Flexible coupling: metal bellow coupling
Servometer
Servometer couplings exhibit both low windup due to the bellows' radial rigidity, and low side thrust due to the bellows' lateral flexibility. Other coupling types have either low windup or low side thrust, but not both.
Since the flexible element is a bellows, the coupling can absorb parallel shaft misalignments of 0.068 in., angular misalignments as large as 31°, or axial movements of 0.230 in. while transmitting torque. Servometer's stock lines of flexible shaft couplings are available with stainless steel hub bore diameters ranging from .079 in. (2 mm) to 1.0 in. (25.4 mm), and with torque capabilities ranging from 2.0 in-oz (1.4 N-cm) to 4000 in-oz (2825 N-cm). Outside diameters range from 0.250 in. (6.35 mm) to 2.40 in. (61 mm) and overall lengths from 0.480 in. (12.19 mm) to 2.16 in. (54.9 mm). Specialized dynamic requirements can be custom designed to fit customer specifications.
Some unique characteristics of Servometer bellows-type flexible shaft couplings are:
- Extremely low elastic windup
- Zero backlash
- Zero cyclic speed variation during 360° rotation
- Minimal side loading
Typical applications include:
- Encoders
- Resolvers
- Servos
- Motion control instrumentation
- Robotics
- CNC machine tools
- Precision positioning
