Ruland and Belden Start Joint Venture in Germany

Ruland Manufacturing Co. Inc. and Belden Inc. have started a joint venture in Europe. The company, PTMotion GmbH, has been operational since September 2009, and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany. The new company is headed by Managing Director Ralf Gabriel, a long-time sales engineer for Belden in Germany. He is assisted by Sales Engineer Sebastian Recke.

PTMotion GmbH
www.ptmotion.de

Belden Inc.
www.beldenuniversal.com

Ruland Manufacturing Co. Inc.
www.ruland.com

New Jaw Couplings Have Zero Backlash

Zero backlash jaw couplings that are three piece couplings comprised of two hubs and a plastic element are one of Ruland Manufacturing’s new products in their coupling line.

The Spider, shown below, made of an advanced polyurethane material, provides dampening of impulse loads, minimizing shock to the motor and other sensitive equipment.

Available in two durometers, these spiders allow the user to customize the jaw coupling’s performance. Selecting a soft spider will give the jaw coupling the greatest dampening characteristics, while a hard spider will provide the greatest torsional stiffness and strength. All spiders are press fit onto a curved jaw profile, assuring zero backlash operation. The curved jaw profile concentrates the forces to the center of the spider’s limbs, improving the effectiveness of the elastomer material. Raised contact points on the spider limbs help maintain proper spacing between the two hubs, assuring electrical isolation and full angular misalignment capabilities.

Jaw couplings are considered fail safe because, even if a spider fails, the jaws of the two hubs interlock allowing direct power transmission, allowing the application to be safely shut down for maintenance.

www.ruland.com

Miniature Rigid Couplings Bore Size Down to 3mm

Ruland now offers miniature rigid couplings with bore sizes as small as 3 mm. Miniature rigid couplings are suitable for micro component applications where misalignment is neither present nor desired, including connecting line-shafts, attaching a motor to a gearbox, and servo applications. Offering high torque capacity, stiffness and zero backlash, Ruland’s rigid couplings are increasingly being used in precision motion control applications where misalignment is tightly controlled.

Ruland’s miniature rigid couplings are available in aluminum, carbon steel or stainless steel. The bores of the couplings are precision honed in the manufacturing process, assuring tolerances of +.05/-.00 mm. This enhances the overall performance of the couplings, especially important for applications that require strict control of shaft alignment and greater torque transmission ability. All rigid couplings from Ruland have Nypatch socket head cap screws for increased performance and reliability. This coating is designed to reduce screw vibration, which can cause the screws to loosen and torque transmission ability to diminish during the course of normal use.

Rigid couplings are available in one-piece clamp style, two-piece clamp style and set screw style versions, with or without keyways. A large number of standard sizes are available in straight and step bore combinations to fit shafts ranging from 1/8″ to 2″ in the inch dimension series and from 3mm to 50mm in the metric dimension series. Inch to metric conversion couplings are also available by special order.

http://www.ruland.com/

Miniature Beam Couplings for Micro Component Applications

Marlborough, MA – For micro component applications, Ruland now offers miniature beam couplings. Available with outer diameters of 9.5 and 12.7 mm and bore diameters of 3 mm, the couplings are made from a single piece of aluminum or stainless steel with overlapping spiral cuts.

Ruland’s P-series beam couplings are made from aluminum and cover a peak torque range of 0.62 to 0.9 Nm. Available in set screw style or clamp-style versions, these couplings have zero-backlash and can accomodate angular misalignment of up to 3° and radial misalignment of up to 0.2 mm. For increased torque capacity and corrosion resistance, the beam couplings are also available in stainless steel.

Beam couplings are part of Ruland’s complete product line which also includes shaft collars and rigid couplings with precision honed bores, and five types of zero-backlash motion control couplings including bellows couplings, oldham couplings, jaw couplings and miniature disc couplings.

