Ruland rigid shaft couplings are available in one and two-piece designs, with and without keyways, in aluminum, carbon steel, and stainless steel. A large number of standard sizes are available in straight and step bore combinations to fit shafts ranging from 1/8" to 2" in the inch series and from 3mm to 50mm in the metric series. Inch to metric
conversion couplings are also available by special order. Shaft couplings are stamped with the Ruland name and the bore sizes for easy identification.
A one-piece rigid coupling wraps around the shaft, providing high torsional holding power without the shaft damage and fretting inherent when set screw style couplings are used. Two-piece rigid couplings have the additional benefits of allowing for disassembly and maintenance without removal of other components. Two-piece sleeve couplings also feature opposing hardware for dynamic balancing.
Extra steps are taken in the manufacturing of rigid couplings to provide important performance benefits. As one of these steps, the bores of Ruland straight bore shaft couplings are precision honed. Honing of the bores provides several benefits that enhance the overall performance of the couplings. Applications that require strict control of shaft alignment benefit greatly from honing, which assures both bores are collinear. Honing also corrects any residual distortions caused by stresses
introduced during the manufacturing process, resulting in a round, precisely sized bore. Proper sizing and geometry assures a large percentage of shaft contact and greater torque transmission ability.
A rigid coupling comes with Ruland's unique Nypatch® socket head cap screws for increased performance and reliability. Nypatch® is a proprietary process that involves depositing a 360 degree coating of Nylon on several threads of the socket head cap screws. This coating is designed to reduce screw vibration, which can cause the screws to loosen and torque transmission ability to diminish during the course of normal use. The Nylon also provides the necessary dissimilar material
to reduce galling of the screw threads in stainless steel shaft couplings.
The benefits of sleeve couplings include their economy, high torque capacity, and zero-backlash. They are suitable for applications when misalignment is neither present nor desired, including connecting line-shafting and attaching a motor to a gearbox. Rigid couplings are increasingly being used in precision motion control applications with properly aligned components.
Rigid couplings are increasingly used in precision motion control applications where components are properly aligned. Read the article "Rigid Couplings for Precision Motion Control Applications" to learn how a rigid coupling can be used in servo applications.
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