Advantages of Preventive Maintenance for Hydraulic Hose

There are several good reasons to begin a preventive maintenance program. Costly emergency repairs, production downtime and worker safety to name a few. The main objective of a preventive maintenance program is to identify component weaknesses before failure and loss of production. Some people believe that PM actually should mean “predictive maintenance” rather than “preventive maintenance.” Preventive maintenance is especially important with hydraulic products. The high pressures and temperatures associated with hydraulics make hose and fitting maintenance as well as selection critical. If done correctly, the risk of injury and/or excessive, costly downtime decreases significantly. In addition, there is a growing awareness regarding costs associated with cleaning up a hydraulic spill (EPA). Combining top-quality Gates products with a regular preventive maintenance program will keep your equipment at maximum efficiency.

Is your Lawn, Garden, and Agricultural Equipment ready for the Summer?

As summer approaches, it is time to start inspecting your lawn, garden, and agricultural equipment to get them ready for the season ahead.  One key component you will want to examine is the belt drive system.  Whether it is powering the blade on your lawn mower or the auger on your harvester, the belt drive components will wear out over time and can degrade through the winter months.  To ensure you are getting the best performance and productivity from your equipment, it is best to replace any worn belts, sheaves, sprockets or bushings before the equipment is needed.   This will give you peace of mind that you will not be left with down equipment due to fatigued belts or worn hardware. 

Gates offers a variety of aftermarket and OEM specific replacement parts for your equipment that will help ensure you are ready for the summer months.  For any assistance with any of our Lawn, Garden or Agricultural products, please contact our Automotive Aftermarket team at 303-744-5651 or APATeam@Gates.com.

PowerGrip GT3 Drive Design Manual

Gates is constantly looking to add innovative products to provide our distributors and our customers with the best quality and selection available. As part of that effort, single sided PowerGrip GT2 belts have been upgraded to PowerGrip GT3 constructions. An upgraded product line requires an upgraded drive design manual so for technical information on the new PowerGrip GT3 belts please download the drive design manual using the link below.

PowerGrip GT3 Design Manual

PowerGrip 5mm GT2 Aluminum Sprockets

Gates is now offering a selection of aluminum sprockets for 5mm pitch PowerGrip GT2 and GT3 belting.  These sprockets will be offered in both 9mm and 15mm widths.  They are not offered in 25mm widths.  While the parts are not yet listed in our Industrial Power Transmission catalog, they are listed in our new PowerGrip GT3 Drive Design Manual which you can find here: http://www.gates.com/products/industrial/industrial-belts/product-application-engineering

It is very important to note that these sprockets have LIMITED wear resistance with our 5mm PowerGrip GT belts, and INSUFFICIENT wear resistance and load capacity for our 5mm Poly Chain belts.  These sprockets are also available in sizes down to 12 teeth.  Our MINIMUM sprocket tooth count recommendation for 5mm PowerGrip GT2/GT3 belting is 18 teeth.  Going below this will significantly impact belt life.  For these reasons, these sprockets are best used for prototyping purposes.

Have You Seen The New gates.com Website?

Visit http://www.gates.com/ to see the new Gates website.  This means a new and fresh look along with new functionality.  As with any major change, though, there are improvements as well as things that don’t work the same way they used to, and saved links that may not work any longer. 

The main site features are included in the clean and concise menu bars at the top of the main page.  The feature box located in the middle of the screen provides easy access to some of the most popular sites.

Belt identification and interchanging tools are readily accessible in the feature box as well as a “where to buy” tool and a site search tool.   The search engines in the site are very fast and powerful, so are a great place to start when looking for new information.  Below the three promotion boxes click on Popular Links for ready access to popular pages like the PartView System, Design Flex Software, Design IQ Software and a series of fluid power related sites.

Our Product Application Engineering page for industrial power transmission products is located at:  http://www.gates.com/products/industrial/industrial-belts/product-application-engineering or can be accessed by navigating to http://www.gates.com/drivedesign as before.  Our page includes contact information and links to valuable engineering tools and sites as well as useful drive design manuals, users manuals and related literature.

You can be assured that changes and improvements have and will continue to be made to our new site.  After navigating the site a bit, hopefully new functionality, improvements and faster screen loads will be seen.

For technical assistance or questions, feel free to contact Product Application Engineering at 303-744-5800 or at ptpasupport@gates.com.

NEMA Minimum Sheave Diameters

When designing a new v-belt drive or troubleshooting an existing system, it is important to consider the NEMA (National Electric Motor Association) minimum sheave recommendations in cases where a NEMA motor frame is used or general guidelines need to be referenced.  These recommendations ensure that excessive force is not applied to the motor shaft and bearings which can cause decreased life, efficiency, and performance.

For any additional questions feel free to contact us at ptpasupport@gates.com or 303-744-5800.

NAHBS 2014

This coming weekend is NAHBS 2014.  NAHBS stands for National American Handmade Bicycle Show.  This year the show is located in Charlotte, NC.  Gates is again a sponsor for this show, and this year we are doing something special.  This year Gates is hosting an E-bike Showcase.  An E-bike is an electric assist bicycle.  This is a bicycle with a battery and a motor, but is powered only to assist the rider - not to propel the rider without input such as a scooter or motorcycle.  This means that as long as you are putting power into the bicycle, you can expect some assistance from the battery and motor.  These bikes are great for people who are a little worried about getting somewhere on a bike.  Maybe that big hill is too daunting?  Maybe a bike full of groceries is too heavy to pedal home?  Maybe you'd like to ride to work, but you can't come in all sweaty?  All of these are great reasons to consider an E-bike.  They are becoming a more popular choice every year.

"Why is Gates involved, they don't make motors?"  This is correct, we don't.  However, E-bikes make things simple for the rider, and so does Gates Carbon Drive.  Our belt drive solution to bicycling makes riding cleaner, with less maintenance, which is a great combination with a bike that helps you get where you need to go without thinking about it.  It just works, and it lasts longer with less work from the rider.

So if you're in the Charlotte area this weekend, come check out NAHBS 2014 and our fantastic E-bike showcase.  Not in the area?  You can keep up with the show on our Carbon Drive Blog at: http://blog.gatescarbondrive.com/