Gates FIRST Robotics Scholarship

Gates is offering up to three $2000 scholarships for seniors that participated in the 2010 FIRST Robotics competition and used a Gates belt drive component on their competition robot. These are merit based scholarships, and require that students answer one of two "challenge" questions posed in the application. One challenge question is straightforward and asks students to explain how a belt can be used to transfer energy from a common power source. The other challenge question provides a situation in which the students have creative license on how to solve a problem using belts. Gates feels that with the option of two questions, students have the ability to approach the application in a creative manner that suits them best, and showcases their ingenuity to Gates. For more information on the scholarship, please visit www.gates.com/FIRST .

Gates PartView

Gate's PartView is a website dedicated to providing modeling resources and part specifications for anybody who can access the internet. Partview can be easily accessed by logging on to www.gates.com/partview. Information such as belt and sprocket dimensions, part numbers, materials, and properties such as oil & heat resistance and static conductivity are all listed on Partview. CAD models in a variety of formats such as Solidworks, AutoCAD, and Pro/Engineer are also available for selected parts.

What Not to Do!

As a product application engineering department, we see some unusual uses of belts - not always correctly used! 

In the photos below, see if you can identify what is wrong with the application in the picture.

Give up?

Those are synchronous sprockets, with a V-belt installed to transmit power!  An application engineer was visiting a customer site and ran across this "creative" use of mismatched components.  Best guess is that originally the V-belt was installed because a replacement synchronous belt wasn't on hand, and it worked "good enough" that they never went back and used the proper components.

Obviously - NOT RECOMMENDED!

Many years ago, a farmer called the Product Application department with a question about what nail size he should use - 8d, 10d - he didn't know for sure.  A confused application engineer asked him what he was talking about - you don't use nails on a belt drive.   The farmer replied that he was rebuilding a windmill to get water to his livestock, and all he wanted to know was what size nails the synchronous belt needed to run on.  Even more confused, the engineer pressed for more details....turns out that the farmer was planning on making his own sprockets by welding nails between two steel plates and needed to know the nail size that would best fit in the belt teeth to act as the sprocket teeth!

Sometimes you learn what to do correctly by seeing things that are done incorrectly.....

PA Notes

PA Notes are technical documents written by the Product Application department that are intended to address particular technical issues or design matters for Gates users and customers.  The very first PA Note, Volume 1, Number 1 was issued on August 29, 1951.   The current PA Note content is up to Volume 57.

Its interesting to look back at that first PA Note and see the content and the state of the art for belt power transmission in 1951.  Topics included in Volume 1, Number 1:

1)  The use of a V-flat drive on a generator.   (When was the last time you designed a flat belt drive?  In fact, when was the last time you saw a flat belt drive?)

2)  Designing a flat belt drive on a turbine application.  (Flat belts were the belt of choice for high speed applications "back in the day".  Now, we would instead design with Micro-V or Polyflex V-belts.   Belt technology has come a long way.)

Consider how long that Gates Product Application has been writing PA Notes - look at the major events of 1951 to place the time in context:

• The Korean War was underway
• The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified
• The first live sporting event seen coast-to-coast in the United States, a college football game between Duke and the University of Pittsburgh, is televised on NBC
• Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States
• William Shockley invents the junction transistor

 Its a much different world that we live in, 59 years later.  The world has changed, as has the technology used in belt power transmission.  However, belts still remain one of the most useful, capable, and economical method of transmitting power between shafts.   Today's belts use highly engineered rubber and urethane compounds, a variety of belt tensile cord types, materials, and gages, and in some cases approach having so much power capacity that users can't believe how much power can be transmitted in such a narrow belt.  A far cry from 1951!

 

 

 

Gates Supports over 240 FIRST Robotics Teams

It's the middle of March, and the 2010 FIRST Robotics Competition is in full swing. Gates is a proud sponsor this year's competition, and has provided free customized belt and sprocket assemblies to over 240 teams. All senior FIRST Robotics students who have a robot that uses a belt drive system in a competition are eligible to apply for a $2000 Gates scholarship. More information can be found at www.gates.com/FIRST. The scholarship deadline is April 30, 2010. For information on local FIRST Robotics Competitions near you, please visit http://www.usfirst.org/.

Belt Tension

When installing a belt drive it's critical to apply the correct ammount of tension to the belt for the drive to function properly, but how do you know what tension to set the belt to? It turns out that there is not a universal tension for a belt, but proper belt tension will vary depending on the input power, rpm, and pulley sizes. Tension equations can used to calculate the proper static tension and can be found in Gates Drive Design Manuals. Using Gates free drive design software, DesignFlex or Design IQ, is another way to find out the proper tension for a belt drive. Both programs are available online at www.gates.com/drivedesign.