Coupling Design and Selection

Next

| Back

Q. What are the different types of couplings (high performance) available for the Turbo machinery equipment? A. There are basically two types of flexible couplings, sliding and deforming types. A gear coupling is a sliding type. The intermeshed gears slide back and forth in every revolution and therefore the gear teeth wear. As they wear, the radial clearances become larger and consequently, their unbalance level increases. Gear couplings also require regular maintenance. Dry couplings, deforming type, offer many advantages over gear tooth couplings as follows:

Dry couplings as the name implies operate dry do not require any type of lubrication. Dry couplings have no radial clearances resulting in a lower potential unbalance. Dry couplings require no maintenance or inspection for a minimum of five years and are designed for infinite life. Coupling vendors recommend that gear couplings be inspected, cleaned and re-greased every 12-18 months. Dry couplings eliminate lock-up and spool cracking typical in gear type couplings due to lack of lubrication. Dry couplings reduce hub to shaft fretting. Dry couplings exert significantly lower forces on connected equipment. The sliding force exerted by a gear coupling is a function of torque. The deforming force of a disc or diaphragm coupling is spring force and independent of torque. The force dry couplings exert on equipment bearings is roughly 40% of the gear in bending and 10% axially. Companies will sometimes include machinebearing life when calculating the return on investment.

There are two main types of disc couplings disc and diaphragm. Kop-Flex offers gear, disc and diaphragm type couplings. Q. Which coupling is better suited for Turbo machinery applications, disc or diaphragm? A. Both disc and diaphragm couplings can be designed to meet the requirements of a given Turbo machinery application. Each has a design advantage over the other depending upon the application while both are designed for infinite life providing the flexible element is kept within its fatigue properties.

Turbo compressor manufacturers generally prefer to use disc couplings between compressors and from gear to compressor since many of todays machines require the use of a reduced moment coupling. Disc couplings have an advantage over diaphragm type in the reduced moment design because they can accept a larger shaft. Disc couplings are also lighter in weight and impose lower forces on the connected equipment for the same given torque due the multiplicity of the design.

Turbine manufacturers often prefer diaphragm couplings. It is common for turbine rotors to have a flanged shaft designed to bolt directly to a diaphragm or rigid coupling. In addition, diaphragm couplings can operate under high axial and angular deflection, which is often a major concern for large steam and gas turbines. Diaphragm couplings are sometimes preferred over disc for synchronous motor applications where cyclic torsional vibration is present during start-up.
Q. What is the difference between disc and diaphragm couplings? A. Disc coupling: by definition, transmits torque from a driving to a driven bolt tangentially on a common bolt circle. Torque is transmitted between the bolts through a series of thin, stainless steel discs assembled in a pack. Misalignment is accomplished by deforming of the material between the bolts. transmits torque from the outside diameter of a flexible plate to the inside diameter, across the spool or spacer piece, and then from inside to outside diameter. The deforming of a plate or series of plates from I.D. to O.D accomplishes the misalignment.
Diaphragm coupling:

Q. Are there any other types of couplings for critical Turbo machinery applications? A. Yes, some applications such as synchronous motors and reciprocating compressors

require the use of a resilient coupling due to potentially harmful torsional excitations during transient and continuous operation. Both O.E.M.s and users for these applications requiring torsional damping often favour the Kop-Flex Max-C coupling. Many industrial frame gas turbine generator set applications do not require flexible couplings but need to have an engineered rigid coupling or spool to connect the machines. Kop-Flex is also a prime supplier of this type of coupling to turbine O.E.M.s worldwide.

Q. How do flexible element couplings accommodate machinery shaft end growth? A. In dry couplings, by pre-stretching or pre-compressing the flexible elements - that is, purposefully axially stretching or compressing the discs or diaphragms at installation - thermal shaft movements from cold to hot machine conditions can be accommodated. The coupling engineer designs the coupling normally so that the coupling is in the least possible stretched (that means least stressed) condition at the normal running condition. To account for these movements, the design of the coupling spacer gap is such that when the flanges are bolted up at installation, the flexible elements are stretched or compressed by a fixed amount. Variances between the expected gap and the actual gap are controlled by the shim adjustment.

