Gear Coupling Troubleshooting and Reliability

Gear couplings have been around for a long time. And yet there are still frequent equipment failures due to improper selection, use, and maintenance of couplings.
Keep in mind that a coupling problem can manifest itself in subtle ways. A broken coupling is pretty obvious. However, you could see symptoms such as:
– Increased vibration readings in the equipment
– Overheating of shaft bearings
– Unusual resonances in your vibration data
– Overload and overheating of motors

The Equifactor® module of the TapRooT® VI software service has some great troubleshooting tables, one of which is focused on gear couplings. Once you determine that you have a coupling issue, you can look up the symptoms you are seeing and determine what could be causing that symptom.

I also found a nice article describing problems you might have with a coupling, and how to maintain the reliable operation of a gear coupling. Take a look and let me know what you think.