve the operating modus, the measuring device comprises, per rail, at least two measuring segments arranged one after the other in a direction of travel of the train, wherein at least one of the measuring segments lies below the outlet opening or in the action region of the bulk material falling through the outlet opening. Unfortunately, this operating modus of a train loading station is not suitable to maximize the load per bulk rail car shortly below the maximum allowable bulk rail car load, and the load of the bogeys per bulk rail car is not homogenized in a sufficient manner. As well the installation of wheel load measurement devices within the loading station is heavily affected by the dynamic forces, shocks and vibrations of the loading station, so that the industry accepts rather the disadvantage of a track scale to bulk rail cars out of the station to increase reliability at the cost of latency.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

It is an objective of the invention to improve a system for manipulating the load in bulk rail cars of a bulk rail train, in particular to obtain a load of each bulk rail car which corresponds to a maximum load but without

underloading or overloading the bulk rail cars. It is a special objective of the invention to improve the system for manipulating the load in bulk rail cars of the bulk rail train which does not cause additional time consumption with respect to the already required loading time to load the bulk rail cars within the foregoing train loading station. Another objective is to shift the average set-point of the load per bulk rail car higher resulting in more tons per train thus less transportation cost and higher rail network capacity.

This objective is achieved by a system for manipulating the load in bulk rail cars of a bulk rail train as taught by claim 1 of the present invention.

Advantages embodiments of the inventive system are defined in the sub claims. Moreover, the objective is achieved by a method for manipulating the load in bulk rail cars of a bulk rail train according to claim 1 2.

The invention discloses with respect to the system, that a load manipulating station is provided downstream the outgoing side of the train loading station, comprising a portal unit which overdraws the bulk rail train and comprising a bulk material manipulator for unloading and loading bulk material out of and into the bulk rail cars, and whereas the portal unit is movable arranged on manipulator tracks, whereas the manipulator tracks extend along a moving direction of the bulk rail train, enabling the portal unit to move along with the bulk rail train while manipulating the bulk material in the bulk rail cars.

The core idea of the present invention is to provide a load manipulating station which can be operated automatically and/or without an operating person. The data input to the load manipulating station comprising e.g. a load topography representing the filling height in the bulk rail cars and the weight of the bulk rail cars with a scale is sufficient to control the load manipulating station in a way, to avoid an overload of the bulk rail cars in total and to avoid different loads of the common bogeys of one single bulk rail car. The special construction of the load manipulating station comprising manipulator tracks and comprising a portal unit which is movable arranged on the manipulator tracks enable a bulk material manipulator to unload and load bulk material out of and into the bulk rail cars in an easy manner. By means of the manipulator tracks which extend along the traveling direction of the bulk rail train the porta! unit can move corresponding to the travel movement of the train, in particular with the same speed, and the unloading and loading of bulk material out of and into the bulk rail cars is achievable without influencing the travel speed of the train which is in particular adopted to the necessary travel speed of the bulk rail train passing through the train loading station. On the other hand, the train travel speed through the train loading station can be increased, because the extensive

measuring algorithm with influencing the load distribution of the bulk material within the bulk rail car according to WO 2015/003776 A1 is no more necessary.

According to a preferred embodiment the portal unit comprises a bulk material bunker for temporarily storing bulk material, in order to receive bulk material removed from the bulk rail cars and/or to provide bulk material for loading back into the bulk rail cars. The bulk material bunker can be arranged in conjunction with the portal unit and thus the bulk material bunker is moved with the movement of the portal unit along the manipulator tracks. According to an alternative, the bulk material bunker is provided above an area beside the railway for the bulk rail train and the load manipulating station is performed to transfer bulk material from the bulk rail cars to the bulk material bunker and from the bulk material bunker into the bulk rail cars in case when the bulk material bunker is arranged next to the railway in this context it is conceivable that the bulk material bunker features a longitudinal extension along the extension of the manipulator tracks and the extension of the railway, respectively. The bulk material bunker according to a preferred embodiment is formed by a bin or a container which is arranged on or in conjunction with the porta! unit and the manipulator can load and unload bulk material into and out of the bulk material bunker. The bulk material bunker floor according to a preferred embodiment will consist of a conveyor belt with side skirts; so material can be moved by the conveyor drive.

