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Chapter 4 Key Design

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28 views11 pages

Chapter 4 Key Design

Uploaded by

asmerabera16
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter four

Design of key
Part one design of Key
Introduction A key is a piece of mild steel
inserted between the shaft and hub or boss of the
pulley to connect these together in order to prevent
relative motion between them. It is always inserted
parallel to the axis of the shaft. Keys are used as
temporary fastenings and are subjected to
considerable crushing and shearing stresses. A
keyway is a slot or recess in a shaft and hub of the
pulley to accommodate a key
Types of Keys

The following types of keys are important from


the subject point of view :
1. Sunk keys, 2. Saddle keys, 3. Tangent keys,
4. Round keys, and 5. Splines.
Sunk Keys
• The sunk keys are provided half in the keyway
of the shaft and half in the keyway of the hub
or boss of the pulley. The sunk keys are of the
following types
• Feather key. A key attached to one member of a pair and which
permits relative axial movement is known as feather key. It is a
special type of parallel key which transmits a turning moment
and also permits axial movement. It is fastened either to the shaft
or hub, the key being a sliding fit in the key way of the moving
piece.
The various proportions of a
feather key are same as that
of rectangular sunk key and
gib head key.
• Saddle keys The saddle keys are of the following two types : 1. Flat
saddle key, and 2. Hollow saddle key

Round Keys

Splines
Sometimes, keys are made integral with the shaft
which fits in the keyways broached in the hub. Such
shafts are known as splined shafts. These shafts
usually have four, six, ten or sixteen splines. The
splined shafts are relatively stronger than shafts
having a single keyway.
Forces acting on a Sunk Key
When a key is used in transmitting torque from a shaft to a rotor or hub, the following
two types of forces act on the key :
1. Forces (F1) due to fit of the key in its keyway, as in a tight fitting straight key or in a
tapered key driven in place. These forces produce compressive stresses in the key
which are difficult to determine in magnitude.
2. Forces (F) due to the torque transmitted by the shaft. These forces produce shearing
and compressive (or crushing) stresses in the key.
• The forces acting on a key for a clockwise torque being transmitted from a shaft to
a hub are shown in Fig.
Considering shearing of the key, the tangential shearing force acting at the circumference
of the shaft,

Considering crushing of the key, the tangential crushing force acting at the circumference
of the shaft,
• The permissible crushing stress for the usual key material is at least twice the
permissible shearing stress. Therefore from equation (iii), we have w = t. In other
words, a square key is equally strong in shearing and crushing

In order to find the length of the key to transmit full power of the shaft, the shearing
strength of the key is equal to the torsional shear strength of the shaft

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