Importance

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Abstract

A railroad vehicle end-of-car center coupler includes a telescopic energy absorber comprising a hollow cylindrical plunger in a cylinder having one closed end. The plunger has an aperture in its inner end wall. A perforated metering tube is fixed in the closed end wall by a special fixing arrangement. It projects through the aperture and carries an annular piston head which slides in the bore of the plunger. A floating piston divides the interior of the plunger into a gas space and a liquid chamber. Four direct acting pressure relief valves are mounted in the piston head. Conduits through the tube connect their inlets to respective ones of four axially-spaced ports in the outer surface of the tube so that they all communicate with the annular chamber that surrounds the tube within the plunger when the absorber is compressed and so that they are progressively cut-off from such communication during the final stages of extension of the absorber. The valves are designed to open when a predetermined pressure is established in the annular chamber.

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First Claim