Driveshaft Flange Pre-Assembly with Bolt Retainers
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Solution Overview
Problem
The assembly of driveshafts and transmissions with threaded fasteners is labor-intensive and prone to errors due to loose particles from locking coatings getting trapped between flanges, leading to potential imbalances and vibration issues.
Innovation Solution
Pre-assembling bolts with bolt retainers into the driveshaft flange's countersink recesses, which align and secure the bolts to the transmission flange, trapping any loose locking coating particles and ensuring proper alignment and retention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If threaded fasteners are separately assembled and secured to transmission flange and driveshaft flange during final assembly, then the connection can be established, but the assembly process becomes labor intensive and time consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The bolts are pre-assembled to the driveshaft flange before final assembly with the transmission. This preliminary action allows the bolts to be positioned and secured in advance, eliminating the need for workers to manually handle and start each bolt during final assembly, thereby reducing labor intensity and assembly time
2Reliability
If locking coating is applied to threaded fasteners to prevent loosening, then vibration resistance is improved, but particles from the coating can become trapped between flanges causing misalignment
Solution Approach 1:
The harmful particles from the locking coating are extracted from the potential problem area by being trapped and contained within the countersink recesses. The recesses act as particle traps that prevent coating particles from becoming lodged between the mating flange surfaces, thereby maintaining alignment precision while still allowing the use of locking coating for connection stability
3Manufacturing precision
If close tolerances are specified for connecting transmission flange to driveshaft flange, then connection precision is improved, but any trapped particles cause the flanges to be out of specification
Solution Approach 1:
The countersink recesses convert the potentially harmful effect of particle generation into a beneficial particle trapping mechanism. By designing the recesses to capture and contain particles, the system prevents particles from interfering with the close tolerance requirements, thereby maintaining manufacturing precision while acknowledging the inevitability of particle generation from locking coating application
Data Source
AI summary
A drivetrain assembly includes a transmission and a driveshaft that are joined together by a transmission flange and a driveshaft flange that has a plurality of pre-assembled bolts. The driveshaft flange defines a plurality of holes and countersink recesses and the bolts are secured to the driveshaft flange by a bolt retainer disposed in each of the countersink recesses between the transmission flange and the driveshaft flange. A method is disclosed for assembling a transmission flange and a driveshaft flange that defines a plurality of holes and countersink recesses. A bolt is assembled into each of the holes and countersink recesses and a bolt retainer is attached to each of the bolts and nested inside the countersink recesses to retain the bolts on the driveshaft flange. The bolts on the driveshaft flange are then installed into the threaded holes of the transmission flange.