During transport of trains the front of the coupler may be exposed to environmental factors such as snow, dust, and ice. These environmental factors will affect the coupling function negatively for when there is a need for coupling with another cart. This is especially common on the Nordic and European market, for which the Type 10 coupler is popular.
Both the coupler head and the electrical coupler is located on the front of the coupler which is a very exposed position. Therefore, a manually operated front cover has been introduced to provide protection of the coupler front. As there is a wish to protect the coupler head and electrical coupler from environmental exposure and potential damages.
The issue with current covers is that the high customization of the couplers often results in the requirement of unique cover design for each coupler project. Therefore, resulting in unnecessary work by redesigning the cover for new projects. Furthermore, current covers require several manual operations to change from open position to closed position, which ideally should be as low as possible.
The purpose of this thesis project is to develop new front cover concepts for the Type 10 coupler head with increased compatibility to reduce the extra work related to making new unique front covers. The concept development process and methods applied are described in this report.
The results of this project are two 3D designed models of the two highest ranking concepts. Which gives Dellner the opportunity to continue with one or both concepts, before a detailed design is made ready for prototyping and testing.