Rim Speeds and Maximum Diameters

Occasionally I have people asking me what the speed rating in on a specific belt. Here at Gates, we don’t give our belts a maximum speed rating like some of our competitors do. How fast is too fast then? It depends on the metal that you want or need to run. All of our sprockets and sheaves are statically balanced. We rate them to be able to run comfortably up to 6500 feet per minute (feet per minute is based on rpm AND diameter). If you plan to run them faster, you will need to have them dynamically balanced for the maximum speed you are going to reach. So what does this mean for a maximum belt speed? There are unfortunately a lot of things to consider if you’re going to be running at high speeds. If you are looking to run past 6500 ft/min, we recommend that you contact Product Applications so that we can discuss what you might expect when trying to design for high speeds.