Retaining rings and e-clips

[dez250]

Originally Posted by Gui Cavalcanti

In the past my team has used clamping collars to hold space shafts correctly and hold gears and sprockets together. However, these are heavy, burdensome to take off, and difficult to justify.

Has anyone used e-clips or retaining rings on their shafts to hold things in place? Any comments on their use, as far as ease of assembly, replacement, etc? I would think that they'd be the way to go if you have access to a lathe.

Yes, there's always a set screw that can hold a gear or sprocket physically in place (or loctite, choose your poison), but i'm more looking for a way to get shaft alignment correct (i.e. a gear is 1.253" from bushing, etc.)

Gui i would reccommend you to test out a design with them, before using e-clips into use. I recently took apart a DEC Printserver/Printer. This had more e-clips and retaining rings in it then i could ever think of. Where most of the pullys and gears with-in the printer were, there were retaining rings holding them in place. I would say that they would work for your idea, i just dont know when a robot is smashing around, how well they would stay in place. I know they work in a static situation, but when momentum transfers is placed in the situation, i think you might find the problem of them shifting or falling out.
~Mike

[sanddrag]

We used e-clips to hold the Chiaphua cluster gear in place in 2002. That worked pretty well. We had to ditch that drive system due to other points of failure though.