Though one might not think about gears as being flexible, gear couplings are extremely much regarded as a flexible coupling. A equipment coupling is a mechanical gadget designed to transmit torque between two shafts that aren’t collinear. The coupling typically contains two versatile joints, one fixed to each shaft. These joints are often linked by a third shaft known as the spindle.

Each joint generally consists of a 1:1 equipment ratio internal/external gear pair. The tooth flanks and outer diameter of the exterior equipment are crowned to allow for angular displacement between the two gears. Mechanically, the gears are equivalent to rotating splines with altered profiles. They are called gears due to the relatively large size of one’s teeth. Equipment couplings are generally limited to angular misalignments of 4 to 5°.

Gear couplings ordinarily can be found in two variations, flanged sleeve and continuous sleeve. Flanged equipment couplings contain short sleeves encircled by a perpendicular flange. One sleeve is normally positioned on each shaft so the two flanges fall into line face to face. A number of screws or bolts in the flanges hold them jointly. Continuous sleeve equipment couplings feature shaft ends coupled jointly and abutted against one another, which are then enveloped by a sleeve. Generally, these sleeves are constructed with metal, but they may also be manufactured from Nylon.

Single joint equipment couplings are used to connect two nominally coaxial shafts. In this application these devices is named a gear-type versatile, or flexible coupling. The one joint permits small misalignments such as installation mistakes and changes in shaft alignment because of operating circumstances. These types of equipment couplings are usually limited by angular misalignments of 1/4 to 1/2°.