This pre-stretching (or pre-compression) is relieved as the equipment shafts grow or contract thermally to a final stable running condition. In gear type couplings, the gear tooth mesh (male and female) accommodates axial growth through sliding.

Q. Why does a coupling have so many torque ratings i.e., maximum continuous, peak, and maximum momentary torque ratings? A. To achieve the optimum coupling design for a particular application, it is desired that all the possible torque and misalignment loads that the coupling will experience over its lifetime are known. A transient load that is experienced only occasionally affects the coupling life differently than a load that is applied continuously. For example, in a gas turbine driven generator application, the coupling is normally desired to accommodate the normal continuous generator load, but is also required to stand up to a very infrequent load caused by an electrical fault or short circuit. In this example a coupling designed to handle the fault load on a continuous basis will likely be too heavy to run well with the turbine design normally.

So, a lighter weight coupling which has the capacity to continuously handle the normal load is designed to handle the infrequent loads only occasionally. This capacity to handle these very infrequent loads is called the maximum momentary torque rating. By the way, a peak torque rating is defined by coupling engineers as the rating designed to handle an infrequent load occurring maybe on a daily basis, such as an induction motor start-up load.
Q. Whats the difference between a coupling safety factor and a coupling service factor? A. Simply put, a safety factor is applied to the coupling design, while a service factor is applied to the coupling application.

Once the worst case loading due to torque, misalignment, and centrifugal effects due to speeds are known, the safety factor is applied to the calculated stresses on the coupling from these loads. This factor is required because actual stresses may be different, with the differences being due to material assumptions and deviations and calculation uncertainties and presumptions, amongst other things. A service factor is applied to the normal (usually continuous torque) load the coupling is expected to experience from the connected machinery. This is to account for off-design conditions such as vibratory torque loads or cold gas torque requirements.
Q. What is the service life of a flexible element - disc or diaphragm - high performance coupling? A. These type couplings are designed to last forever - the API 671 requirement is 5 years

- as long as their operating torque and misalignment capacities are not exceeded. However, over the life of a coupling many things can change to affect the coupling life. Equipment foundation settling and unaccounted for pipe strain would alter the misalignment loading. Machine upsets and occurrences such as compressor slugs affect the torque loads and life. Upgrading of equipment without adequate checks happens occasionally. Unexpectedly high vibratory loading can affect the life.

To get maximum life, select the coupling with the maximum practical misalignment and torque rating for the application - being mindful, of course, that usually low weight and only certain ranges of torsional stiffness are allowed due to rotor dynamics considerations After the initial installation, check the coupling as often as possible during planned and unplanned outages, looking for cracks or anything unusual in the diaphragms or discs. Follow the manufacturers' inspection recommendations.
Q. Why does our equipment have reduced moment couplings? A. Roughly 70% of todays turbo compressor trains require reduced

moment couplings. Centrifugal compressor rotors have become much lighter and turn faster than older machines. In many cases, the coupling has become an appreciable percentage of the rotor mass system thereby affecting the rotor dynamics of the train. The couplings half weight and CG location or overhung moment affects the lateral critical speeds of the train. In other words, a coupling that is too heavy or hangs off the end of a sensitive compressor or pump rotor shaft can move the lateral critical speed of the train into the operating speed range. This can create unacceptable vibration levels that will shorten the life of the equipment. To solve this problem, coupling manufacturers have designed a coupling where the hub is inverted, passing through the inside diameter of the flex-element. This moves the half coupling weight and CG location up the shaft, closer to the machine bearings, reducing the overhung moment and therefore moving the lateral critical speed away from the operating speed range. Kop-Flex High Performance Disc coupling types RM and RZ, and also diaphragm RM type are the reduced moment designs.

