An Investigation of the Performance of Flat and V-Type Transmission Belts

Abstract

Abstract A major problem in engineering is and always will be the efficient and effective transmission and distribution of motive power. In spite of the extensive developments which have taken place in individual direct, gear or chain coupled drives, there still remains an extremely large number of drives installed or being installed for the transmission of power in which belting of one kind or another is preferable. Such drives also vary tremendously in character and type, from small machines requiring a fraction of one horse power, to heavy industrial drives, as those used in rolling mills, where the power transmitted often extends to several hundred horse power. The nature of the load may be smooth and uniform or subject to heavy peak loads such as occur in the case of ore crushers or pumping machinery. The use of belting for the transmission of power actually dates almost from the time that mechanical power began to be used, and in fact the name of Leonardo da Vinci has been mentioned as one of the first to devote attention to the fundamental principles of belt drives as well as being the inventor of the tension or jockey pulley. In spite of this, however, very little development in what may be termed the technology of belting appears to have taken place until the latter part of the nineteenth century and, as may be anticipated, most of the earlier writers gave special attention to the question of leather belting.