If you don’t know about Gates Carbon Drive for bicycles, here is your chance. We will be attending the Lyons-Boulder Centurion Cycling Event on July 18th. The Centurion is three events in one; a 100, 50, and 25mile ride; all types are encouraged, from seasoned racers to families. We here at Gates intend to have riders in at least two of the three categories equipped with different types of bicycles, each sporting the Gates Carbon Drive system.

What is the Gates Carbon Drive system? The system is basically two sprockets and a belt that replace a chain and chain sprockets on a bicycle. The belt is a version of our market leading Poly Chain GT Carbon belt that has been optimized for power transmission on bicycles. The sprockets are designed to mount on bicycles using standard bicycle components. We will get more into the technical aspects of the bicycle components in a later post. In the mean time, come check out some of the Gates crew at the Centurion, and demo ride a bicycle with Gates Carbon Drive!

http://www.centurioncycling.com/

www.carbondrivesystems.com

Hospitals and Energy Savings (or "Watts Happening")

Energy consumption continues to rise as the population grows.  An example of this is the staggering cost of energy to healthcare organizations - an enormous $8.5 BILLION spent on energy every year.

Up to 3% of an average hospital's budget is spent on energy.  This works out to around $5.25 per square foot.  (Source:  Energy Information Administration, Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey 2003).  As energy usage continues to increase, so does the cost of energy to the facilities.  Over 90% of hospitals reported an increase in energy costs over the previous year.

A recent survey ( American Hospital Association Annual Survey) showed that $1 saved on energy at a hospital has the equivalent impact on the bottom line as increasing hospital revenues by $20. 

Clearly, there are obvious benefits to hospitals and healthcare facilities for reducing energy consumption.

Synchronous belts and molded notch V-belts are natural candidates to implement on belt drive systems to save energy.  V-belt drives can be converted to synchronous belt drives to save approximately 5% on energy as well as virtually eliminating maintenance requirements.  Molded notch V-belts can save approximately 2% on energy if used to replace traditional banded V-belts.

Its clear that energy consumption and savings efforts are here to stay.   Use the available belt technology to get some easy savings and you'll be ahead of the game.

Sonic Tension Meter 507C

The Gate's Sonic Tension Meter 507C is an electronic device that measures the static tension in a belt by analyzing the harmonic characterisitcs of the belt when its vibrating. Belts, like strings, vibrate at a particular natural frequency based on the mass, span length, width, and tension. The 507C measures this natrual frequency and converts it to a static tension force.






How it works:

First, the belt mass constant, belt width, and measured span length are entered into the meter. Next, hold the meter sensor to the belt span, then lightly stum the belt to make it vibrate. Press the "measure" button to obtain the reading in either herts (Hz), kilograms (kg), pounds (lbs) or Newtons (N).

Features for the meter include:

• Output readings measurable in hertz (Hz), kilograms (kg), pounds (lbs) or Newtons (N).
• Frequency range from 10 - 5000 hertz.
• Variable frequency range filters
• Auto gain conrol automatically adjust meter sensivity.
• 20 memory registers for belt constants.
• LCD screen with back light.
  

Aside from the standard sensor, an optional flexible sensor for hard to reach areas and a magnetic inductive sensor for loud environments are also available.

Design Manuals and Software

We here in the Product Application Department (the Marketing Department as well - share the love) are finishing up a major revision of a product drive design manual that should hopefully be released shortly.  Going through revisions of a print catalog prompted the thought - "Do users of this catalog know they can download software to do these calculations instead of doing them manually?". 

Gates has 2 main industrial drive design software packages - Design Flex Pro and Design IQ.  

Design Flex Pro is intended for users to design simple 2 shaft drives, and automate the process that is contained in the drive design manuals.  Instead of taking an hour or more to design a single drive out of a drive design manual, a user can design literally dozens of drives in less than a minute.   Design Flex Pro also allows users to optimize their selection based on specific application needs (center distance, driveN RPM, belt pull, etc.). 

Design IQ is intended for users to design more complex multiple shaft drives.  Users will most likely need to be a bit more experienced in belt drive design to initially use Design IQ, but the program is not difficult to use.  In comparing the two software tools, Design FlexPro is a hammer, and Design IQ is a scalpel.  

You don't build a house with a scalpel, and you don't want your surgeon using a 20 ounce framing hammer when he's performing a quadruple bypass.   Pick the right tool for the right job.  

Both software programs are available for download at:

http://www.gates.com/designflex/index.cfm?location_id=809

http://www.gates.com/designiq/index.cfm?location_id=11292