RSS
Operational Improvements
December 11, 2024
PTE will feature a variety of new component technologies online for bearings, motors, couplings, brakes, gear drives, and motion control systems leading up to Hannover Messe 2023 in Germany. Here is a preview of some couplings suppliers to check out if you're planning on attending the event online or in-person in April.
“At the upcoming Hannover Messe, we will be able to witness the new products and substantial innovations with which our exhibitors are tackling several different crises. In April, they will be presenting highly specific solutions for greater efficiency to counter climate change and enable CO²-neutral production. Digitization, artificial intelligence and hydrogen play a prominent role here,” reports Dr. Jochen Köckler, chairman of the managing board at Deutsche Messe.
“Drive and fluid technology components are the central building blocks of machines, for power and motion, but also as a source of data for digital value-added services and crucial to the performance of customer products – this is what we will be showing at Hannover Messe,” emphasizes Hartmut Rauen, deputy executive director of VDMA and responsible for power transmission engineering and fluid power at the association. Numerous VDMA member companies will be highlighting practical examples in the context of digitization and sustainability.
R+W Antriebselemente (Hall 5, Stand A48)
The low-wear, flexible gear couplings from R+W are used in a wide variety of industries. Particularly in heavy-duty operation – such as on the high torque shafts of mixers, rolling mills, crushers, test stands and conveyors – gear couplings transmit torques from 1,900 to 2,080,000 Nm with high torsional rigidity and low backlash. To ensure optimal performance, R+W manufactures both the coupling hubs and the flange sleeves with precise crowned gearing, made from high-strength steel.
Durable, reliable, and flexible: these characteristics make industrial couplings ideal for all applications that require maximum safety and performance in the face of constant and extreme loads. Engineers and operators across a wide range of industrial sectors are aware that machine component failures and downtime drive up cost and, in the worst cases, can lead to accidents – making proper industrial coupling selection critical.
The main advantages of elastomer couplings include vibration damping, easy installation, zero backlash transmission, and electrical isolation. Whether for machine tools, packaging machines, automation systems, printing machines or general mechanical engineering - the uses for elastomer couplings are as diverse as their requirements.
Elastomer couplings are part of a wider group, known as jaw couplings, the key component of which is an elastomer segment inserted between two hub halves. This elastomer insert is the heart of the elastomer coupling. It transmits torques from 0.5 to 25,000 Nm without backlash, and compensates for axial, lateral and angular shaft misalignment. When properly selected for size and hardness, the elastomer insert optimizes the entire drive train and exhibits important characteristics, such as vibration damping, torsional stiffness, and thermal stability.
Optibelt (Hall 5, Stand F08)
The flexible Hadeflex couplings are claw couplings with a flexible element to provide a torsionally flexible connection for shafts. The flexible elements excel in their wear resistance, their oil, ozone and aging resistance and their temperature resistance from –20 °C to +80 °C. Thanks to their flexibility, impacts, rotary vibrations and noises are effectively absorbed. The flexible elements are dimensioned such that radial, axial and angular movements between the two halves of the coupling are cancelled out. The flexible Hadeflex couplings are of the plug-in type for installation and do not involve any particularly rigorous requirements with respect to alignment accuracy. Hadeflex couplings can be used in the whole of machine construction wherever a reliable shaft connection is needed between motor and working machine.
The Flex coupling combines all the advantages which can be expected of an ideal flexible coupling. It is a torsional flexible coupling which offers a wide spectrum of cases of applications to the technical designers and the engineers by combining the different types of steel flanges for many different applications. Flex is a high flexible tyre coupling which can because of the special builded tyre take an extreme big misalignment at a low restoring force in each direction without noticing this in the wear. Because of a factory-installed joint the tyre can according to standard be radially assembled and disassembled without shifting the connected engines. The transmission of the torque takes place absolutely free from backlash.
R+L Hydraulics (Hall 6, Stand B39)
When your equipment operates in harsh environments, you need coupling products you can count on. Quick Flex elastomeric couplings are designed to withstand those harsh conditions yet need minimal maintenance. They’re easy-to-install and require no lubrication. With a lifespan that can match that of your equipment, Quick Flex couplings can keep your overall cost of ownership competitively low.
Elastic couplings reduce intermittent short period torsional shocks, by briefly storing the shock energy. Any degree of uneven movement and load transfer is consequently reduced. Elastic couplings restrain body resonance, and therefore contribute to noise reduction. The elastic Spidex coupling transmits the torque safely preventing breakdown.
The Dentex FL-Coupling allows a keyed connection between Diesel engine and hydraulic pump. Therefore, the glass fiber reinforced polyamide flanges of the Dentex FL-Coupling are designed according to SAE J620 and suitable for all conventional diesel engines. For the pump mounting pump mounting plates according to SAE J617 are available. The application of the Dentex FL-Coupling results in a non-critical service on account of the coupling stiffness, as the hazard of a rotating oscillation during the drive will be avoided.
Ringspann (Hall 6, Stand E47)
The product range shaft couplings contain Flange Couplings, Cone Clamping Couplings, Gear Couplings, Disc Couplings, Flexible Couplings, Grid Couplings, Pin and Bush Couplings and Jaw Couplings.
For over 60 years, Ringspann has been renowned as a provider of couplings, beginning with the patented L-coupling from 1956, which is still offered today as model RDA … ESO. Back then Ringspann was able to offer drive system engineers a compact, torsionally rigid flexible coupling based on the Oldham principle that can compensate large parallel and angular misalignments in small spaces.
Ringspann has since expanded its coupling range and can now offer the not shiftable couplings for almost all applications. For example, the rigid Tru-Line Flange-Couplings of the RFK … TBO model with a special Shaft-Hub-Connection allows for freely hanging motor gear units with a torque support to be coupled to conveyor belt pulleys without fretting corrosion while accommodating significant rotating bending moment stress.
The company offers equally suitable couplings for applications where it is critical for torque to be transmitted through a torsionally rigid connection with out backlash while still being able to accommodate for shaft misalignment. Additionally, Ringspann can offer solutions where the torsional rigidity is beneficial for the application but needs to be adapted with the use of elastomers.
