Clamps resist slipping in high-torque systems

Most engineers would agree that the best way of attaching a coupling to a shaft is by using a clamp hub.

Most engineers would agree that the best way of attaching a coupling to a shaft is by using a clamp hub.

This protects the shaft from damage and allows fine adjustment of the coupling position.

In certain cases, however, engineers are forced to use set screws to maximise the torque capacity of their motion control systems.

Although the set screws increase the torque capacity of the system, they can damage the shaft and make future maintenance of the system uneconomical.

Engineers at Reliance Gear Co of Huddersfield wanted their customers to gain maximum benefit from the high torsional stiffness of the stainless-steel Reli-a-Flex one-piece coupling without having to resort to set screws.

They carried out deflection analyses on traditional single-slot clamp designs, and discovered that this type of component produced only two areas of high interface pressure during clamping.

In order to prevent slippage in a high torque system, the clamp would have to reduce the bore clearance more evenly and easily.

Reliance engineers achieved this by developing a clamp with a new cross-slit design, (provisional patent applied for), which produces consistent pressure around the whole of the shaft/clamp interface during clamping.

The result of this is that when using the new Reli-a-Grip clamps, the stainless steel Reli-a-Flex cross-slit clamp hub couplings achieve the same rated torque as the set screw couplings, giving even more choice to the Reliance customer.

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