Guide to V Belt Selection and Replacement

Advances in V belt technology present users the opportunity to upgrade older drives and gain improvements in performance while saving time and money. For example, industry standard V belts subject to extreme operating conditions, such as stifling heat inside a belt guard, can fail prematurely from heat cracks, stretching or excessive wear. Frequently retensioning and replacing the belts leads to downtime, inefficiency and loss of productivity.

With today’s new technologies, however, you can upgrade to notched V belts made from an ethylene rubber material that can withstand temperature extremes from -70°F (-57°C) to +250°F (+121°C), an 88% improvement over the temperature range for industry standard V belts. These newer belts resist hardening to avoid cracking, offer improved flexibility, and run smoother in the sheaves to reduce vibration and extend the life of other drive components, such as shafts and bearings.

As another example, replacing an older, classical V belt drive with a newer, narrow profile notched V belt made with an ethylene elastomer and aramid fiber tensile cords can yield up to 3x greater load carrying capacity while reducing the weight and size of the drive, relieving stress on shafts, bearings and other components.

When it comes to V belt drives with multi-groove sheaves, consider your options. If the sheaves are not worn, you can use fewer, higher-performance belts (leaving open grooves), or fill all the grooves with higher-performance belts to increase drive load capacity and extend belt life. If the sheaves are worn and need replacement, you can upgrade to a more compact (but equally powerful) drive to save weight and space, or keep the same drive configuration while increasing drive capacity.