Though one might not think of gears as being versatile, gear couplings are extremely much considered to be a versatile coupling. A equipment coupling is a mechanical gadget designed to transmit torque between two shafts that aren’t collinear. The coupling typically includes two versatile joints, one set to each shaft. These joints are often connected by a third shaft called the spindle.
Each joint generally contains a 1:1 gear ratio internal/external gear set. The tooth flanks and external size of the external equipment are crowned to allow for angular displacement between the two gears. Mechanically, the gears are equal to rotating splines with modified profiles. They are called gears due to the relatively large size of one’s teeth. Equipment couplings are usually limited to angular misalignments of 4 to 5°.
Equipment couplings ordinarily come in two variations, flanged sleeve and continuous sleeve. Flanged gear couplings contain short sleeves encircled 
by a perpendicular flange. One sleeve is positioned on each shaft therefore the two flanges fall into line face to face. A series of screws or bolts in the flanges keep them collectively. Continuous sleeve equipment couplings feature shaft ends coupled collectively and abutted against one another, which are after that enveloped by a sleeve. Generally, these sleeves are constructed with metal, however they may also be manufactured from Nylon.
Single joint equipment couplings are used to connect two nominally coaxial shafts. In this application the device is named a gear-type versatile, or versatile coupling. The single joint permits small misalignments such as installation errors and adjustments in shaft alignment because of operating conditions. These types of gear couplings are usually limited by angular misalignments of 1/4 to 1/2°.