The quality of the balancing operation depends on the equipment. Poor balancing adapters can cause errors in the driveshaft balancing process and create a lot of problems “out of nowhere”. So it should be taken seriously.
To simplify the work of our customer. We supply our machines with a standard set of tooling. It allows to work with the majority of gears on the most common makes of cars.
What are the adapters that make up the tooling set? Let’s get to the bottom of this question.
Tooling set for balancing driveshafts:
- Balancing adapters with clamping jaws
- Ring set balancing adapters
- Grooved balancing adapters
- End slot balancing adapters
Common adapters features
Any misalignment of the “geometric axis” of the adapter or gimbals from the “inertial axis” will result in poor balance, so all adapters are tapered. This allows to reduce any misalignment and installation time by eliminating the need to align the adapters with the indicator head.
All of our balancing equipment adapters, without exception, have heat-treated seating surfaces with a hardness greater than 45 – 48HRC as they are the base surfaces. Wear of the base surfaces inevitably leads to incorrect balancing.
All adapters are balanced prior to shipment. An unbalanced adapter will cause errors in the balancing of the driveshaft. So the unbalanced weight of the adapter is reduced to the minimum permissible value. All removable elements (except the adapter rings) are also balanced “selectively with the adapter”. Although, it is important not to mix them up.
If you are making your own tooling, you also need to balance the tooling. The procedure is not much different from balancing a gimbal. The only difference being that you need to remove material from the tooling, not weld on plates.
Balancing adapters with clamping jaws
These adapters are also called universal adapters. The only limitations are the size of the balancing equipment adapter rings and the dimensions of the driveshaft flanges.
This accessory is a quick-release device thanks to its patented “EASY CLAMP” design. The gimbal is at least twice as fast with eccentric clamps as it is with threaded bolt flange fasteners. “Every minute saved is money earned” – this is the idea that guides us in creating not only the tooling, but also the machine components on which you will be working.
Ring set balancing adapters
This accessory works as an adapter for mounting gimbals with a cylindrical fit to “eccentric clamp adapters” or to “slot adapter”. The design of the rings is very simple. In a manner, that it is easy to perform on an ordinary lathe. This design is not chosen by chance. There are a lot of varieties of cars and in each region they have different popularity. You can gradually build your own tooling ideally suited to your needs. The two rings that come with the kit are samples.
Typically, the rings are made without heat treatment and this is not only cheaper to produce, but also more useful for the adapters. Because in this case the seating surfaces of the adapter are less subject to wear. Wear occurs on the seating of the rings, which are consumables. So it’s worth checking the wear on the ring before using it.
If the ring is worn by more than 0.03 mm it is not discarded, but resharpened for another size of cardan. A new ring is made to make up the shortfall. It should be understood that the cost of a ring is about 50 – 70 gimbal balances. When its wear exceeds a reasonable amount, it is desirable to make new rings. That’s why we don’t recommend buying tooling kits for all shaft types from the machine manufacturer. They will simply wear out over time. It is better to make them yourself.
Grooved balancing adapters
These adapters have several slots of different sizes, which allows you to bolt the cardan with a cylindrical fit. Even if its flange has a large size. Installation takes longer than with the “eccentric clamp adapter”, but practice shows that the “slot adapter” does not need to be used as often.
When working with this adapter, it is important to use bolts and nuts of equal weight. Otherwise, you will create imbalance in the tooling, which will lead to errors when balancing the cardan.
End slot balancing adapters
With “end spline adapters” you can mount freight driveshafts of different sizes that have end splines on the flanges. The end splines are used for the base of the cardan. Bolts and nuts are used to secure the flange, so there are also small slots in the adapter.
The disadvantage of this type of mounting is that it is very difficult to achieve acceptable alignment between the adapters and the gimbal, so before balancing the gimbal on this type of adapter, the “eccentricity of the tool” function of the balancer should be used.
How do I install a propshaft that has a flange on one side and a splined shaft or a splined hole on the other?
This question often arises with novice cardan repairers. As a rule, people solve this question with a three-cam self-clamping chuck and … step on the same rake. A 3-jaw chuck makes a big mistake when balancing because it has movable cams and very large gaps between the parts. For balancing, it is important that the tooling be monolithic and balanced.
The ideal is to use an adapter flange assembly with a bushing that will be based on the teeth of the splined shaft (or on the outside surface of the splined bushing). In this case, it is important that the gap between the adapter and the base surface did not exceed 0.03 mm and there was no deviation from perpendicularity between the flange and the bushing. If it is not possible to achieve perpendicularity, the adapter can only be used with the “eccentricity of the tooling” function.
What about the world?
Almost all of the well-known manufacturers of balancing machines, including those from Germany, Poland and Italy, sell the machine without any tooling. Because their tooling is very expensive. And for the repair shop it does not need quite a lot. And buying a machine from the world leader in the field of balancing, you may be confronted with the fact that you do not know how to put a driveshaft in it.
Accordingly, you will not only have to buy a machine tool for a very high price, but also to design and build all the tooling yourself. And then being in the service equipped with such an expensive machine tool we sometimes see that the owner was able to come up with part of the rigging correctly and make it, and part he just didn’t know how to do and came up with … neto unworkable, or incomplete and you are tortured by it.
Buying a machine from us you get:
- All the most complex tooling complete with the machine for a reasonable price
- All advice free of charge on how, what shafts to install on the machine, what else to make yourself, etc.
- The machine was originally designed so that you can easily make the necessary rigging.
There are a lot of driveshaft designs and every day new know-how from cardan shaft producers appears. Our company is ready to help you in any way we can, either with a simple consultation or making an unusual special tooling. We are happy to cooperate with you, so if you have any problems, you can count on our help.