The portal unit can be based according to a preferred embodiment on a manipulator crane, or alternatively on a gantry crane with or without pillars or other structure, but the manipulator tracks are arranged on pillars only as a preferred embodiment and form overhead tracks. The portal unit is movable above the bulk rail cars of the bulk rail train. In particular the bulk material manipulator is arranged above the bulk rail cars of the bulk rail train and according to a preferred embodiment the bulk material bunker is also arranged in a height above the bulk rail cars of the bulk rail train, As an alternative, the first or the second conveyor is formed by a chute, and when the other, conventional conveyor belt runs in reverse, the bulk material can be transferred down the chute and thus back into the bulk rail car or into a truck, as described below.

According to yet another embodiment beside the railway for the bulk rail train a bypass unloading section is arranged, whereas the portal unit is performed to unload bulk material within the bypass unloading section. The bypass unloading section is accessible for trucks and the portal unit is performed to unload bulk material to the trucks. In particular in the case when a huge number of bulk rail cars are overload with bulk material by passing the train loading station, the load manipulating station can transfer the overload amount of bulk material via the bypass unloading section into trucks and e. g. the train loading station may feature a truck unloading station for transferring the bulk material from the trucks back into the train loading station refilling the reservoir. According to another preferred embodiment, in conjunction with the bulk material bunker a first conveyor means is arranged for loading bulk material from the bulk material bunker into the trucks. The first conveyor means gets activated when the bulk material bunker is filled up to a limit and the bulk rail cars running into the load manipulating station are still overloaded.

Moreover, the portal unit comprises a grab bucket, clamshell bucket, a vertical axis rope hoist or a vacuum feed unit forming the bulk material manipulator for unloading bulk material out of the bulk rail cars. According to another advantage, the bucket, the vertical access rope hoist or any other kind of excavating means may contain a load scale in order to provide an information of the mass of removed bulk material out of the bulk rail cars and transferred into the bulk material bunker with each movement of the bulk material manipulator. This load scale data can be fed to the train manifest to document the manipulated weights before sending out the resulting corrected manifest to the rail network operator, the customer or the port. In conjunction with the bulk material bunker a second conveyor means is arranged for loading bulk material from the bulk material bunker back into the bulk rail cars if necessary. This has the advantage that bulk material can be transferred from the bunker into the bulk rail cars in an easy manner and with an appropriate dosage, and the use of a conveyor means for transferring the bulk material back into the bulk rail cars can be operated quickly and reliable.

In conjunction with another preferred embodiment the portal unit comprises a portal frame and a trolley, whereas the portal frame is movable arranged on the manipulator tracks parallel to the bulk rail train and the trolley is movable arranged on the portal frame in a cross direction relative to the bulk rail train. For example the portal frame can be moved along the manipulator tracks by means of rollers, and the trolley can be moved on the portal frame with another set of rollers, and the moving direction of the portal frame on the manipulator tracks and the moving direction of the trolley on the portal frame are arranged perpendicular to each other. Due to this arrangement an x-y-moving system is formed and due to the possibility to move the portal unit with the travel movement of the train the portal unit can be operated with a relative stagnancy to the bulk rail cars or the portal unit may be moved in advance or behind the movement of the bulk rail cars This as well minimises the need for a sway compensation and extra cycle times for acceleration and deceleration in train driving direction.

The trolley is movable over the total width of the bulk rail cars and, in particular, over the additional width of the bypass unloading section, in which the bulk material bunker is arranged within the portal unit. This makes the bulk material manipulator able to move between the bulk rail cars of the bulk rail train and the bulk material bunker, in particular to transfer bulk material from the bulk rail cars into the bulk materia! bunker, and below the arrangement of the bulk material manipulator, the unloading station is placed which is accessible for trucks.

