Single tapered bushing for shaft mount

Abstract

A single tapered bushing system for receiving and mounting a shaft within a bearing assembly is disclosed. A rotatable quill member having a hollow hub is received by the bearings. The hub has a tapered inner bore. A single sleeve having a flange at one end thereof, a tapered outer surface, and a cylindrical inner bore is received within the hub bore, with the outer tapered surface of the sleeve contacting the tapered hub bore substantially along the full length of the sleeve. A longitudinal slot in the sleeve permits circumferential contraction or expansion of the sleeve within the tapered hub bore. The inner sleeve bore receives a shaft in such manner as to accommodate variations in alignment, concentricity, and parallelism, within a limited range, between the axis of the shaft and the axis of the hub. A key and slot arrangement is provided for rotatably coupling the shaft and the hub. Fasteners forcefully draw the tapered bore of the hub onto the sleeve with the shaft received therein and contract or expand the sleeve on the shaft so as to accommodate the above-noted possible misalignment between the shaft and the hub, and to secure the shaft within the hub.