Slit Couplings for Motors
Slit couplings are manufactured from a single piece of 7075 aluminum alloy and their balanced design provides smooth transmission of motion, low bearing loads, high torsional stiffness, and long life. They support speeds up to 70,000 RPM and accommodate all forms of misalignment, making them a good choice for high precision systems such as those found in medical, semiconductor, and robotics. A proprietary slit pattern with radiused edges reduces stresses that build up during misalignment conditions and torque loads allowing for reduced wear and stress on the coupling.
Slit couplings have a high-performance design that balances torque, misalignment, and torsional stiffness capabilities. Their torque capacity is comparable to a single disc coupling while their torsional stiffness is similar to a stainless steel beam coupling. Slit couplings offer misalignment accommodation most similar to an aluminum beam coupling. As a result, slit couplings are well balanced and ideal for demanding motor applications with high misalignment. Ruland offers slit couplings in RL- and RS-series. The longer length RL-series couplings allows for greater parallel misalignment capabilities and increased torsional stiffness. In comparison, RS-series couplings are shorter and designed to fit in compact spaces and offer parallel misalignment capabilities, which is an advantage over comparable single disc couplings.
Slit couplings are available in clamp screw and set screw designs with inch, metric, and inch to metric bore sizes ranging from 1/8” to 3/8” and 1.5mm to 12mm. They are manufactured by Reliance Precision Ltd. in their Cork, Ireland factory. Ruland stocks and bores to size slit couplings in our Marlborough, MA factory.