Clutches and Brakes for
Reliable Drive Systems

Clutches and brakes have a significant impact on how reliably a drive transmits forces, absorbs vibrations, and decelerates movements in a controlled manner. Not only rated torques but also shock loads, shaft misalignment, resonance behavior, friction, and heat generation are critical factors.

MDESIGN allows users to design, verify, and document various types of clutches and brakes in accordance with established standards and calculation methods. This makes it possible to identify critical operating conditions early on, ensure that components are properly sized, and create design margins specifically where they are actually needed.

Clutches and brakes perform different functions in the drive system, but are all subject to the same operating parameters: Torque, shock loads, shaft misalignment, friction, dynamics, and temperature all influence their selection and sizing.

Depending on the design, couplings prioritize stiffness, compensation capability, or damping. MDESIGN supports couplings that are torsionally and flexurally rigid, torsionally rigid and flexurally elastic, as well as torsionally and flexurally flexible. The analysis evaluates, among other things, torque loads, shaft displacements, spring stiffnesses, resonance behavior, and damping.

In brakes, the friction pairing, geometry, and actuation forces determine the achievable braking performance. For shoe and band brakes, the following parameters are determined, among others: braking force, frictional force, maximum pressure, band tension, frictional power, and wear rate.

This makes it possible to design clutches and brakes to match the actual system behavior, detect critical operating conditions early on, and size components more precisely.

Temperature and material properties can alter the dynamic characteristics, particularly in the case of elastic coupling elements. In brakes as well, the friction heat generated affects the system's load-carrying capacity.

Temperature factors and different materials used in elastic elements can be taken into account in coupling calculations. These include, for example, natural rubber, polyurethane, Perbunan, and metal-elastic elements.

This makes it easier to assess whether the selected design will function properly under the intended environmental and operating conditions and maintain its dynamic properties.

Clutches and brakes rarely operate exclusively under steady-state rated conditions. Starting, braking, periodic load changes, and sudden changes in torque can cause significantly higher stresses.

Surge torques, alternating torques, start-up frequency, resonance factors, and damping can be included in the calculation. For couplings, axial, radial, and angular shaft displacements—as well as the resulting restoring forces—are also taken into account.

This allows critical operating conditions to be detected earlier and clutches and brakes to be sized more closely to the actual load profile. This increases operational reliability and reduces the risk of overload, vibration problems, or premature wear.

The calculation shows which factors limit the design: torque, misalignment, resonance, frictional power, belt tension, or surface pressure. This makes it clear where design changes will have the greatest effect.

Clutch design, spring stiffness, damping, brake geometry, and friction surfaces can be specifically adjusted and reevaluated. As a result, the findings lead more quickly to a technically suitable solution rather than to unnecessary safety margins or repeated testing.