Cone clamping elements are a purely friction method of clamping components to a shaft. The internal components within a cone clamp operate on a taper, so as the cone clamp is tightened the internal diameter decreases while the outside diameter increases. This change in diameters creates the clamping force. There are two main advantages of cone clamps. The first is that for machining your component (i.e. a sprocket), the bore needs to be plain rather than being keyed or tapped and tapered. The second advantage is that the cone clamp acts as an overload protector, with excessive loading causing the clamp to spin on the shaft.