Flexible coupling facilitating blind assembly
AssigneeHolset Engineering Company Limited
InventorGraham E. Harpin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A flexible coupling has an inner member and a resilient body mounted on the hub and connected thereto. A reinforcement ring is embedded within the resilient body. The ring has arcuately spaced tubes with tapered rubber liners. Fasteners for connecting the coupling to the flywheel are locatable within the rubber liners. The taper causes the fixing to induce a precompression in the rubber tubes when the coupling is assembled and fitted in place. The coupling minimizes backlash, provides extra torsional flexibility and permits blind assembly.
Claims10
A flexible coupling for interconnecting first and second machine components, comprising:
- a rigid inner annular member connectable to one of the machine components,
- an outer annular member connectable to the second of the machine components,
- a resilient annular body fixed to said inner and outer annular members,
- said outer annular member comprising a plurality of arcuately spaced rigid tubes having inner walls and extending generally axially through and embedded in said resilient annular body, a plurality of rigid pins connected to the second of the machine elements and extending through said tubes, and a resilient annular lining fixed to the inner walls of each of said tubes such that no more than a zero clearance exists between the pins and said resilient annular lining of said tubes, said resilient annular linings initially having a tapered bore with the minimum diameter spaced from the ends of said tubes to facilitate sliding of the pins into the tubes so to compress the annular linings, whereby the coupling can be assembled by sliding the resilient annular lining of the tubes over the pins with minimum or no backlash.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.