With respect to the operating strategy of the load manipulating station it is also conceivable that bulk material which has been unloaded with the bulk material manipulator e.g. formed by a shovel can remain in said

manipulator until at another point within the same bulk rail car or in a subsequent bulk rail car said bulk material must be re-loaded back in order to reach the required weight or to harmonize the bogey load of the front or the back bogey According to yet another embodiment at least one load profile sensor is arranged upstream the bulk material manipulator for sensing the bulk material load topography within the bulk rail cars. This load profile sensor may be formed with a radar or laser sensor providing a kind of a sensor curtain in order to provide topography data of the bulk material loading height within the bulk rail car. According to yet another embodiment, at least one track scale is arranged upstream the bulk material manipulator for sensing the bulk material load weight within the bulk rail cars.

The heart of the system may be formed by a control unit which is provided for controlling the load manipulating station depending from date received from the load profile sensor sensing the ioad topography and from the scale sensing the load per bogey of the bulk rail cars. The control unit can operate the system without the need of an operating person, and the system may be operated with the control unit automatically. As a preferred embodiment, a supervisor person may supervise the operating of the system by means of the control unit, which may feature an appropriate control interface.

Within the spirit of the present invention the control unit may be

interconnected with the train loading station, and when the control unit measures a continuously overloading of a huge number of bulk rail cars, the control unit may provide a signal to the train loading station to

downscale the average ioad of the bulk rail cars. In the other way around if the control unit measures a continuous underloading of the bulk rail cars, the control unit may provide another signal to the train loading station to enlarge the loading of the bulk rail cars. With this system is formed a closed loop control circuit between the load manipulating station and the train loading station with the result, that no or only a few trucks may transport bulk material from the load manipulating station back to the train loading station on the one hand and on the other hand the loading of the bulk rail cars is only slightly underneath the maximum allowable load of the bulk rail cars. Another improvement is the homogenous load of the bogeys of each bulk rail car of the bulk rail train.

The present invention is also directed on a method from manipulating the load in bulk rail cars of a bulk rail train which bulk rail cars are loaded with bulk material like coal, ore, burden material or the like by means of a train loading station, and according to a first step of the inventive method a load manipulating station is provided downstream the outgoing side of the train loading station, comprising a portal unit which overdraws the bulk rail train, and comprising a bulk material manipulator for unloading and loading bulk material out of and back into the bulk rail cars, and comprising manipulator tracks, whereas the portal unit is movable arranged on said manipulator tracks extending along a moving direction of the bulk rail train, and the method comprises the moving of the portal unit along and/or analogue to the speed of the bulk rail train while manipulating the bulk material in the bulk rail cars with the bulk material manipulator.

The method is also embodied in a load manipulating station that features a bulk material bunker, and the bulk material manipulator removes bulk materia! from the bulk rail cars and loads the bulk material into the bulk material bunker. Moreover in conjunction with the bulk material bunker a first conveyor means is arranged and the bulk material from the bulk material bunker is transferred into the trucks in a bypass unloading section of the first conveyor means and/or in conjunction with the bulk material bunker a second conveyor means is arranged, and bulk material from the bulk material bunker is transferred back into the bulk rail cars by means of the second conveyor means.

According to another improvement of the method a control unit is provided for controlling the load manipulating station, whereas the control unit receives data from a load profile sensor regarding the load topography and from a scale regarding the load per bogey of the bulk rail cars, and the control of the unloading and loading of the bulk rail cars by means of the bulk material manipulator is performed in a way that the load in the bulk rail cars is maximised and homogenised.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

The aforementioned components, as well as the claimed components and the components to be used in accordance with the invention in the described embodiments, are not subject to any special exceptions with respect to their size, shape, material selection and technical concepts such that the selection criteria known in the pertinent field can be applied without limitations. Additional details, characteristics and advantages of the object of the invention are disclosed in the sub claims and the following description of the respective figures shows preferred embodiments of the system and the method according to the invention. Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of the inventive system arranged downstream the outgoing side of a train loading station,

Fig. 2 shows a detailed perspective view of the system,

Fig. 3 shows a front view of the system,

Fig. 4 shows a perspective view of a portal unit as a part of the

system, Fig. 5 shows another perspective view of the portal unit according to

Fig. 4 and Fig. 6 shows a perspective view of a train loading station upstream the load manipulating station. Figure 1 shows a system 100 for manipulating the load in bulk rail cars 10 of a bulk rail train 1 . and the load is formed by bulk material 10 like coal or ore. Each of the bulk rail cars 10 are loaded with bulk material 11 by means of a train loading station 12. In order to move the bulk rail train 1 through the train loading station 12, the train 1 is travels in a moving direction 17 along a railway 19.

