Belt Drive Design Programs

Design Flex Pro and Design IQ are two belt drive design programs offered from Gates that can simplify the process of designing an industrial belt drive.

Design Flex Pro is used for designing two-point belt drives ( 1 driveR shaft and 1 driveN shaft) and is easy as choosing a belt line, entering in your drive information, and hitting the Design button. DF Pro will then give a list of belt drives that will agree with the input conditions and summarize the information in a Drive Detail Report. This program can only design with stock products offered from Gates.

Design IQ is a more complex program where you can design a Belt Drive with multiple driveN shafts. You can also use idlers and tensioners when configuring the drive. Design IQ gives the user flexibility such as entering multiple driving conditions and implementing non-stock pulley sizes.

Both Design Flex Pro and Design IQ are free programs available to download from www.gates.com/drivedesign

Gates supporting FIRST Robotics

Over the past few years, Gates Corporation has been the proud sponsor of the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). The FRC is competition that challenges teams of high school students to create a robot in 6 weeks that can be programmed to interact with other robots to accomplish prescribed tasks against a field of competitors. This program is expected to involve over 45,000 students from over 1800 schools worldwide for the 2010 season. Gates has worked with the organization to help donate belt drive components to the teams as well as provide free engineering support and advice. Gates is truly proud of the work that these students do, and is happy to help support them in this event. To learn more about Gates involvement with FIRST, please visit www.gates.com/FIRST. To learn more about FIRST, please visit www.usfirst.org.

Aircraft Applications

One of the applications that you won't see Gates support is any primary flight related aircraft application.   Sometimes requests to the Gates Power Transmission Product Application department come from homebuilt aircraft builders or designers - they see the weight and performance advantages of a belt drive and would like to incorporate that technology into their aircraft.

Our answer is always "No".   To quote the official Gates policy regarding aircraft applications:

"Primary In-Flight Aircraft Systems:  Do not use Gates belts, pulleys or sprockets on aircraft, propeller or rotor drive systems  or in-flight accessory drives.  Gates belt drive systems are not intended for aircraft use."

Belt inspections will not be able to reveal how much useable life a belt may have left.  While properly designed belt drives are extremely reliable, considering the statistical distribution of belt failures, even a single failure can have catastrophic results in an airborne application.

So - don't use belts on an airborne application.  Don't ask Gates to provide technical assistance for airborne applications.  We'll be polite in discussing the topic with you, but the message will be as discussed above.

Hardware Terminology

In the Power Transmission world, when we talk about "hardware", we're not talking about bolts, screws, or hinges.   "Hardware" refers to the components that the belt runs in.  For the most generic name for hardware we will use the name "pulley" - a common name that most will be familiar with.

The terminology for different products is different for different types of belts.     Let's look at how the different product types have different specific names for "pulley".

For synchronous belts:  "Pulleys" for the current generation of Gates  synchronous belts (PowerGrip GT2, Poly Chain GT Carbon) are referred to as a "sprockets".   "Sprocket" makes the name association with the ability of current products to replace roller chain - and chain's use of the term "sprocket".  Trapezoidal timing belts - the earliest form of synchronous belts, commonly use the term "pulley" to identify their hardware.

For V-belts:  "Pulleys" for V-belts are referred to as "sheaves" (pronounced with the "ea" sounding like the "i" in ship, rather than like the "ee" in sheep).

For Micro-V or flat belts:  "Pulleys" are pulleys!

So - there are really only a couple of exceptions to remember:  "Sprocket" is used for Power Grip GT2 and Poly Chain GT Carbon belt product lines.   "Sheave" is used for V-belt product lines.   For everything else, you're free to call them "pulleys"!

Gates Poly Chain Belts Power to NHRA Season Titles

Gates Corporation is proud to have sponsored Don Schumacher Racing and John Force Racing in the past 2009 NHRA season. 

Tony Schumacher (Don Schumacher Racing) won the NHRA Top Fuel championship.  The championship is Tony's 6th - no driver has ever before won 6 Top Fuel championships.

Robert Hight (John Force Racing) won the NHRA Funny Car championship.

Gates Poly Chain belts are used to drive the superchargers on both the top fuel and funny cars, driving from the crankshaft to the supercharger (blower).

Poly Chain Belt on Supercharger Application

The supercharger NHRA racing application is incredibly harsh.  Extremely rapid acceleration and deceleration, torque pulses, torque reversals,  and very heavy shock loading make the application very tough for any belt.  The Gates Poly Chain belt handles the conditions and gets the cars down the track, providing the power transmission to drive the supercharger and pump up the car's HP.

Did you know that the same belt technology, Poly Chain GT Carbon, is a standard industrial power transmission product from Gates?  You can use the proven toughness and durability of Poly Chain GT Carbon on your challenging industrial applications - if it can handle the NHRA Top Fuel and Funny Car demands, it can handle your requirements!

So What is a Belt?

It may seem like a very basic question....what is a belt?  Where better to start with the first post than with the most elementary of questions?

In the most basic of terms, a belt (in the power transmission sense) is a flexible component that links two or more shafts together and transmits power and motion from one shaft to the other(s).

Belts can transmit power across a distance between shafts.  Belt drives can increase or decrease the speed at a driven shaft or set of shafts.  Belt drives can multiply the torque available at the driven shaft.

There are two broad categories for belts:  Synchronous belts and V-belts. 

Synchronous belts have teeth on the belt - you are most likely familiar with the timing belt on your car - which is a synchronous belt.

V-belts have a V shape (duh), and wedge into V shaped grooves in the pulleys (which are called "sheaves" in the industry).

That's all for this post....we'll grow and develop content as subject matter and reader interest dictates.