What Your Timing Belt Does

The timing belt is the belt that controls the camshafts in your engine, opening and closing valves at just the right time for smooth operation. The timing belt has teeth that turn the camshaft in time with the crankshaft.

Some cars and trucks use timing chains or gears, which are more durable. But timing belts, made of rubber compound, are quieter and more efficient. They also don’t need lube to work.

On some engines, if the timing belt fails, valves will be held open when they should not be and will be struck by the pistons, causing major damage to your engine. So you want to prevent it at all costs.

While you’re getting the timing belt changed, it’s a good idea to get a new water pump, too. Water pumps have similar life spans, and they’re easy to get to while the timing belt is off. If you wait, you’ll have to pay more for installation later.

When is it time to change a timing belt? Most timing belts are rated for between 60,000 miles and 90,000 miles. The belt can’t be checked easily so you replace your timing belt on a schedule. Check your manual.

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V belts for belt drives

The high bearing load when using flat belts can be significantly reduced by using V belts. The wedge-shaped cross-section leads to high frictional forces on the flanks due to the “wedge effect”. Therefore, only relatively low preload forces are necessary to generate the required frictional forces for power transmission. Accordingly, the bearing load is also significantly reduced.

Conversely, with the same pretensioning forces, much higher torques can be transmitted when using V belts instead of flat belts. To further increase the power transmission, two or more V-belts can also be arranged parallel to each other.

The so-called groove angle α is 38° or 32°, depending on the pulley diameter, whereby the belt only has contact with the pulley on the inclined flanks. The V belt must therefore not touch the groove bottom, as the contact force must only come about by the flanks. Otherwise there would be no wedge effect! For the same radial force (bearing load), the total friction force is significantly higher for V belts.

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8 Basic Types of Conveyor Belts and Their Applications

1. Roller Bed Conveyor Belts

As the name suggests, the surface of this type of conveyor belt is made up of rollers that are selected to match production requirements, such as the weight or required speed of the products that will move along the belt. Shorter conveyor belts that fall under this type can be made up of just two rollers. However, as the distance between the two ends of the belt increases, more will be needed for the belt to function.

A roller bed setup is suitable for when items are loaded onto the belt with gravity. This is because manual loading can cause mechanical shock and damage the rollers. Roller bed conveyor belts are also a good option for transporting items over long distances as they reduce friction, making it easier for products to move along the belt.

APPLICATIONS: You can use these conveyor belts for packing, sorting, assembling, inspecting, and transporting items. Common applications of roller bed conveyor belts include postal sorting offices and airport baggage handling systems.

2. Flat Belt Conveyors

The flat belt conveyor belt is one of the most prevalent conveyor systems in use today. Flat belts are useful for internal conveyance, i.e. transporting items within a facility. This type of conveyor belt uses a series of powered pulleys to move a continuous flat belt, which can consist either of natural material or synthetic fabric (ex. polyester, nylon). Items are placed on top of the moving belt and carried from one end to the other.

Since its belts can be made of different kinds of materials, this type of conveyor belt is incredibly versatile. Optional features include center drives and nose bars depending on the requirements of a given application.

APPLICATIONS: Flat belt systems are often the conveyor of choice for industrial environments, wash down areas, and slow assembly lines. Fitted with the right belt, it can also convey small, soft, or irregularly shaped items without damaging them.

3. Modular Belt Conveyors

While flat belt conveyors use a single, continuous loop of material, modular conveyor belt systems use a single loop made of countless interlocked pieces, usually made of hard plastic. These segments can be removed and replaced individually, in contrast to having to discard the entire belt. They’re also easier to wash, as well as more resistant to sharp and abrasive materials. This makes modular belt conveyors simpler to maintain and repair than their flat belt counterparts.

Modular belt conveyors are well-suited to applications that involve travelling around corners. In fact, they can travel straight, go around a corner, and incline and decline using a single belt and the same motor all throughout. Technically, other types of conveyors can also accomplish this feat, but only with much customization and additional costs. Plastic modular belts also allow specific conveyor designs without compromising belt tracking. An example of this is a belt with greater width than length, which provides the support required to handle soft plastic bags, cardboard boxes, and shrink wrapped goods.

APPLICATIONS: This type of conveyor belt can be used to carry food products because it is easy to clean. Spacing between plastic segments are adjustable for applications where fluid should be either drained or retained as it is carried on the conveyor. The segments’ plastic composition also makes this conveyor belt useful for metal detection.

4. Cleated Belt Conveyors

Cleated belt conveyors feature vertical cleats or barriers in their designs. These cleats can keep loose materials secure during inclines and declines, to provide consistent spacing between items, and more. Furthermore, cleats come in different shapes, each with its own application.

