DIRECTIONS OF DEVELOPING DESIGN SCHEMES AND CALCULATIONS OF ELASTIC COUPLINGS

A large number of elastic couplings are used in mechanical engineering. Couplings with metal elastic elements come with constant and variable stiffness. As part of drives, they can play the role of safety devices in which the elastic element, which is designed to transmit a certain torque, is destroyed during overloads. The development of the design of a safety-compensating coupling and the method for calculating its parameters will make it possible to determine permissible dynamic loads at the design stage. Purpose is to develop a design scheme of a coupling with an elastic metal element with compensation and safety functions and a method for calculating its parameters, which ensures reliable operation without destruction of the elastic element during overload. Using well-known analytical methods for solving statically indeterminate equations, for given structural parameters of the elastic element, dependencies are proposed for determining dynamic loads in straight sections of the spring and possible displacement of the support element. Based on the analysis of literary sources and patent search, variants of design solutions for elastic couplings are proposed. The elastic element of the device is proposed in the form of a closed star-shaped flat spring tangent to the half couplings with its protrusions. New mathematical dependences are obtained for determining dynamic loads in elastic metal elements of safety-compensating couplings. For the adopted coupling sizes, graphical dependences of dynamic loads on the design parameters of the elastic element of the coupling are determined and constructed. The design of the proposed elastic coupling is simple, technologically feasible, and reliable in operation; it can be effectively used in the design of low- and medium-power drives for various mechanisms and machines, ensuring compensation of misalignments, reduction of dynamic loads, and protection of drive components from overload-induced damage while maintaining stable torque transmission.