Thanks to the ready availability of precision grinding, this is now a thing:
https://stoffelpolygonsystems.com/
They offer straight, straight sliding, and tapered joints, and claim to handle greater torque with same shaft diameter, with zero-backlash.
Anybody snapped any splined axles lately?
Well that is pretty interesting. For high horsepower applications, I can see how that would work better than splines. Wonder how the cost compares?
It's interesting, but man that's gotta be costly..
clshore said:Anybody snapped any splined axles lately?
Would a waterjet give the needed tolerances for the ID of an interface like this?
Interesting.
There is a similar shape that has been used in tractor PTO shafts for a long time. High torque, lots of abuse, not quite as precision.
The weak spot is usually the part of the shaft that narrows. The actual engeneering solution is to narrow the entire shaft to spread the torsional force equally. Also has the benefit of making the axle/shaft lighter.
TenToeTurbo said:Would a waterjet give the needed tolerances for the ID of an interface like this?
Short answer - No.
Long answer - Noooooooooooooooo.
You want an EDM to do the inside if you are doing onesy twosy.
93gsxturbo said:TenToeTurbo said:Would a waterjet give the needed tolerances for the ID of an interface like this?
Short answer - No.
Long answer - Noooooooooooooooo.
You want an EDM to do the inside if you are doing onesy twosy.
Agreed that the EDM is going to be much more precise, within .0001" or better, but in that size range, a good waterjet will be within .002" to .003" assuming the length (depth) of the cut isn't more than about 1" to 1 1/12". You would need to determine what precision you actually need and are willing to pay for.
Yesterday, I cut splines in 4140 prehard (~20 RKC) 1" thick, for an SAE Mini Baja application. We also will be cutting the splines for a mini spool.
Cutting time on the waterjet for 2 sets was just over an hour, EDM would have easily been 4 to 6 hours, so roughly 5 times the cost.
We do have an EDM also, BTW, just prefer the waterjet.
In reply to SaltyDog :
I'd imagine that they use NC grinders to finish the surfaces after rough forming and hardening, rather than attempting to fabricate to net shape in one step.
The runtime for EDM or waterjet are prohibitive for any kind of volume production.
The capabilities of the modern machines are really impressive, they use realtime monitoring of the results and alter the toolpath or process parameters on the fly.
If a part goes out of tolerance during processing, they can reject it immediately to avoid spending more time on what is already known to be scrap.
They capture and analyze the entire output in realtime, and can predict when a machine will require maintenance before it happens and schedule it proactively,
even ordering the repair parts ahead of time.
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