Product Overview
The Stafford Manufacturing Corp. standard product offering consists of over 4000 shaft collars, rigid shaft couplings and specialty mechanical components. While the large majority of these products are manufactured at our Wilmington, Massachusetts headquarters, we also distribute domestic and imported parts.
Our products are used in a wide range of industrial and consumer OEM and MRO applications, including power transmission, motion control, material handling and automation. They also have non-rotary uses in linear motion, fixturing, display and assembly.
For an overview of all our products and capabilities we invite you to read 
The Stafford Advantage (PDF – 1.71MB).
FAMILIES
Stafford organizes products into eight families. Product Type designates six broad classifications providing a unique designation for each of our part categories within similar types of products. Further, there are two Special Function families, which regroup a selection of part categories across all product types used for a particular purpose.
Product Type:
Special Function:
INTRODUCTION
The outline below is designed to provide a guide to the function and features of the products in the families illustrate the major categories in each product family and some of the features and benefits of each.
The category listings are representative; search the online catalog to view the full selection in each.
You can also navigate directly to the section in the catalog by clicking on the category links below.
About Clamp-Type Shaft Collar and Rigid Coupling Styles
- High Strength – our most popular style, where the heads of the clamping screw are recessed.
- Low Profile – this style has a smaller outside diameter but the screw head does protrude slightly beyond the outside diameter.
- Heavy Duty – have larger clamping screws and a greater outside diameter for superior holding capacity.
- Heavy Duty shaft collars have twice the Torsional Holding Power of standard collars
- Heavy Duty Rigid Couplings have three times the Torsional Holding Power of regular couplings. They are also longer and have more screws than regular couplings.
For more information, visit our Collar and Coupling Styles page.
- Function as locators, stops, bearing faces, spacers and to mount components in mechanical assemblies.
- Clamping devices with a wide range of power transmission, motion control and mounting applications.
- Used on shafts, tubing, pipe and split hubs in rotary and non-rotary application.
Standard Round Bore Shaft Collars
Set Screw Shaft Collars
- Simplest, most widely used.
- Cost-effective.
- Clamping force is applied by tightening a screw directly pressing onto the shaft.
- Best on a soft shaft when there is a low axial load (the force along the shaft which would cause the collar to lose its hold) and frequent adjustment is not necessary.
- Disadvantages – damage the shaft.
Clamp-Type or Split Collars
- Retain their position through the clamping power generated by tightening one or more clamp screws which do not touch the shaft, tube or pipe.
- Superior clamping power to set screw style on hard or soft shafts as well as on thin-walled tubing.
- Do not mar shafts.
- Easy to adjust.
Functions:
- The same as a shoulder on a shaft when it is clamped in position. However, it is much less expensive than machining a shoulder and it can be easily moved to a new location.
- As the clamping mechanism over a split-hub. In this case, the clamping power is transmitted from the collar to the hub-shaft interface. The self-centering split-hub design is a common way to connect components to a shaft.
- As a torque-transmitting component when other torque-inducing components (such as lever arms, pulleys, sprockets, etc.) are mounted to it.
One-Piece Split Clamp-Type Collars
- Have a single screw and do not come apart.
- Used when there is access to the end of the shaft.
- Significant increase in axial holding power over set screw type.
Two-Piece Split Clamp-Type Collars
- Have two screws and can be completely disassembled.
- Used where the user does not have access to the end of the shaft.
- Will function well on shafts .015″ or more under nominal diameter.
- Approximately 10% more holding power than an equivalent one-piece collar.
Hinge-Type Shaft Collars
- Combines flexibility of the two-piece collar with the simplicity of the one-piece
- Can be assembled anywhere on the shaft as a single unit without all the loose parts that can be dropped or lost.
- They are perfect where fast operation is required, such as hostile environments or situations where there are space and time constraints.
- For use on standard round shafts, hard or soft, as well as on thin wall tube or over a split hub.
- Stafford exclusive.
- Off-the shelf products with component mounting capability built into design.
- Various problem-solving components exclusive to Stafford.
- Eliminate the need for costly modification of standard parts.
- Time savers.
- Many MRO uses.
Specialty Round Bore Shaft Collars
- Useful in situations to meet specific functional needs.
- Various problem-solving components exclusive to Stafford.
- Many MRO uses.
- Mount on shafts having Unified National Coarse (UNC), Unified National Fine (UNF), and Acme threads.
- One-piece, two-piece and hinged clamp styles.
- Maximum axial holding power without marring your expensive threaded shafts.
- Easy to assemble and adjust.
- Specialty collars include Accu-Clamp Style threaded bore and threaded hub collars.
SQUARE AND HEXAGONAL BORE SHAFT COLLARS
- Exclusively from Stafford manufactured to fit square or hexagonal shafts.
- Applications includes agricultural and conveyor drive systems.
- One-piece and two-piece split clamp styles.
- Non-marring.
RIGID SHAFT COUPLINGS AND SHAFT ADAPTER COUPLINGS
Standard Rigid Shaft Couplings
- Function by clamping onto and joining two aligned shafts.
- Make two shafts function as one.
- Join shafts of the same or different diameters, with and without keyways.
- Superior holding power over set-screw type couplings and non-marring.
- Ideal for overhung or unsupported shafts.
- Excellent way to attach items such as mixer paddles and shaft extensions.
- For parallel shafts – does not accommodate misalignment of any type.
One-Piece Split Clamp-Type Couplings
- Used where there is access to the end of the shaft.
- Join shafts of the same or different diameters, with and without keyways.
Two-Piece Split Clamp-Type Couplings
- Perform essentially the same function as one-piece, except that they come completely apart and can thus be assembled anywhere within a mechanism.
- Join shafts of the same or different diameters, with and without keyways.
- Used where there is no access to the end of the shaft.
Three-Piece Split Clamp-Type Couplings
- Can be installed anywhere, like the two-piece.
- Can remain assembled on one shaft while they are disassembled from the other. This can be a welcome convenience in some situations.
- In the coupling family, but have a male shaft as the output end.
- Can be used as-is to extend or repair an existing shaft or can be machined to provide an entirely different output shaft configuration (diameter and shape).
- Available in Step-Up or Step-Down styles.
- Available with or without keyways.
- For use on standard hardened round shafts, Shaft Adapters are precision machined, non-marring, easy to adjust, with high clamping power.
- Stafford offers an assortment of rigid couplings including styles specifically designed for:
- Machinability
- Additional torsional holding power
- Precision alignment
METRIC SHAFT COLLARS, RIGID SHAFT COUPLINGS AND COMPONENTS
- Metrics categorized separately as per convention.
- Same form and function as their inch counterparts, but are fully metric in all aspects, including hardware.
- Categories include:
- Metric Standard Round Bore Shaft Collars
- Metric Shaft Mounting Collars
- Metric Rigid Shaft Couplings
- Metric Components
SPECIALTY COMPONENTS AND ACCESSORIES
- Features and benefits in applications beyond conventional shaft collars or rigid couplings.
- Many are Stafford proprietary designs.
- Broad OEM and MRO applications.
MOUNTING COMPONENTS AND CLAMPS
- Meet need to attach one component to another or offer ergonomic solutions.
- Cost and time saving.
- Broad OEM and MRO applications.
MAINTENANCE, REPAIR AND RETROFIT
- Solve one-off problems with a standard product
- Includes shaft collars, rigid couplings and specialty components.
- Cost and time saving.