Q. Which balance method is preferred? A. A couplings balance level is its ability to be disassembled and reassembled several times without changing the mass eccentricities of the mating parts. Generally, the higher the application speed, the more sensitive the machinery is to vibration caused by coupling unbalance. There are three balance methods recommended by the coupling manufacturer and the API-671 standard. Kop-Flex Engineers can assist in determining type of balance most suited for your machinery.

Component Balance: The first method of balance is the component balance wherein each component is individually balanced by weight removal so that the residual unbalance left in each part does not exceed a given value. This method of balance is generally used for motor speeds of 1800- 3600 rpm. Assembly Check Balance: The second method is called the assembly check balance. After the component balance is performed, the coupling is assembled and spun on a horizontal balance machine and the unbalance recorded. No correction is made to the coupling. The assembled coupling unbalance must not exceed a given value. Assembly check balancing is widely accepted by both the O.E.M. and user as the preferred method of balancing as it allows for the interchangeability of component parts in the field.

Assembly Balance: The third method of balance is the assembly balance, often used for very sensitive high-speed machines. Corrections are made to the assembled coupling on the horizontal balance machine. Generally, the coupling assembly is balance to the lowest residual unbalance possible. The coupling is match-marked and must be assembled in the same way every time. Because the assembly balance corrects for overall unbalance of the assembly, it may prohibit subsequent field replacement of components.
Q. Which interface connection is best? A. There are several types of interface connection (between the equipment shaft/flange and coupling hub/flange) for Turbomachinery.

Tapered Hydraulic: Turbo-compressor O.E.M.s generally prefer the tapered hydraulic hub where the torque is transmitted through 100% friction. Hubs are designed to have between 0.002inches (0.051 mm) and 0.003inches (0.076 mm) per inch or mm of interference. They are mounted and removed by hydraulic dilation. Tapered Key: Older machines transmit torque through a tapered keyed hub. Single and double-keyed hubs transmit the torque through both the key(s) and hub to shaft interference and are generally mounted using heat. Precision class keys that comply with the AGMA specification are required for high performance couplings. Flange: Integral flanges are common on both steam and gas turbines. In this configuration the turbine rotor is flanged and bolts to the coupling flange. Diaphragm couplings and rigids are designed to bolt directly to these flanged shafts. Spline (gear teeth): There are a few O.E.M.s that transmit torque through a splined connection. Often proprietary, these interference fit splines are considered by some to be the best method of torque transmission.
Q. There are several different hydraulic tapers, i.e. 1/2in./ft., 1 degree included. Which one does the coupling vendor prefer? A. There are different opinions on this subject but API-671 specifies a taper of 1:24 on the diameter or inch/ft of length for keyless hydraulically fitted hubs. Q. Does the coupling manufacturer supply the hydraulic mounting equipment, plug gage and coupling guard? A. Most coupling vendors do not supply the hydraulic mounting equipment as this falls under

the machinery O.E. M. scope of supply. End users often request the ancillary equipment from the coupling supplier, particularly when retrofitting. Kop-Flex recognizes the need for this type of equipment and will supply the hydraulic dilation and mounting tooling in a simple, easy to use package that can be shipped with the coupling. Kop-Flex also supplies plug and ring gages when requested; it is recommended the best plug gage be matched to the master ring gage used to machine the rotor shaft.

Coupling vendors do not supply coupling guards as they fall under the machinery O.E. M. scope of supply. Guards are often a subject of discussion and technical papers since the couplings windage is a source of heat and turbulence in the enclosure and must be considered by the coupling designer. Kop-Flex has software that can calculate windage for the coupling/guard design and has a technical paper on this subject.
Q. What is the lead-time (delivery) for a high performance coupling? A. Kop-Flex high performance couplings normally require a lead-time of 10-12 weeks after receipt of order or within 2 weeks for emergencies. It varies for other coupling vendors. Q. Can I get a drawing with my quotation or do I have to order the coupling first? A. Kop-Flex and some coupling vendors will supply a general arrangement drawing with their proposal when requested.