Well developed road and rail networks are an essential requirement for a sound and efficient infrastructure in any country.
Therefore, the tunneling machine field within the heavy machine construction industry will have plenty of contracts in the coming years. R+W ST safety couplings have been integrated in the latest generation of tunneling machines. On the drive end, the connection is established between the safety coupling and the motor shaft with DIN 5480 spline. On the output end is a flange mounted gear which drives the cutting head over the toothed inner bearing ring of the tunneling machine.
A total of 12 drive units are installed in the machine. Not only is a very high and uniform transfer of torque ensured, but the risk of breakdown is minimized, and costly downtime is avoided as well. In the event of an overload, the balls move out of the detents axially to cause positive separation so that damage to the individual cutting heads is prevented. Thus, in the event that one or more units fail, tunneling continues with no downtime.
R+W also offers these heavy duty safety couplings for inaccessible applications with automatic re-engagement.