Everything You Need to Know About Torque Limiters

What if you had to watch your heavy machinery crash into something helplessly?

Many people put a lot of faith into the brakes on these vehicles. But the soft collision protection of brakes is not always enough to prevent a major accident.

For maximum safety, you should be using torque limiter couplings. Here’s our comprehensive guide to what they are and how they can help.

What Are Torque Limiter Couplings?

In many ways, torque limiters are about “just in case” protection. They are designed to protect equipment and personnel in the event of potentially catastrophic damage.

The limiter will have a certain value of torque programmed in. If the amount of torque exceeds that amount, the limiter activates to slow things down quickly.

To know why you should use torque limiter couplings, it’s important to know some of their advantages.

Protecting Workers

As we mentioned earlier, one vital function of these limiters is that they help to protect the workers using the equipment. If no limiter is present, then people using heavy machinery might get into accidents that will hurt or even kill them.

The torque limiter couplings help prevent that from happening. The limiter kicks in before an accident can reach catastrophic levels.

It is as simple as that. Investing in limiters is a way of investing in the safety of every worker who uses that particular equipment.

Protecting Equipment

Of course, the equipment itself is very important. Heavy machinery is very costly to repair or replace. Fortunately, limiters can protect the equipment just as they protect the workers.

Torque limiters essentially offer a kind of grace period for an equipment malfunction. Once the limiter has activated, the worker can shut the equipment down before things can get any worse.

After this happens, you will need to inspect the torque limiter itself and to check the torque settings before you rely on it again. Ultimately, though, it is better to spend a little time doing this than a lot of money on fixing damaged equipment.

Possible Disadvantages

“Nobody is perfect.” This is a phrase that describes industrial equipment just as well as it describes the people using it.

There are a couple of possible disadvantages to the limiters you should be aware of. The first is that limiter settings are approximate, so you must be comfortable with a small amount (usually ten percent or less) of variance.

The second disadvantage is that torque limiter couplings cannot shut the machine down on their own. Instead, the limiters create a very audible slipping noise, and it’s up to the worker to shut down the equipment.

Overall, these disadvantages are minor. And they are far outweighed by the advantages.

The Bottom Line

Now you know what torque limiter couplings are and what they can do. Do you know where you can buy them?

Here at the Kor Pak Corporation, we offer the very best in industrial machinery and parts. To see how we can protect your people and equipment, come check out our torque limiters today!

Posted in Industrial Equipment.