Though one may not think about gears as being versatile, gear couplings are very much regarded as a versatile coupling. A equipment coupling is normally a mechanical gadget designed to transmit torque between two shafts that are not collinear. The coupling typically consists of two flexible joints, one fixed to each shaft. These joints tend to be linked by a third shaft known as the spindle.
Each joint generally consists of a 1:1 gear ratio internal/exterior gear set. The tooth flanks and external diameter of the external gear are crowned to allow for angular displacement between your two gears. Mechanically, the gears are equal to rotating splines with altered profiles. They are called gears because of the relatively large size of the teeth. Gear couplings are usually limited by angular misalignments of 4 to 5°.
Equipment couplings ordinarily come in two variations, flanged sleeve and continuous sleeve. Flanged equipment couplings contain short sleeves encircled by a perpendicular flange. One sleeve is placed on each shaft therefore the two flanges line up in person. A number of screws or bolts in the flanges hold them together. Continuous sleeve equipment couplings feature shaft ends coupled collectively and abutted against each other, which are after that enveloped by a sleeve. Generally, these sleeves are made of metal, but they can also be made of Nylon.
Single joint equipment couplings are accustomed to connect two nominally coaxial shafts. In this application the device is named a gear-type versatile, or flexible coupling. The one joint allows for minimal misalignments such as for example installation errors and changes in shaft alignment due to operating circumstances. These types of gear couplings are usually limited to angular misalignments of 1/4 to 
1/2°.