Ruland Manufacturing Company
www.ruland.com

International Collars

The International Series series of one- and two-piece clamp-style shaft collars suit retrofits and new equipment for a global market. They feature inch or metric bores, DIN 12.9 socket headed cap screws, high grade materials and finishes, and an attractive and practical form. The use of metric screws with inch bores is especially useful when either retrofitting or designing equipment with inch shafts for worldwide use.

The shaft collars are available in aluminum with an anodized finish and stainless steel screws, lead-free carbon steel, stainless steel and engineered plastic. Bores sizes offered range from 3 mm (1/8 in.) to 150 mm (6 in.). 

Ruland Manufacturing Co., Inc.
www.ruland.com/ps_collars_shaft.asp

Improved Clamp Design for Flexible Beam Couplings

Marlborough, MA - Ruland Manufacturing Company has introduced a new clamp design for its zero-backlash flexible beam couplings. The couplings now clamp with a single screw on each end, which eases installation, and are balanced for increased rpm capability.

The beam couplings now feature both a radial and cross-cut to enhance surface contact with the shaft. This increases holding power and while eliminating the need for the additional screw used in the original design. Balancing is achieved by the removal of material opposite the screw. Better balancing allows for increased speed with less vibration. This can both extend the life of the coupling and decrease settling time in stop and start applications such as machine vision systems.

Ruland offers two series of zero backlash flexible beam couplings with distinct performance features suitable for different types of applications. The couplings are machined from a single piece of aluminum and feature multiple spiral cuts. The multiple cut design provides higher torsional stiffness and torque capabilities, and greatly reduced wind-up when compared to a commodity type single beam coupling. The multiple spiral cuts also allow the couplings to accommodate angular misalignment, parallel misalignment, and axial motion.

Offered in aluminum for low inertia or stainless steel for higher torque and added corrosion-resistance, beam couplings are available as standard parts in twenty different body sizes with outside diameters ranging from 3/8″ (10mm) to 1 1/2″ (38mm) and bores from 3/32” (2mm) to ¾ “ (19mm). Ruland beam couplings conform to industry standard lengths, fitting in confined spaces and allowing for easy retrofits in existing equipment. Special designs, cut patterns suitable for specific applications, keyways, and threaded bores are also offered.

Beam couplings are part of Ruland’s complete product line which also includes shaft collars and rigid couplings with precision honed bores, and five types of zero-backlash motion control couplings including bellows couplings, oldham couplings, jaw couplings and miniature disc couplings.

www.ruland.com

High Performance from Miniature Disc Couplings

Marlborough, MA – Ruland offers miniature disc couplings both in single and double disc styles. Disc couplings are high performance motion control couplings with zero-backlash, excellent speed capabilities up to 10,000 rpm, strength and torsional stiffness characteristics, as well as low inertia for today’s highly responsive systems. Disc couplings are often used in servomotor and lead screw applications. In addition, two single disc couplings are often used in tandem when greater misalignment or a longer distance is required such as on gantry systems.

Disc couplings are an assembly of two black anodized aluminum hubs, multiple flat stainless steel disc springs to transmit torque, and a center spacer for double disc styles. The thin discs allow for a substantial amount of misalignment between shafts, while remaining rigid under torque loads. Parallel misalignment is accommodated by the double disc style or by two single disc couplings used in tandem.

Double disc styles are available with either an anodized aluminum center spacer or an electrically isolating acetal center spacer. Both disc couplings types are offered in clamp style and set screw style, with standard outer diameters from 15mm to 57mm, and bore sizes from 1/8″ to 1 1/4″ in the inch series and 3mm to 30mm in the metric series. Couplings with different bores sizes including mixed inch and metric are available.

Disc couplings are part of Ruland’s complete product line which includes shaft collars and rigid couplings with precision honed bores and five types of zero-backlash motion control couplings: beam couplings, bellows couplings, oldham couplings, curved jaw couplings and miniature disc couplings.

www.ruland.com