What are Couplings? | Protected Flange coupling | Oldham and Universal couplings |
Channel: MechanicaLEi
Date: 2019-02-08

Welcome back MechanicaLEi, did you know that couplings find many uses in daily life from connecting two train coaches to running the water pump through a diesel engine? This makes us wonder, what are couplings? Before we jump in check out the previous part of this series to learn about what a knuckle joint is? 
Now, A coupling is a mechanical element part that connects two shafts together to accurately transfer the power from the drive side to the driven side while absorbing the mounting errors of the two shafts. Power can be transmitted even between axes of different diameters, inclined angles, and axial displacements. They also help absorb the shock and arrest heat transfer from one shaft to another. Protected Flange coupling is a type of shaft coupling having two separate flanges which are mounted on the shaft end and both flanges are bolted together by means of nuts and bolts. It defers from unprotected and marine type flange coupling since its coupling bolts and nuts are protected by flanges on the two halves of the coupling. 
Universal Coupling is a coupling connecting rigid rods whose axes are inclined to each other and is commonly used in shafts that transmit rotary motion. It consists of a pair of hinges located close together, oriented at ninety degrees to each other and connected by a cross shaft. An Oldham coupling, on the other hand, has three discs, one coupled to the input, one coupled to the output, and a middle disc that is joined to the first two by tongue and groove. The tongue and groove on one side are perpendicular to the tongue and groove on the other. The middle disc rotates around its center at the same speed as the input and output shafts. The center traces a circular orbit, twice per rotation, around the midpoint between input and output shafts. An advantage to this type of coupling, as compared to two universal joints, is its compact size. Hence, we first saw what couplings and protected flange are and then went on to see what Oldham's and Universal couplings are?
In the next episode of MechanicaLEi find out what bearings are?


Attributions:

Doh De Oh by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100255
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Subtle Library by Fabian Measures (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Fabian_Measures/) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Fabian_Measures/Emotion_Music/Subtle_Library

rendered w:en:Oldham coupler animation by Van Helsing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oldham_coupler_animated_small.gif) is licensed under GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:GNU_Free_Documentation_License)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Universal_joint.gif
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Van helsing [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], from Wikimedia Commons

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