摘要 |
For shafts that are nominally collinear and are to be coupled to rotate together while being subject to misalignments of different kinds, a flexible coupling is provided that includes curved reentrant columns circumferentially spaced about the axis of rotation and individually deformable by bending or twisting, or both. The composite result is that torque of a given loading is transferred uniformly from the driving to the driven member regardless of the misalignment effects, since different deformations are introduced and compensated in the columns, dependent on their instantaneous positions in the cycle of rotation. The arrangement enables meeting different load and misalignment requirements by varying the parameters of the columns, the manner in which they are coupled to the shafts, and the characteristics of the columns along their lengths. Furthermore, different combinations of the couplings can be used to achieve special results.
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