When the bulk rail cars 10 of the bulk rail train 1 are filled with bulk material 11 , the bulk rail train 1 travels through a load manipulating station 13 which is in the sense of the present invention thought for maximizing and homogenizing the bulk material 11 within the bulk rail cars 10 of the bulk rail train 1.

To qualify the load manipulating station 13 for the propose of maximizing and homogenizing the bulk material 11 within the bulk rail cars 10, the load manipulating station 13 is provided downstream the outgoing side of the train loading station 12 and comprises a portal unit 14 which overdraws the bulk rail train 1 and the load manipulating station 13 comprises a bulk material manipulator 15 for unloading and loading bulk material 11 out of and into the bulk rail cars 10 of the bulk rail train 1.

The portal unit 14 is arranged on manipulator tracks 16 in a movable manner, and when the train 1 travels through the load manipulating station 13 the portal unit 14 can be moved with the travelling speed of the bulk rail train 1 along the manipulator tracks 16. For example, the manipulator track 16 feature a length of e.g. 50 m and the portal unit 14 can travel with the travel speed of the train 1 along the entire length of the manipulator tracks

16,

In order to control the operating of the load manipulating station 13 a control unit 29 is provided in conjunction with the load manipulating station 13. The control unit 29 receives data from a load profile sensor 26 arranged with the train loading station 12, and the load profile sensor 26 is suited to measure the filling height of the bulk material 11 in the bulk rail cars 10. In other words, the load profile sensor 26 may provide information about the load topography of the bulk material 1 in the bulk rail cars 10. This information is provided to the control unit 29 as shown with an arrow.

Furthermore, a track scale 28 is arranged at a measuring point in between the train loading station 12 and the load manipulating station 13, and the scale 28 provides a load information of the bulk material 1 1 in the bulk rail cars 10 to the control unit 29. This load information can be provided per bulk rail car 10 and in particular per bogey of each of the bulk rail cars 10.

According to the operating of the entire system 100, the control unit 29 is performed to provide a filling signal to the train loading station 12. When the control unit 29 measures an overload of a higher number of bulk rail cars 10, the train loading station 12 may reduce the amount of bulk material 1 1 which is loaded into each of the bulk rail cars 10. If the control unit 29 measures an underloading of a higher number of bulk rail cars 10, the control unit 29 provides a signal to the train loading station 12 to increase the loading of each bulk rail car 10.

Figure 2 shows a closer view of the load manipulating station 13 arranged with the bulk rail train 1 comprising a number of bulk rail cars 10, and each of the bulk rail car 10 is filled with bulk material 1 1 , and the bulk rail train 1 moves through the load manipulating station 13 in a moving direction 17. The moving can be detected with a travel sensor 32, for example formed by means of a radar.

The load manipulating station 13 comprises manipulator tracks 16 extending along the railway 19, and the embodiment shows a first manipulator track 16 and a second manipulator track 16 each arranged beside the railway 19. On the manipulator tracks 16 is movable arranged a portal unit 14, and the portal unit 14 can be moved along the extension of the manipulator tracks 16 as shown by the double-arrow. With the portal unit 14 is arranged a bulk material manipulator 15 for unloading the bulk material 1 1 of the bulk rail cars 10, and the bulk material manipulator 15 may be formed by a bucket or a shovel.

Furthermore, at the portal unit 14 is arranged a bulk material bunker 18 for temporarily storing bulk material 11 , in order to receive bulk material 1 1 removed from the bulk rail cars 10 and to provide bulk material 1 1 for loading bulk material 11 back into the bulk rail cars 10. The portal unit 14 features a width which is larger than the width of the bulk rail train 1. The bulk material bunker 18 is arranged in a bypass unloading section 20 beside the top area of the bulk rail train 1 , and the bulk material manipulator 15 can travel over the bulk rail cars 10 and can unload bulk material 11 , and subsequently the bulk material manipulator 15 travels in a cross direction to the bulk material bunker 18 and unloads the bulk material 11 into the bunker 18

When figure 2 and figure 3 are read commonly, it is obvious that the bypass unloading section 20 is arranged beside to the railway 19 for travelling the bulk rail train 1. The bypass unloading section 20 can be accessed by trucks 21 , and bulk material 1 1 , which fills the bulk material bunker 18, can be unloaded into the truck 21 by means of a first conveyer means 25a. The first conveyer means 25a is suited to transfer the bulk material 11 from the bulk material bunker 18 into the truck 21. Accordingly, the bulk material bunker 18 is arranged above the bypass unloading section 20.

