Learn How to Achieve Gear Coupling Reliability

For connecting process equipment gear couplings are among the most commonly used methods. They can provide long life and good reliability if properly selected, installed, and maintained.

Compared to other couplings, gear couplings offer several benefits, including very high torque density, moderate misalignment capacity, and exceptional torsional stiffness.

However, when the question arises regarding gear coupling reliability, you will find many areas where failures may be initiated. Due to the lack of knowledge or execution of certain basics, these failures begin. These are necessary for these gear coupling to run reliably.

Design, Selection, and Sizing

For gear coupling reliability selecting the correct coupling for the application is critical. 

Select the coupling style and design.

From the original equipment manufacturer’s (OEM) gear coupling charts you need to select the service factor (SF). If adequate SF is not used, shock loads or variable loading can cause premature failure. For gear coupling sizing some gear coupling manufacturers may even specify a misalignment factor when higher coupling misalignment is expected.

Based on the design of brake horsepower (BHP), SF, and speed you should calculate application torque (T) requirements.

You should select a coupling with a torque capacity greater than the torque requirements. There is no reason to add additional capacity because the service factor is already factored in.

Compared to the actual application bore, you need to confirm that the coupling selected has a greater bore capacity. Frequently the maximum bore size will even increase the coupling torque capacity two to three times what was previously calculated and drive the coupling sizing process.

You need to verify the shaft depth available for the coupling hub and compare it with the actual hub depth. In case the hub is too long, it must be either overhung or machined off. You will find some good gear coupling suppliers according to your type.

Make sure that the coupling will fit around the equipment and guard. When there is a design modification on existing equipment this is typically something that can become an issue. In the long run, guards that allow maintainability will encourage proper maintenance.

Know about the Drag Chain

The conveyor consists of a sequence being drawn through a pipe. Units handling several tons per hour are often constructed using basic workshop facilities.

The operation was demonstrated with a typical mineral and typical grains, employing a chain with 25-mm links in pipes with diameters of 25, 38, or 50 mm. Angles ranged from horizontal to 60° and chain speeds from 0.2 to 4 m/s. Through-put varied linearly with chain speed from dragging chain supplier so that the device has potential also as a controlled solids feeder. The correlations presented enable the essential design parameters of the conveyor to be estimated for materials resembling those tested.

The conveyor is meant for little through-puts over distances within 100 m, and when power consumption isn't a clincher. The speed of wear and tear will depend upon the character of the feed. The suitability of the conveyor for any specific application has got to be determined experimentally.

Chain/Tow/Drag Line Conveyor

The dragging chain uses mechanical devices attached to moving members, usually chains or cables, to tug or to products. Drag conveyors are used for moving bulk materials in bins, flights, or other attachments and may have multiple discharge or loading points. Tubular drag conveyors use an enclosed system of chains to convey products in any direction. Chain conveyors use a sequence, or multiple chains to maneuver pallets or other hard-to-convey products. Tow conveyors use a towline like cables or chains, usually within the floor or simply above it, to tow products directly or to tow wheeled carts or dollies.

Drag chain conveyors are used for special transportation of smaller capacities. Drag chain conveyors work on the principle of a chain-and-flight combination pulling a volume of fabric along. The chain is provided with different flights/paddles and drags the fabric from various charging points to a variety of discharge points.

The enclosed conveying device is employed mainly for dusty, abrasive, or hot material and, as such, has only a really limited application in coal. However, the facility plant industry and other industry players invite specialized conveying systems, that the very flexible drag chain conveyor from dragging chain manufacturer could be an answer.

Horizontal, vertical, or inclined solutions, with a possible explosion-proof and dust-tight design, could be necessary for a few special applications within the industry.

Know Everything about Gear Couplings

In mechanical power transmission gear coupling is a popular form of flexible coupling. What has made them one of the most preferred types of mechanical power transmission couplings is their suitability to a wide application like usability, areas & easiness in installation. Basically, between two connected shafts, they form a mechanical device that has a high capacity of transmitting 'torque', which is not collinear.

In performance they are considered as torsional rigid, their basic design can be divided into two major types:

Two external gear hubs are present in a fully flexible type coupling usually with finished bore & keyway mounted on connecting shafts. With internal teeth of common teeth are engaged in these hubs, which form a spline-like joint for power transmission.

2 halves, rigid and flexible are therein a semi-flexible coupling primarily. One end rigidity does not accommodate the parallel displacement of shafts but since it has flexible members; it surely does accommodate angular misalignment. This type of coupling is primarily employed in floating shaft applications.

In finished bore usually, a gear coupling from gear coupling supplier is supplied & installed & keyway conditions with specified dimensions against the requirement of the application.

What makes them suitable for a wide range of mechanical power transmission applications is the flexibility to absorb misalignment between 2 shafts, torsional rigidity, ease in installation & maintenance & most importantly high torque transmission capacity at low vibrations.

In design gear, teeth of the coupling is crowned which gives you the scope for absorbing angular misalignment while the scope for adjusting the linear misalignment is provided by the backlash between the mating teeth, which in turn makes the join, vibration-free during rotation.

Seals, machines, bearings, and shafts are therefore not subjected to the additional forces as large axial moments are avoided, sometimes of considerable magnitude.

There is extensive use of the gear couplings from gear coupling manufacturer in majority application areas such as heavy gearboxes, transmission drives, engines, fluid couplings similar where high torque transmission capacity along with torsional rigidity is required.

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How to Choose the Right Conveyor Chain for Your Application

For the maximum performance of a conveyor chain, four critical criteria are required. They are wearing ability, impact resistance, and ultimate strength and fatigue resistance.

The measurement that determines the ultimate strength of the conveyor chain is the weight in pounds required to break the chain on a linear plane. By using a tensile testing machine the usual method of testing is done. ANSI dictates the minimum strength values for each size of the chain.

The material by which the chain is made, its hardening specifications, and its manufacturing process that is used in making its components consist of a pin, center link, and side link is controlled by the manufacturer and determines the strength of the chain.

While comparing chains a conveyor chain's durability value is the most subjective value to consider. Its durability is affected by factors such as chain speed, lubrication, loads, and system design among others. Only the hardness factor is controlled by a manufacturer that impacts the other three criteria.

It is a fact that the durability the factor of a chain from conveyor chain manufacturer depends on how hard the chain is but along with this comes to lower resistance to fatigue and impact. The more the chain is harder the less resistance it becomes to fatigue and impact.

While the chain is moving around its horizontal turns, the side loads between the chain and the rollers or traction wheel make for a subtle bending motion in the center link of the conveyor chain. For fatigue, this particular movement is the catalyst. The fatigue should not go unnoticed and therefore, hence the chain is not replaced at once and the instance of failure is diminished.

In the case of loads that are often stopped and started, the chain particularly the pusher dog is subject to impact failure if an impact-resistant material was not used in its manufacture. The loading and unloading sites are other possible points of impact on a conveyor from the conveyor chain supplier. Impact failures happen with no warning like fatigue failures, but they do not, as a rule, spread out as the fatigue failures do.