Though one may not think of gears as being flexible, gear couplings are extremely much considered to be a flexible coupling. A equipment coupling is normally a mechanical device made to transmit torque between two shafts that aren’t collinear. The coupling typically includes two versatile joints, one fixed to each shaft. These joints tend to be connected by a third shaft called the spindle.

Each joint generally consists of a 1:1 gear ratio internal/external gear pair. The tooth flanks and outer size of the external equipment are crowned to permit for angular displacement between your two gears. Mechanically, the gears are equal to rotating splines with modified profiles. They are called gears due to the relatively huge size of one’s teeth. Gear couplings are usually limited by angular misalignments of 4 to 5°.

Equipment couplings ordinarily come in two variations, flanged sleeve and continuous sleeve. Flanged equipment couplings contain short sleeves surrounded by a perpendicular flange. One sleeve is normally positioned on each shaft so the two flanges line up face to face. A series of screws or bolts in the flanges hold them together. Continuous sleeve gear couplings feature shaft ends coupled jointly and abutted against each other, which are then enveloped by a sleeve. Generally, these sleeves are made from metal, but they can also be made of Nylon.

Single joint equipment couplings are used to connect two nominally coaxial shafts. In this application these devices is named a gear-type versatile, or flexible coupling. The one joint permits small misalignments such as for example installation mistakes and changes in shaft alignment due to operating conditions. These kinds of equipment couplings are usually limited to angular misalignments of 1/4 to 1/2°.