Coupling Solutions Learning Lab - Hannover Messe 2015

Coupling Learning Lab - Hannover Messe (Hall 25, D34)

If you've ever been to a major trade show, you will notice that most manufacturers go to great lengths to highlight only their absolute best looking products. With this in mind, we thought we would take a radical approach, and create a booth filled with coupling failures for Hannover Messe 2015 (Hall 25, Stand D34).  

That's right, a trade show booth filled with all kinds of product failures. 
The natural question one might expect is: "Why?" (And sure enough, before the show has even started, one competitor walked up to our booth and said "Why are you showing bad couplings?")

Failed Disc Couplings at Hannover Messe

The answer is simple. We genuinely care about our customer and want to educated them as to what may and can go wrong if they do not size, select, or install a coupling correctly. Having been a market leader in the flexible coupling market for generations, we are also more than confident enough in ourselves and our products to not worry about the impact of highlighting products that were not used correctly. 

By design, couplings are generally a wear item with a finite life. Furthermore, they are designed to take the excessive abuse of a system, and are often designed to formally serve as a system fuse. 

Primary Hannover Messe 2015 Booth (Hall 20, C36)

If you are lucky enough to be in Hannover, Germany and attending Hannover Messe 2015, we hope you will stop by our Learning Lab to ask whatever coupling question you may have, learn from what we have on display, and are able to grow from the incredibly talented engineers we have staffed the booth with this year. 

Will this approach work? While we are quite optimistic, we of course would love your feedback. Please let us know if you think the booth was a good idea, and how we could improve upon it in the future. 

And, if you really can't stand the idea of seeing worn out couplings... or just would like to be reassured by a whole bunch of those as well... we'll we still have you covered at Hannover Messe. In addition to the Coupling Learning Lab booth, we also have our primary R+L Hydraulics hydraulic & power transmission booth in Hall 20, Stand C36.

Coupling (mechanical) vs Coupling (the TV Show) - A New Year's Eve Match-up

When searching for "coupling" online users will often see search result for both the UK sitcom "Coupling", which aired during the early 2000s as well as flexible mechanical power transmission couplings. (Users may also see results for pluming pipe couplings, but since there can only be two entities in a 1-on-1 boxing match they have been sidelined for this article.)

The intent of this tongue-in-cheek New Year's Eve article is to simulate a boxing match between two very different products that compete for the same search engine result space (for "coupling").

Spoiler alert: This article has been written by an employee of a leading flexible mechanical coupling manufacturer and has never seen the Coupling sitcom. This article is about to get extremely biases, so, if you are a fan of the show which has apparently drawn comparisons to Friends and Seinfeld in the US market, now would be a good time to stop reading this article. For those looking for more information or trivia from the show, consider visit either the show's Wikipedia or IMDB write up and rehash old memories... but the rest of this article will bring you no pleasure.

Round 1: Relevancy

Coupling the TV show is unfortunately way past its prime and has been retired for a decade. While it may have been well received and popular in its heyday, the television series wrapped up in 2004. With each passing year, it becomes less and less relevant. 

Power transmissions couplings meanwhile are in the midst of their prime. Every day, there are millions of them around the world ensuring smooth operations of applications large and small in just about every industry imaginable. Do I hear Eye of a Tiger playing in the background? This boxer means business.

Round 2: Global Reach

Power transmission couplings can be found not only in nearly every industry imaginable, but also in nearly every corner of the world as well. 

The television show may have been popular for a few years in the United Kingdom, but has nowhere near the global reach of power transmission couplings. When the television show attempted to cross the Atlantic, it was cancelled after only 4 episodes airing. (You can find a bit more trivia on its brief US run here.)

Round 3: Staying Power

Power transmission couplings have generations of staying power. While Coupling the TV show ran from 2000-2004 in the UK (and under one season in the US), power transmission couplings have been around long before the actors in the show were even born.

Ding, ding, ding!!!

Unanimous Winner: Mechanical Power Transmission Couplings!!!! 

After three decisive (and admittedly biased) rounds, mechanical power transmission couplings emerged as the clear winner. While fans of the television show may keep it popping up on search engines for a few more years, we predict (with bias) that overtime the television show will fall well into the second or third page of search engine results, allowing power transmission couplings (preferably Lovejoy) to reign supreme.

On behalf of the entire Lovejoy organization, we hope you have a happy and safe New Year's Eve.

Lovejoy Update: Who knows what's up with British television, but it also appears that there was a now defunct British comedy that ran from 1986-1994 titled Lovejoy! Wikipedia and iMDB both have pages on the show, and apparently it does still pop up in search engines when you search for "Lovejoy". Using the same logic as above, and being 100% biased, we similarly declare Lovejoy (the coupling manufacturer) as the head to head winner over the Lovejoy (the defunct British TV show)... but for two British television comedies to be titled "Lovejoy" and "Coupling"... really?