Keys

A key is a piece of mild steel inserted between the shaft

and hub or boss of the pulley to connect these together
in order to prevent relative motion between them.
It is always inserted parallel to the axis of the shaft.
Keys are used as temporary fastenings and are
subjected to considerable crushing and shearing
stresses.
A keyway is a slot or recess in a shaft and hub of the
pulley to accommodate a key.

Classification

There is a large variety of machine keys and they may be

classified under four broad headings:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Sunk keys,
flat keys,
saddle keys
pins or round keys
Splines

Sunk keys may be further classified into the following

categories:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Rectangular sunk keys

Gib head sunk keys
Feather keys
Woodruff keys

Rectangular sunk key

The sunk keys are provided half in the keyway of the shaft and half in the keyway of the
hub or boss of the pulley

Gib headed key

Feather key

A key attached to one member of a pair and which permits relative axial movement is known as feather key.
It is a special type of parallel key which transmits a turning moment and also permits axial movement.
It is fastened either to the shaft or hub, the key being a sliding fit in the key way of the moving piece.

Woodruff key
A woodruff key is a form of sunk key where the key shape is that of a truncated disc
It is usually used for shafts less than about 60 mm diameter and the keyway is cut in
the shaft using a milling cutter
It is widely used in machine tools and automobiles due to the extra advantage
derived from the extra depth

Flat keys
A flat key is used for light load because they depend
entirely on friction for the grip. The sides of these keys
are parallel but the top is slightly tapered for a tight fit.
Theses keys have about half the thickness of sunk keys.

Saddle key
A saddle key, shown in figure, is
very similar to a flat key except that
the bottom side is concave to fit the
shaft surface.
These keys also have friction grip
and therefore cannot be used for
heavy loads.

Pins or Round keys

Round and taper pins are simple cylindrical pins with or without a taper and they offer effective means of
fastening pulleys, gears or levers to a shaft
The round keys, as shown in Fig, are circular in section and fit into holes drilled partly in the shaft and partly in
the hub.
They have the advantage that their keyways may be drilled and reamed after the mating parts have been
assembled.
Round keys are usually considered to be most appropriate for low power drives
A taper pin is preferred over the straight cylindrical pins because they can be driven easily and it is easy to
ream a taper hole

Splines
Sometimes, keys are made integral with the shaft which fits in the
keyways broached in the hub. Such shafts are known as splined
shafts as shown in Fig.
These shafts usually have four, six, ten or sixteen splines. The
splined shafts are relatively stronger than shafts having a single
keyway.
The splined shafts are used when the force to be transmitted is
large in proportion to the size of the shaft as in automobile
transmission and sliding gear transmissions. By using splined
shafts, we obtain axial movement as well as positive drive is
obtained.

Lewis key
Lewis keys, shown in figure-A, are expensive but offer
excellent service. They may be used as a single or double key.
When they are used as a single key the positioning depends on
the direction of rotation of the shaft. For heavy load two keys
can be used as shown in figure-B.

Tangent Keys
Its combination of two keys
Keys are right angles to each
other

Kennedy Key
Combination of two square
keys
Keys are 900 to each other