Method for producing a propeller shaft

Abstract

A propeller shaft includes male and female shafts, each having at one end a yoke and at the other end a spline sliding portion. At least one of these shafts is wholly made of a hollow tube and its one end is worked to form an integral yoke and the other end is plastically worked with a die to form an integral spline sliding portion. A separate yoke may be welded to the hollow tube. The spline sliding portion thus formed has spline teeth of an integer number within the range of numerals obtained by multiplying the numeral indicating a larger spline diameter in mm by 0.12 to 0.25. The spline teeth has a spline tooth root angle within the range of 90 to 120 degrees enclosed between side faces of adjacent spline teeth. The propeller shaft reduces man-hour for producing it to improve the production efficiency and hence reduce its cost. The plastically worked integral spline sliding portion eliminates the misalignment of parts of the propeller shaft and does not have any residual stress resulting from welding operation.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.