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Conversion of a V-BELT DRIVE TO A SYNCHRONOUS BELT DRIVE

2018-06-11

Synchronous belts – your unexpected energy savers

Discover how to save energy and CO2 emissions, maintenance costs and total drive costs by converting V-belt drives to synchronous belt drives.

Achieving a maximum of production output with a minimum of costs is a task all production plants face today. The majority of units provided by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) use V-belt drives for power transmission, mainly based on cost considerations. However, maintenance engineers are not always aware of the savings they can make by changing over from V-belt drives to synchronous belt drives.

COMPARING V-BELTS AND SYNCHRONOUS BELTS

In power transmission systems, there is a correlation between mechanical efficiency and energy consumption. High efficiency belt drive systems consume less energy, saving on energy costs. When properly designed and installed, synchronous belt drives operate at a near constant 99% efficiency over the life of the drive. In comparison, a V-belt drive will operate at 93%-97% efficiency. This level of efficiency can be sustained as long as the V-belt drive is properly tensioned and all drive components are well maintained. So, synchronous belts offer higher efficiencies over V-belts simply through their design and inherent characteristics.

 Another factor to take into consideration are the savings in maintenance costs synchronous belts offer. V-belt drives and synchronous belt drives demand approximately the same amount of time for installation, but a key difference between them is that synchronous belts do not require a run-in procedure or re-tensioning .
  

SAVING ON ENERGY COSTS, MAINTENANCE EXPENSE AND DOWNTIME.

The total drive cost is an important factor for an end-user. Total cost includes the initial acquisition cost, energy costs and maintenance expense. Numerous field case studies have demonstrated that the higher initial investment in a synchronous belt drive is more than compensated by the savings made by cutting maintenance and energy costs.

 As synchronous belt drives enable savings across a variety of applications in dozens of industries, chances are that one of your applications is an excellent choice for conversion.