Patent ID: 7699709

Claim:
A shaft coupling mechanism for coupling two rotating shafts by being disposed between the two rotating shafts so as to transmit the rotation of one rotating shaft to the other rotating shaft, comprising: a pair of rotation transmitting members; an intermediate interposed member disposed between said pair of rotation transmitting members; and a coupling device adapted to couple said pair of rotation transmitting members to each other, wherein each of said pair of rotation transmitting members has at least one pair of projecting portions spaced apart from each other in a direction about an axis and extending in a radial direction, said intermediate interposed member has a pair of projecting portions each disposed between the pair of projecting portions of each of said pair of rotation transmitting members in an axial direction and having a larger width in the direction about the axis than a width of each of the pair of projecting portions, and the pair of projecting portions of said intermediate interposed member has a smaller rigidity than the rigidity of the pair of projecting portions of each of said pair of rotation transmitting members and is elastically deformable, each of said pair of rotation transmitting members having an annular base portion, the pair of projecting portions of each of said pair of rotation transmitting members being provided integrally on the base portion in such a manner as to extend in the radial direction from an outer peripheral edge of the base portion of a relevant one of said rotation transmitting members, and said coupling device including a claw portion which is provided integrally on the base portion of one of said rotation transmitting members in such a manner as to extend from an inner peripheral edge of the base portion of said one rotation transmitting member toward the base portion of another one of said rotation transmitting members, and which at its distal end is caught by an inner peripheral edge of the base portion of said other rotation transmitting member.