Drive motors often have drive shafts which must be coupled to driven shafts for rotating the driven shafts. Unless such a drive shaft is accurately aligned with a respective driven shaft, there will be power transfer and wear problems because of the eccentricity of the two shafts. The position of the shafts must be adjusted to cause the shafts to become aligned and then coupled together.
The use of shims to adjust the height or other distance of a motor or other piece of mechanical equipment has been known for many years. Shims come in various thicknesses and they must be individually put into place on a trial and error basis until the desired height or other distance is achieved. It is a tedious process to try to find the correct shim for a particular job. Moreover, shims oftentimes wear out due to vibrations or other reasons so that they must be frequently replaced. As they wear, the shims cause misalignment of the mechanical parts which are to be held by the shims in alignment with each other.
Because of these drawbacks of conventional shims, a need has existed for an improved alignment adjustor which avoids the problems as described above. The present invention satisfies this need.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds