Since 1958

July 8, 1996

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

HOW SMALL CHANGES CAN HAVE A LARGE EFFECT ON SYSTEM PERFORMANCE:

"Flexure" concept promotes application versatility

Tom Puerling
Sales & Marketing
Helical Products Company, Inc.
Santa Maria, CA 93456

The inspiration for the flexure came from the observation that one piece "flexured" flexible couplings offer maximum versatility in terms of form, function and reliability. Over time, the adaptability of flexured couplings, u-joints and precision machined springs has helped to solve thousands of mechanical misalignment problems. The mechanical properties of the "flexure" can be customized to compensate for angular and skewed misalignment, parallel offset and axial motion. All of this can be accomplished while maintaining constant velocity rotation and smooth bearing loads.

Flexures can be designed to customer specifications by changing coil parameters. In the following examples, each of the following flexures are made from the same material, and have the same outside diameter and length. These groups of matching colored flexures demonstrate how varying a single characteristic can influence performance.

The four red flexures are identical in outside diameter (OD), inside diameter (ID), length and number of coils. The only difference is the coil thickness. Changing this feature affects torque, angularity (bending moment), parallel misalignment (radial load), torsional rate and compression spring rate.

All of the green colored flexures are identical with the exception of the inside diameters (ID). This change affects the torque, bending moment, radial load, torsional rate and compression spring rate.

The only difference between each of the blue colored flexures is the length of the coil. Changes in flexure length affect angularity, radial load, torsional rate and compression spring rate. However, torque capacity remains constant.

The gold flexures are multi-beam designs. Multi-beam flexures have two or more coaxial beams. The difference between a single beam and multi-beam flexure is analogous to the difference between a single and multi-lead screw. The affect of changing the number of flexure beams, with all other factors remaining constant, will result in changes to all five previously mentioned performance criteria.

Variations in flexure coil characteristics affect the performance of the flexure in dramatically different ways. Alteration of these factors can result in performance changes that are linear or exponential in nature.

The foregoing flexure attributes can be manipulated a multitude of ways to meet customer specifications. To this point, we have only discussed what can be accomplished by changing flexure geometry--the flexure can be made from almost any material as well. Certain materials are better suited to particular applications and/or environments. The ability to control physical performance (with the flexure) and accommodate other system concerns by appropriate material selection is a feature few other coupling products can match.

Lastly, the flexure can be incorporated into existing mechanical designs where flexibility would enhance system quality and dependability. There are two primary ways this can be approached. A flexure can be machined into an area of one component in the assembly, or several assembly parts may be combined in a single flexured component. This second alternative has the added benefit of potentially reducing the packaging size of the assembly, eliminating excess backlash in the system and simplifying overall assembly.

The HELI-CAL Flexure, with its unparalleled adaptability, offers the designer a greater variety of design opportunities for assemblies/systems. Yes, just by making a small enhancement to one small component, e.g., a "flexured" coupling, large benefits in terms of system quality, efficiency and dependability are realized.

For more information, or for a free catalog, please contact us or fill out our online request form.

Prev

All

Next