US 11,987,457 B2
Coordinated braking systems and methods for rail cars
Igor Aleynikov, St. Louis, MO (US); Paul Wike, St. Louis, MO (US); and Tom Petrunich, Troy, IL (US)
Assigned to Amsted Rail Company, Inc., Chicago, IL (US)
Filed by Amsted Rail Company, Inc., Chicago, IL (US)
Filed on Apr. 28, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/242,412.
Prior Publication US 2022/0348428 A1, Nov. 3, 2022
Int. Cl. B65G 67/48 (2006.01); B60T 8/17 (2006.01); B60T 8/18 (2006.01); B61D 9/02 (2006.01); B61H 13/30 (2006.01); B61J 3/00 (2006.01)
CPC B65G 67/48 (2013.01) [B60T 8/1705 (2013.01); B60T 8/1893 (2013.01); B61D 9/02 (2013.01); B61H 13/30 (2013.01); B61J 3/00 (2013.01)] 24 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system comprising:
a train including rail cars configured to travel along a track having rails, wherein each of the rail cars comprises brakes, wherein the rail cars include loaded rails cars and unloaded rails cars, and wherein a ratio of loaded rail cars to unloaded rail cars changes; and
a braking control unit in communication with the brakes of the rail cars,
wherein the braking control unit is configured to adaptively control the brakes of a subset of the rail cars in accordance with braking data based on one or both of a change in a number of rail cars in the train, or a change in the ratio of loaded rail cars to unloaded rail cars.