GB165162A - Improvements in or relating to means for coupling shafts or other rotatable bodies - Google Patents

Abstract

165,162. Merz & McLellan, and Twinberrow, J. D. March 17, 1920. Universal joints.-In universal coupling- means for connecting one shaft to another or to its equivalent, such as an annular gear-wheel, of the type in which the driving and driven elements are connected to an intermediate member a.t the ends of two mutually perpendicular co-planar axes, each element is allowed, relatively to the intermediate member, (1) to oscillate, in the plane containing its shaft and its axis of connection, about a point at or near the centre of the intermediate member, (2) to pivot about its axis of connection, and (3) to slide along his axis. Endlong sliding may also be permitted. The driven gear-wheel of an electric railway vehicle may be mounted on its axle in this way in order to accommodate the relative movements between the axle and vehicle frame. As shown in Fig. 2, an annular gear-wheel 23 driven by pinions 30 is riveted to the flange 21 of a. hollow shaft 11, and engages by a pair of flat-faced projections 14 an intermediate member 12 of I-section ring-form, which engages a similar pair 13 carried by the axle 10. The projections 13, 14 slide freely in all directions between bearing-blocks 28, which can turn between pads 27 about radial axes, but are prevented by ribs 29 from radial movement. The pads 27 may turn, when the arms 13, 14 and blocks 28 are worn, on the cylindrical seatings 26 of pockets 24 in the ring 12, which are closed by covers 25 accessible through apertures in the flange 21. In the modification shown in Fig. 5, the intermediate member takes the form of two T-section rings 31 bolted together and enclosing the pockets between them. The gear-wheel 23 is borne by three equidistant twin-rollers 32 running on tracks adjacent to the teeth and carried by the vehicle or other frame 34. This type of mounting, or the construction of the intermediate member, can be applied to the first form described. As shown in Fig. 7, the member 12, in the form of a star-shaped plate, is mounted within a driving-wheel 35 and has thickened portions in which are slots 112 to receive the sliding-members 113, 114, carried respectively by the wheel-disc and by arms 14 of the gear-wheel 23. The slots have central seatings for pads 27 which carry bearing-blocks 28 as before. The wheel-casing 360 has covered apertures 37 opposite the universal connections.