Spline
Glossary · Part Features
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A spline is a series of ridges machined along a shaft that mate with matching grooves in a hub to transmit torque across many teeth at once.
In practice
Effectively a keyway multiplied around the circumference. Splines come in standard forms — involute and straight-sided being the common ones — with their own fit classes.
Why it matters
Splines carry far more torque than a single key and allow the hub to slide axially while still driving. They are also considerably more expensive to produce, so they appear when a key genuinely will not do.
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