Power Transmission Engineering Magazine
www.powertransmission.com/articles/3592

Shaft Collars Offer High Holding Power and Controlled Face Tolerance

September 21, 2010

Ruland Manufacturing Co., Inc. offers a full range of shaft collars with controlled face tolerance and high holding power. Shaft collars can be used on a variety of equipment including motors, gearboxes, linear actuators, packaging equipment, printing presses, medical devices, and precision instruments. Ruland shaft collars are single point faced during the boring process to ensure a high level of face to bore perpendicularity. This results in a face runout of TIR  less than .05 mm (.002") on standard collars with even tighter tolerances on bearing locknuts and special designs. The face to bore relationship is important for many applications where components such as bearings need to be properly aligned on the shaft. It also creates even pressure on the interfaced components prolonging their life and reduces the likelihood that the shaft collar will shift when it is subject to shock loads. A circular groove on the shaft collar indicates that it has been single point faced. Ruland collars should be installed so that the circular groove is on the side that will receive the shock load or against the components that need precise positioning or even pressure.

Ruland shaft collars are offered in aluminum, black oxide carbon steel, stainless steel, and engineered plastic. One and two-piece clamp shaft collars are available with bore sizes from 3 mm to 80 mm in the metric series and from 1/8" to 6" in the inch series. Clamp style shaft collars wrap around the shaft for even distribution of clamping forces. This results in a tight fit and greater holding power, without the shaft damage caused by set screws. Two-piece clamp style collars have an additional advantage since they can be installed on the shaft without removing other components. Ruland uses forged socket hardware in all its shaft collars, which allows for higher screw torque and increased holding power. All Ruland products are RoHS and REACH compliant. They are manufactured in Ruland's U.S. factory under strict controls using proprietary processes, high quality materials and superior finishes. Ruland's complete product line includes shaft collars and rigid couplings and five types of zero-backlash motion control couplings: beam couplings, bellows couplings, oldham couplings, miniature disc couplings and curved jaw couplings.