I'm going to call BS on most of that article. The main assumption is that a worm gear clamp asserts perfect normal pressure agains the silicone coupler. This is just impossible. As you tighten a work gear clamp, the clamp has to travel in the shear direction around the silicone in order to get smaller. This shear force should converge directly under the worm gear drive and create a stress concentration. One of the advantages of the T-clamp is that the shear loading on the coupler is reduced because the movement of a T-clamp is between one layer of the clamp and a 2nd layer of the clamp. The shear force is absorbed by the metal clamp instead of being passed into the silicone. Without the actual lab data and photographs of various couplers under test, I don't believe this article at all, and will continue to use T-clamps, mainly because I've never had a T-clamp fall apart in my hand while tightening it.
12:26:10 10/03/14
