Schmidt

When transmitting power between shafts with different centers, which have traditionally been constituted of a spline shaft and a universal joint, Schmidt couplings can be used to efficiently transmit power in a compact form factor. Schmidt couplings are couplings with different shaft centers that use the crank motion of a link. Power input at one end disc is transmitted via a link and center disc to another end disc. The amount of displacement of the shaft center is determined by the length of the link, so not only is it possible to transmit power between different shaft centers, translation of shaft centers during rotation is possible as well.