Woodruff Key
What is what is a Woodruff Key?
The key made of wood, also known as a key often referred to as a half moon key is an elongated machine shaft key that stops hubs, gears or other parts from moving independent of a rotating spindle or shaft.
Woodruff keys are put into the key seat that is made by the key cutter or arbor key cutter , or an arbor. A gear or another component that has a keyway for a woodruff is then pressed on it until the wooden key is in contact with the keyway.
What is an Woodruff Key Used For?
As well as holding parts in place on shafts as well, woodruff keys can also serve as a fail-safe to protect expensive components by tearing them apart under the weight of excessive load. The crescent shape of the key allows it to be positioned more deeply in the shaft decreasing the chance of the key moving further out from the groove.
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What is the Woodruff Key Work?
After installation in the host shaft, the long, flat face of the woodruff key extends over the shaft that hosts it. If a mating hub, gear, or another component is put on the shaft, this protruding part of the key connects the parts.
How do I install the Woodruff Key:
Before we discuss how to install the woodruff key we'll need to define some terms that are commonly used. The woodruff's keyseat is the half moon slot that is cut in the shaft.
The curved part of the woodruff keys is then put inside the keyboard. However, the keyway is a slot cut into the mating portion to allow for the woodruff's flat side.
But the terms keyway and keyseat are commonly used interchangeably and many sources identify the keyseat as the woodruff keyway , or what is known as the half moon.
When you install the woodruff key into the half moon-shaped keyseat, first push it through the circular groove that is then milled into the shaft with the wooden key cutter.
Then, place the flat, top part that is the top of the key in a way that it is in line with the host shaft. When installing woodruff keys may slip out of their grooves as the mating element is pressed into. This could cause wooden keys difficult to put in.
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How to Hold the Woodruff Key in place
To ensure that the key made of woodruff key in place when installing a mating element, make sure that it is firmly placed within the key seat. Because woodruff keys are designed to exact tolerances, they usually require a press fitting into their seats.
This is accomplished by gently tapping the protruding, flat surface of the key with a hammer , or mallet till the key is set securely. The woodruff key is still able to extend beyond the surface of the shaft that is mating and into the keyway of the woodruff to secure the gear or hub in the correct position.
If the key does not stop falling or slipping out of the way during installation of components it is because the key is probably too small to fit into the keyway.
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