The bulk material bunker 18 is performed with a second conveyer means 25b, which is thought for unloading bulk material 11 from the bulk material bunker 18 back into the bulk rail cars 10, if necessary. Optionally both conveyors can be combined in a slewing single conceyor wither feeding the bulk rail car, a truck or to the ground. Figure 3 shows in a front view an embodiment of forming the bulk material manipulator 15, which is formed as a grab bucket 22 like a clamshell bucket, polyp grab or other unloading tool. The grab bucket 22 is movable in a vertical direction, and the grab bucket 22 is received by means of a trolley 24 with a rope. The trolley 24 is movable in a cross direction as shown with two arrows, in order to move the bulk material manipulator 15 between the bulk rail car 10 and the bulk material bunker 18. The second conveyer means 25b is aligned with the bulk rail car 10 to re-load the bulk material 11 into the bulk rail car 10. Accordingly, the first conveyer means 25a is aligned with a truck 21 , which is arranged underneath the bulk material bunker 18. According to an alternative for filling the truck 21 , the truck 21 may provide bulk material 11 for loading bulk rail cars 10 via the manipulator 15 when the train loading station 12 is temporarily not operating. Figure 4 and figure 5 show different perspective views of the portal unit 14. The portal unit 14 forms as a base-body a portal frame 23 for overdrawing the bulk rail car 10 and the bypass unloading section 20 according to figure 3. The trolley 24 is received within the portal frame 23 and the bucket 22 forming the bulk material manipulator 15 which is received at the troiiey 24. In the perspective views the bulk material bunker 18 is shown as a part of the portal unit 14 and which is fastened underneath the rectangular portal frame 23. The first conveyer means 25a and the second conveyer means 25b are arranged with the bulk material bunker 18, and in a not shown detailed manner the bulk material within the bulk material bunker 18 can be transported from the bottom of the bulk material bunker 18 to at least one of the conveyer means 25a, 25b by means of the conveyer belts 25a, 25b which may extend into the bottom area of the bulk material bunker 18. Finally, figure 6 shows a train loading station 12 in a per se known manner having a chute 30 for transferring the bulk material 1 1 into the bulk rail cars 10 of the bulk rail train 1. Analog to the train sensor 32 according to figure 2 another train sensor 31 can be arranged within the train loading station 12. This travel sensor 31 senses the traveling of the bulk rail cars 10 in their moving direction 17 through the train loading station 12; but the train sensors 31 32 may also measure only the position of the bulk rail cars 10 and can be performed as optical sensors, radar sensors or e.g. tactile sensors. In order to measure the load topography 27 of the bulk material 11 within the bulk rail cars 10, load profile sensors 26 are arranged in the train loading station 12, and the load profile sensors 26 can be formed by radar or laser sensors. The load profile sensors 26 are arranged to form a kind of a sensor curtain to digitalize the load topography 27 and the data

containing the load topography 27 for each of the bulk rail cars 10 measured by the load profile sensors 26 can be provided to the control unit 29 according to figure 1.

The present invention is not limited by the embodiment described above, which is represented as an example only and can be modified in various ways within the scope of protection defined by the appending patent claims. Reference Numbers:

1 bulk rail train

10 bulk rail car

11 bulk material

12 train loading station

13 load manipulating station

14 portal unit

15 bulk material manipulator

16 manipulator tracks

17 moving direction

18 bulk material bunker

19 railway

20 bypass unloading section

21 truck

22 grab bucket

23 portal frame

24 trolley

25 first conveyor means

25 second conveyor means

26 load profile sensor

27 load topography

28 track scale

29 control unit

30 chute

31 train sensor

train sensor