Troublesome joints

In every car, it is necessary to transfer torque between parts of the mechanisms, that change their position towards each other. That's when you need to use joints – propeller shaft components capable of transmitting torque, when adjacent parts of the shaft are set at an angle to each other, not coaxial.
Of course, this is mainly the case in powertrains – then, when the torque needs to be transferred from the gearbox to the drive bridges and from the final drives to the wheel hubs, particularly, when dealing with independent suspension. Joints of various types can be found in auxiliary devices and accessories, they also have special applications – in the steering column shaft, where for security reasons it is required, so that it can "fold" during the collision.
The joints in the drive train pose a major challenge for designers and technologists. The reason is simple: they have to carry very significant moments, cope with high shaft rotational speeds, sometimes work with twisting the shaft axis by several dozen degrees, and at the same time be characterized by satisfactory durability (hundreds of thousands of kilometers of normal mileage), similarto the durability of the whole car. Can these assumptions be met? It turns out, that yes. In modern automotive constructions, drive joints of all kinds have a similar durability to the rest of the mechanisms, although still, as well as other highly loaded structural elements, must be treated accordingly.