Applications from consumer-grade home printers to heavy industrial conveyors use these synchronous transmission belts, because unlike V belts with trapezoidal cross-sections, they don’t slip.

Motion applications often need customized transmission belts and sprockets in urethane, double-sided, mini-pitch, and made-to-order (MTO) versions. Double-sided belts have covered teeth to transfer up to 100% of maximum-rated load from one or both transmission belt sides. These come in trapezoidal timing configurations and HTD curvilinear tooth profiles. Some run to 14,000 rpm with speed ratios to 10:1, which is enough to replace gearsets in some cases.

Double-sided belts also excel as serpentine drives in riding mowers with counter-rotating blades, printing presses, and textile machines. Urethane transmission belts maximize motion transfer, especially when incorporating polyester or aramid tensile members. Their tooth profile is a miniature version of transmission belt with standard 40° angle teeth. Speed ratios reach 8:1 and torque output is to a couple lb-in. These transmission belts excel on positioning axes, thanks to their low torque and minimal backlash — especially in printers and copiers that need clean operation.

Long belting (usually with L or H trapezoidal tooth or HTD profiles) can exceed 500 feet in some cases. They work for power transmission and axis synchronization — doing double duty as conveyors in many cases. Such transmission belts complete with rack-and-pinion sets in machine tools and X-ray equipment as a viable drive for linear strokes. One caveat: These transmission belts spliced transmit a quarter less horsepower than a comparable endless transmission belt.

This article comes from motioncontroltips edit released