Elastomeric drive line coupling for transmitting torque and simultaneously accomodating shaft misalignments and angular deflections

摘要

An elastomeric drive line coupling. The coupling includes an input drive shaft having a longitudinal axis and terminating at one end with a housing and an output drive shaft having a longitudinal axis and terminating at one end with a ball. The housing has a partially elliptical interior and the ball has a partially elliptical exterior which is disposed within the housing. A partially elliptical rigid shell is provided between the ball and the housing. Both the ball and the rigid shell are bonded with elastomeric layers forming interleaved nested ellipses within the housing. These ellipses are oriented 90 DEG out of phase from one another. Torsional loads are applied to the output drive shaft by the input drive shaft through compression deformation of the elastomeric layers as the partially elliptical rigid shell attempts to rotate relative to the housing and the ball. Angular deflections of the output drive shaft relative to the input drive shaft are accommodated through shear deflections of the elastomeric layers as the partially spherical rigid shell attempts to slide relative to the housing and the ball.