5. Curved Belt Conveyors

This type of belt conveyor uses a curved frame to carry items around corners, make tight transfers, or maximize available floor space. These belts’ curves can go up to 180°. True curved conveyors that do not have any straight runs can only use flat belts, as modular plastic belts require straight runs before and after curves.

APPLICATIONS: Curved belt conveyors are often used in bag handling systems to change items’ conveying direction.

6.Incline/Decline Belt Conveyors

Incline belt conveyors feature a center drive, gear motor, and take-up with a single or double nose. And instead of using a smooth-surfaced belt, this type of conveyor has a rough surface on the belt, ideal for carrying products up or down.

APPLICATIONS: These systems can cross over with cleated belt conveyors to transport products to different elevations while keeping them from falling off the line. Aside from transferring objects between floors, these conveyor belts are also suitable for boosting gravity flow systems.

7.Sanitary and Washdown Conveyors

If you’ve ever observed how donuts are manufactured in their shops, you might have seen this type of conveyor belt in action. Donut shops and other applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries often involve harsh washing and sterilization, in compliance with safety guidelines. Sanitary or washdown conveyors are specially designed to withstand the sanitary procedures for these applications. Conveyors under this type are usually fitted with flat wire belts, which are rugged and easy to clean.

APPLICATIONS: These conveyor belts can carry objects with extreme temperatures straight out of furnaces or freezers. In addition, machines in the food industry, in particular, must survive running through glaze, breading, or hot oil. Because they can securely handle both wet and greasy items, larger washdown conveyors with flat wire belts are also suited for offloading break bulk goods, like oil drums and crates, from ships.

8.Specialty Conveyor Belts

There are several other kinds of conveyors tailored for different applications, although they are not as common as the previous types.

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Introduction to Power Transmission Belt used in the HVAC

Types of Power Transmission

There are various types of power transmission devices commonly used in industry today. Among them for example, chains, gears, v-belts and synchronous belts are widely used. The focus of this exercise will be a general introduction to rubber power transmission belts and more specifically, those v-belts and synchronous belts used in the Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (HVAC-R) industry.

Power Transmission Belting

The primary function of a belt is to simply transfer rotation from the powered driver pulley to one or more driven pulleys. The belt must be designed and capable of transferring this torque efficiently and reliably. Generally, the most economical component in the system, belts can also act as a “safety fuse” by slipping or breaking under a peak or shock load situation, such as when a drive becomes jammed by debris, which can protect the more expensive components of the system.

Advantages of Power Transmission Belts

  • Lowest cost means of transmitting power.
  • Ability to accommodate a wide range of speeds and center distance between driver and driven shaft.
  • Quiet and clean operation.
  • Require no lubrication like chains, gears and gearboxes.
  • Able to absorb shock loads and pulsations.
  • Can be used for special applications such as clutching and variable speed.

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What is Teeth Belt : Type Advantages

Teeth belts are used to transfer rotational motion from one shaft to another. In this both shafts may rotate at the same or variable speed. In this article we will discuss what is teeth belt? it’s types, advantages and disadvantages of teeth belt.

Teeth belts consists of two or more pulleys connected with a teeth belt in tension. Similar to gears, teeth belt and pulley drive offers one of the best ways to transfer power from one shaft to another. For example, teeth belts are used in automobiles to deliver power to various components such as alternator, air conditioning system etc.

A simple teeth belt pulley system consists of a driver pulley and driven pulley. When driver pulley is rotated it causes pulling action due to friction. This pulling effect rotates the driven pulley in the same direction of driver pulley. Pulling effect results in the tight side and slack side on the teeth belt pulley system.

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Simple guide for measuring fan belt

Replacing the belts on fans every year is a smart investment to ensure they are delivering their maximum performance. Worn fan belts can cause as much as 20% loss of cfm output.

Ordering the correct replacement fan belt is as easy taking a few simple measurements.

First, to determine what type of belt is on your fan, measure the width of the belt. Most fan belts are A type belts with a measurement of 1/2″. If the fan belt measures 5/8″ it is classified as type B belt. You may see a belt described as type AX. The X means it has a cogged design or notches in the belt. The cogged profile increases the power transfer and typically used for only industrial applications because of their higher cost.

Next, you need to measure the length of the belt. Use a cloth measuring tape (not a steel one) and wrap it around the outside of the belt. You also use a thin string to take this measurement and place it on a steel tape to get the correct length.

Next, for “A” Belts (1/2” width) subtract two-inches from the outside measurement to select the correct fan belt. For example, if the outer measurement is 48-inches and you subtract two inches, then HSA46 would be the right belt for your fan.

For “B” Belts (5/8” width) subtract 3” from the outside measurement to select the correct fan belt. For example, if the outer measurement is 48-inches and you subtract three inches, then HSB45 would be the right belt for your fan.

