Feature Clutches, brakes & couplings
Aluminium rigid coupling
Beam coupling
Curved jaw coupling Engineering the right solution
Applications within high tech industries will all place different demands on the couplings selected. So, to ensure the coupling meets demands, Ruland Manufacturing offers a wide range of solutions, with customised versions available for when a standard product just isn’t enough. Here, the company gives us an overview of the couplings available
oday’s high tech industries range from semiconductor, solar, medical, food and packaging, to printing, labelling, linear and petrochemical; and within each of these areas couplings often need to be specified. These couplings, however, will need to offer different performance characteristics depending on the application. To help, Ruland Manufacturing offers a wide range of coupling types, including rigid couplings with precision honed bores and five types of zero-backlash couplings: beam, bellows, disc, jaw, and oldham. In fact the complete range of options provided by the company gives customers the ability to select the proper coupling based on their design parameters.
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Beam and oldham couplings, for example, are suitable for applications that require higher amounts of misalignment with zero-backlash performance; while bellows, disc, and jaw couplings are suitable for applications that require high accuracy, repeatability and zero-backlash. Rigid couplings, meanwhile, are a good fit across many industries – providing there is no
misalignment – as they are the stiffest and most accurate. These are also available in the widest array of sizes, styles and materials. Of additional benefit, Ruland couplings feature a balanced design that allows them to run at higher speeds with reduced vibration. The company, for example, manufactures a range of beam couplings that have been designed specifically for encoder feedback systems. The P and MW series offer high misalignment capabilities with low bearing loads. These are machined from a single piece of aluminium or stainless steel, and feature two sets of two spiral cuts for increased torsional rigidity, accuracy, and repeatability when com- pared to single beam couplings, explains the company. The multiple
cut pattern accommodates angular misalignment and axial motion, but is particularly advantageous when parallel misalignment is present. All clamp-style flexible couplings from Ruland have a balanced design, allowing for operation at higher rpm with reduced vibration.
Couplings specifically designed to customer demands Standard couplings, however, are not always suitable for all applica- tions. As an alternative, Ruland also offers special couplings which can be manufactured based specif- ically on customer requirements. Commenting on this, William Hewitson, Ruland’s vice president of operations, explained: “Our engineers will work directly with customer engineering teams to build a coupling that meets specifications and minimises cost.”
Servo couplings
Prior specials include custom bore tolerances and geometries, materials for high temperature and chemical resistance, custom screw
sizes for installation standardization, 303 or 316 stainless steel coupling hubs for corrosion resistance. Couplings are part of Ruland’s complete product line, which features a wide variety of shaft collars, including one- and two-piece clamp-styles, threaded, heavy duty, double wide, and keyed. Ruland has recently released quick clamping shaft collars for easy adjustment without tools, and washdown shaft collars for food processing and other hygienic applications. A wider selection of shaft collar styles were released in 2013 to better match customer needs.
Ruland Manufacturing
www.ruland.com
Enter 232
Bellows coupling 40
Double disc coupling
Oldham coupling OCTOBER 2013 Design Solutions
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