Eurocardan, protecting universal joint users
Eurocardan, the engineering firm whose universal joint protection technology has won recognition as a Technical Novelty 2014 at this year’s edition of the EIMA industrial fair, is giving a sneak preview of the system at the fair.
Based at Atessa near Chieti, the company has designed the system to protect operators. Many universal joints now on sale are fully covered apart from the extremities, where tractor and tool links to the PTO are inserted. At the moment, as Eurocardan points out, the external linkage is not required to be covered by the protectors mounted on the PTO. The risk of a work accident looms whenever the joint is in use.
The risk rises to even higher levels when protection of the PTO is completely removed to facilitate applying and detaching the PTO as well as during lubrication.
Eurocardan’s system ensures complete covering for the universal joint and its moving parts, but it also offers an externally manipulated system to attach and detach the PTO linkage so that there can be no contact between the operator and the moving parts.
Application and detachment are carried out by a ‘pull collar’ controlled by two external levers that open up the blocking mechanism and enable the PTO to be linked up or disconnected without touching the external forks.
The button-controlled forks have a rapid connection system integrated into the joint. To link the PTO, you just have to identify the phase; for disconnection, you have to turn the protection device until its button corresponds to the fork button, when the external button is pressed and the transmission shaft is withdrawn from the PTO.
