• Saint - Gobain Performance Plastics

Tolerance Rings

Rencol Tolerance Rings are precision spring fasteners that are press fitted between two mating components. This generates a retention force that fixes those components together, whilst also satisfying other functional requirements such as: compensating for thermal expansion; fastens annular components; reduces noise and vibration; predictable and repeatable slip; avoids resonance frequencies; and overload protection. Typically manufactured from high quality spring steel, stainless steel or specialist spring materials, tolerance rings are custom designed to suit a particular application. A typical application such as in bearing mounts, the tolerance ring acts as a radial spring fastener between the bearing and the housing. This arrangement allows the tolerance on the housing to be greatly relaxed, allowing the OEMs to use ‘as moulded' parts. In a similar way, the tolerance ring automatically provides compensation for differential thermal expansion between the housing and the bearing over a wide temperature range. Additionally, the sprung nature of the coupling between the components greatly reduces or even eliminates the adverse effects of minor radial or axial misalignment. Also, this mounting method allows the bearing to be removed from the housing for rework relatively simply and eliminates the risk of the bearing ‘freezing’. In service, the key benefit of tolerance rings is undoubtedly their reliability but they can also offer other useful advantages. They are good, for example, at damping vibration and helping with noise reduction. This can be particularly important in equipment operating at high rotational speeds, or in high quality products were near-silent operation is a prerequisite. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Rencol Ltd is a world-class manufacturer and supplier of bespoke customised fastening solutions and has specialised in the manufacture of tolerance rings since 1982. It is the only company worldwide that focuses solely on the design and manufacture of tolerance rings.