Chapter XXX.—LINE SHAFTING.
Line shafting.—A line of shafting is one continuous run or length composed of lengths joined together by couplings. The main line of shafting is that which receives the power from the engine or other motor, and distributes it to other lines of shafting, or to the various machines to be driven. In some practice each line of shafting is driven by a separate engine or motor, so that it may be stopped without stopping the others. This same object may be obtained by providing a clutch for each line. It is obvious that in each line of shafting the length nearest to the driving motor transmits the whole of the power transmitted by the line, and that the diameter of the shafting may, therefore, be reduced as it proceeds from the engine in a proportion depending upon the degree to which the power it is required to transmit is reduced. It is desirable, therefore, so far as the shafting is concerned, to place the machines requiring the most power to drive as near as possible to that end of the shafting that receives power from the motor. Line shafting is supported in bearings provided in what are termed hangers, which are brackets to be bolted to either suitable framing, to walls, posts, or to the ceiling or floor of the building. The short lengths of shafting that are provided to effect changes of speed, and to enable the machine to be stopped or started at pleasure, are termed countershafts. When there is interposed a countershaft between the motor and the main line of shafting, it is sometimes termed a jack shaft.
Shafting is usually made cylindrically true either by special rolling processes as in what is known as “cold-rolled,” or “hot-rolled” shafting, or else it is turned up in the lathe. In either case it is termed bright shafting. What is known as black shafting is simply bars of iron rolled by the ordinary process and made cylindrically true only where it receives its couplings, and for its journal bearings, &c. The diameter of black shafting varies by a quarter of an inch, and is usually above its designated diameter by about 1⁄32 inch.
The main body of the shafting not being turned cylindrically true and parallel, the positions of the pulleys cannot be altered upon the shafts, nor can pulleys be added to the shaft as occasion may require without the sections being taken down and seatings turned for the required pulleys to be added. Furthermore black shafting does not run true, and is in this respect also objectionable. Nevertheless, black shafting is used for some special cases where extra pulleys are not likely to be required and the shafting is exposed to the weather, as in the case of yards for the manufacture of building bricks.
The diameters of bright or turned shafting (which is the ordinary form in which shafting is made, unless otherwise specified) vary by 1⁄4 inch up to about 31⁄2 inches in diameter; but the actual diameter is 1⁄16 inch less than the denominated commercial diameter, which is designated from the diameter of the round bar iron from which the shafting is turned; thus a length of what is known as 2-inch shafting will have an actual diameter of 115⁄16 inches, being parallel, or as nearly parallel as it is practicable to turn it in the ordinary lathe.
Cold-rolled shafting has its actual diameter agreeing with its designated or commercial diameter, and is parallel throughout its length.
In England the diameters of shafting vary by eighths of inches for diameters of an inch and less, and by quarters of an inch for diameters above an inch, the commercial and the actual diameters being alike.
The strains to which a line of shafting is subject are as follows: The torsional strain due to rotating the line of shafting, independent of the power transmitted; the torsional strain due to the amount of the power transmitted; and the transverse strain due to the unequal belt pressures and distances from the bearings of the driving or transmitting pulleys. The first and the last are, however, so intimately connected in practice that they may be considered as one: hence we have, 1st, the torsional strain due to driving the whole load, and, 2nd, the transverse strain due to the belt pressures being exerted more on one side than on another of the shaft, and to the belt pulleys being at unequal distances from the hanger bearings.
The first may be reduced to a minimum by so proportioning the strength of the line of shafting that it shall be capable of transmitting the required amount of power at the various sections of its length without suffering distortion of straightness beyond certain limits, and shall be at the same time as light as is consistent with this duty and a certain factor of safety.