Constant velocity coupling >90deg articulation

[jmspeedfreak]

Hi, I'm trying to find out if anyone has ever found a drive coupling able to handle high levels of power (>100kW) at speeds up to 7-8000rpm while able to articulate from 0 degrees up to 90 degrees.

I thought about a bevel coupling with input and outputs picking up off a joint bevel gear but worry this is heavy and unwieldy.

Is hydraulics or electric drive my only option?

An application would be for a car able to steer the wheels 90 degrees out of axis from the driveshaft.

Alternatively arrangements with the nominal shaft angle at +45degrees to the wheel in normal operation and articulating to -45degrees in the other mode would be considered.

Thanks,

John

 

[gearcutter]

I've seen this sort of thing done on front wheel drives of earthmoving equipment. Two out-board bevel drives are used on either side of the axle. One is well above the wheel center at the end of the axle housing/tube and the other is at wheel center height with a vertically inclined slip jointed shaft between them. The lower bevel set's carrier/housing, which ends up holding the wheel, rotates around its input pinion's center. The jointed shaft between them ran through a large coil spring which served as the suspension system. The whole set up was enclosed and looked like a “leg” hanging off the end of the axle and had around 150mm of travel. Although it wasn't setup to allow the wheels to turn through 90deg, I see no reason why it couldn't be set to allow for it.
The other place I’ve seen this sort of thing was on a Mack 4WD army truck. The set up allowed for the diffs to be mounted close to the top of the chassis rails allowing for greater ground clearance.
Hope this gives you some ideas.