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Replace V-Belts with Drive Belt

Approximately one-third of the electric motors in the industrial and commercial sectors use drive belts. Drive belts provide flexibility in the positioning of the motor relative to the load. Pulleys (sheaves) of varying diameters allow the speed of the driven equipment to be increased or decreased relative to the motor speed.

A properly designed belt power-transmission system offers high efficiency and low noise, requires no lubrication, and presents low maintenance requirements. However, certain types of belts are more efficient than others, offering potential energy cost savings. The majority of drive belts use V-belts, which use a trapezoidal cross section to create a wedging action on the pulleys to increase friction and improve the belt’s power transfer capability. Joined or multiple belts are specified for heavy loads. Drive belts can have a peak efficiency of 95% or more at the time of installation. Efficiency is dependent on pulley size, pulley wear, V-belt alignment, transmitted torque, under or oversizing belts for load requirements. Efficiency can deteriorate by as much as 5% over time if slippage occurs because the belt is not periodically retensioned.

The most important operational and maintenance issue in a drive belt is its tension. If belts are too loose, they tend to vibrate, wear rapidly, and waste energy through slippage. If belts are overtightened, they will show excessive wear. An increased belt load may shorten bearing life through excessive lateral loading and could possibly result in shaft failure. The proper tension of a V-belt is the lowest tension at which the belt will not slip at peak-load conditions. After the break-in period, belt tension should be checked every 3 to 6 months.

A notched belt has grooves or notches that run perpendicular to the belt’s length, which reduces the bending resistance of the belt. Notched belts can use the same pulleys as cross-section standard V-belts. They run cooler, last longer, and are about 2% more efficient than standard V-belts.

Synchronous belts (also called cogged, timing, positive-drive, or high-torque drive belts) are toothed and require the installation of mating grooved sprockets. These belts operate with a consistent efficiency of 98% and maintain their efficiency over a wide load range. In contrast, V-belts have a sharp reduction in efficiency at high torque due to increased slippage. Synchronous belts require minimal maintenance and retensioning, operate in wet and oily environments, and run slip-free. However, synchronous belts are noisier than V-belts, less suited for use on shock-loaded applications, and transfer more vibration due to their stiffness.

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Basics of cogged v belt

Power transmission belting has been used for more than 200 years. The first belts were flat and ran on flat pulleys. Later, cotton or hemp rope was used with V-groove pulleys to reduce cogged v belt tension.

This led to the development of the vulcanized rubber V-belt in 1917. The need to eliminate speed variations led to the development of synchronous or toothed cogged v belts about 1950 and the later development of fabric-reinforced elastomer materials.

Today, flat, V, and synchronous belting is still being used in power transmission. When compared to other forms of power transmission, cogged v belts provide a good combination of flexibility, low cost, simple installation and maintenance, and minimal space requirements.

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How V Belts Work

Unlike flat belts, which rely solely on friction and can track and slip off pulleys, V belts have sidewalls that fit into corresponding sheave grooves, providing additional surface area and greater stability.

As belts operate, belt tension applies a wedging force perpendicular to their tops, pushing their sidewalls against the sides of the sheave grooves, which multiplies frictional forces that allow the drive to transmit higher loads. How a V belt fits into the groove of the sheave while operating under tension impacts its performance.

V belts are made from rubber or synthetic rubber stocks, so they have the flexibility to bend around the sheaves in drive systems. Fabric materials of various kinds may cover the stock material to provide a layer of protection and reinforcement.

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How to Tell if Your Fan Belt Is Bad

A faulty fan belt can cause a number of problems. These are some of the most common.

1. You hear a squealing noise: A fan belt that is stretched or out of adjustment can make a squealing noise. The noise is caused by the fan belt slipping on the pulleys, insufficiently driving them. This is usually most noticeable when the vehicle is first started in the morning, as the fan belt has not yet heated up and become pliable.

2. You see physical damage: A fan belt that is visibly cracked, frayed, torn or broken is no good. You’ll need a new one.

3. Warning lights are on: The alternator is driven by the fan belt. If the fan belt slips or breaks, the car’s charging system won’t have voltage. As a result, a cluster of warning lights may pop up on the dash. This is especially true on cars made in the last 10 or 20 years, which have dozens of voltage-dependent computers.

4. The battery goes dead: The battery is basically a storage device for electrical energy created by the alternator. If the fan belt slips or breaks, the alternator won’t properly charge the battery. As a result, the battery will die.

5. Lack of power steering: Vehicles with hydraulic power steering have a fan belt-driven pump. A loose or broken fan belt can result in a lack of steering assist.

6. Engine overheating: On many cars, the water pump is run by the fan belt. A broken or slipping fan belt can cause the water pump to stop turning, making the engine overheat. If this happens, pull off the road in a safe place and turn off the engine. Overheating can kill an engine quickly and cost you a lot of money.

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