Industrial Coupling Buffer Structure for Emergency Torque Retention
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Couplings in industrial and rail vehicle applications face challenges in torque transmission, reliability, and emergency-running properties, with a need for improved safety and producibility.
Innovation Solution
A coupling design featuring an intermediate piece with axially protruding claws and a buffer part containing elastic damping elements, where the damping elements are surrounded by a hollow-cylindrical tube piece, preventing flinging-away and ensuring continued damping action even in failure, with a secure engagement mechanism to prevent undesired disengagement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If elastic damping elements are exposed in traditional claw couplings, then torque transmission and damping function are achieved, but components can fling away in emergency states causing safety hazards
Solution Approach 1:
The buffer part with elastic damping elements is nested inside the hollow-cylindrical tube piece, creating a nested structure where the damping elements are protected within the tube. This resolves the safety issue by preventing flinging away while maintaining the damping function, and the nested design is space-efficient.
Solution Approach 2:
The tube piece acts as an intermediary protective structure between the elastic damping elements and the external environment. It mediates by containing the damping elements during normal operation and retaining them during failure states, solving the safety hazard without requiring complete structural redesign.
2Reliability
If elastic damping elements are surrounded by tube piece, then emergency-running properties improve by preventing flinging away, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The coupling is segmented into distinct functional parts: the tube piece, the buffer part, and the elastic damping elements. This segmentation allows each component to be manufactured separately using optimized processes and then assembled, reducing overall manufacturing complexity despite the nested configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The tube piece serves as an intermediary component that simplifies the containment of damping elements. Rather than designing complex retention mechanisms, the tube piece provides a simple cylindrical enclosure that naturally contains the buffer part and damping elements, easing manufacturing.
3Reliability
If buffer part is inserted into tube piece, then retention of broken components is achieved, but assembly precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The tube piece and buffer part have locally optimized geometries at their mating surfaces. The buffer part features a profile that fits within the hollow-cylindrical space of the tube piece with appropriate clearances, providing local geometric compatibility that facilitates assembly while ensuring retention of components.
Solution Approach 2:
The nested arrangement of the buffer part within the tube piece creates a hierarchical structure where the outer tube provides the primary retention function. This nesting reduces the need for complex fastening mechanisms and lowers assembly precision requirements compared to alternative retention designs.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The coupling provides enhanced emergency-running properties, increased operational reliability, and cost-effective production by retaining broken components and maintaining torque transmission, while preventing damage and ensuring secure engagement.
Implementation Method 1
At least one buffer part, in which elastic damping elements are able to be received, is received in the intermediate piece. The elastic damping elements, during operation of the coupling as intended, are in contact with the claws and accommodate, in relation to a main axis of rotation of the coupling, a circumferential force.
Data Source
AI summary
A coupling includes a claw part and an intermediate piece. The intermediate piece includes a tube piece produced from aluminum or from an aluminum alloy, and a buffer part received in an end region of the tube piece and including elastic damping elements for receiving the claw part. The damping elements are surrounded by the end region radially at an outside in a circumferential direction. The buffer part includes a part which is different from the damping elements and is produced from a material of a brittleness which is greater than a brittleness of the tube piece.