Buf′fer.
An elastic device or fender for deadening the shock caused by the impingement of one object against another.
A fender or resilient pad or block, placed on the end of a sill-piece of a car-bed to moderate the concussion of colliding cars.
According to the construction and application, it assumes a specific name; and the parts involved are also distinguished with this word as an affix, e. g., —
The
buffer bar or
beam is attached to the framework of the car, and carries the
buffer-box, in which is the
buffer-rod, on whose end is the
buffer-disk; the latter receives the impact, which is resisted by the
buffer-spring, inclosed in the box.
 |
|
English car-buffers. |
The buffers in use on English railways consist of disks of metal or wood which project from the ends of the carriages, and are commonly covered with cushions of leather.
The disks are attached to iron rods placed underneath the frame of the carriage, and as they are pressed inward by the contact of the adjoining carriage, act against the ends of elliptic springs, which lessen the jar resulting from the contact.
The aim of the
English mode of coupling is to bring the whole train to the condition of an object whose unyielding sections have a cartilaginous articulation, which permits a certain degree of flexure, extension, and compression at the joints.
Another form is a short spiral spring covered with leather and having a disk at the end, placed at the end of each of the main side-timbers of the carframe.
A third form has a central buffer with a shaft acting upon a spiral spring beneath the carriagebody.
 |
|
Car-buffer. |
In the example, the buffer-disks
E E are on rods having shoulders which impinge upon coiled platesprings
C. Beneath the car-beds are seen the springs of the car-coupling.
In a fourth, the shaft acts upon a piston in an aircylinder, the spring being pneumatic.
There are various modifications.
The
buffers sometimes take the form of elastic cushions of leather, stuffed with horse-hair; or of disks or blocks of vulcanized rubber.
