Bellows Couplings for Motors
Bellows couplings have high torsional stiffness, a balanced design and can accommodate all forms of misalignment. They are a good choice for motors coupled to screw driven actuators in precision applications such as those found in semiconductor, solar, and printing.
Bellows couplings are comprised of two anodized aluminum hubs and a stainless steel bellows. This design creates a low inertia zero-backlash coupling that is well suited for motors in servo driven applications. The thin walls of the stainless steel bellows allow the coupling to flex under misalignment conditions while remaining rigid under torsional loads. This gives bellows couplings the capability to accommodate all forms of misalignment and the highest size-for-size torque of all Ruland flexible couplings.
Ruland bellows couplings have a balanced design for reduced vibration at speeds up to 10,000 RPM. This design gives motor engineers the flexibility to specify a standard Ruland bellows coupling into any application without the need to ask for a special configuration. Bellows couplings have no moving parts resulting in a long maintenance free life. Ruland uses an epoxy to join the hubs and bellows eliminating the inherent risk associated with welded types.
Ruland manufactures bellows couplings from bar stock sourced from select North American mills. They are available in clamp and set screw types with or without keyways in inch, metric, and inch to metric bore sizes ranging from 1/8” (3mm) to 1” (25mm). Ruland uses all metric hardware that exceeds industry standards for maximum torque capabilities.
Bellows couplings are part of Ruland’s complete motion control coupling line which includes beam, bellows, zero-backlash jaw, oldham, and rigid types. Full product specifications including free downloadable CAD files, installation instructions with videos, and performance data can be found at www.ruland.com.