d

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8
BELT AND CHAIN DRIVES

Belt and chain drives are used to transmit power from one rotational drive to another. A belt is a flexible power transmission element that runs tightly on a set of pulleys. A chain drive consists of a series of pin-connected links that run on a set of sprockets. The aims of this chapter are to introduce various types of belt and chain drives and to develop selection procedures for wedge and flat belts and for roller chains.
Belt

Pulley

LEARNING OBJECTIVES At the end of this chapter you should:

be able to differentiate whether to use a chain, belt or gear drive for a given application; be able to select a particular wedge belt for a given speed and power requirement; be able to determine the width of flat belt for a given speed and power requirement; be able to determine an appropriate chain ratio using standard components; be able to select an appropriate chain type and pitch for a given application; be able to specify an appropriate chain drive for a given speed and power requirement.

Working strand (Tight side)

Driven sprocket

Driving sprocket

Slack strand

Figure 8.1 Belt drive and chain drive.

driven shaft is dependent on the ratio of the pulley or sprocket diameters as is given by: Vpitchline 1R1 2 R2 (8.1) (8.2)

8.1 Introduction
Belt and chain drives consist of flexible elements running on either pulleys or sprockets as illustrated in Figure 8.1.The purpose of a belt or chain drive is to transmit power from one rotating shaft to another. The speed ratio between the driving and Angular velocity ratio 1 R 2 2 R1

where Vpitchline is pitchline velocity (m/s); 1, angular velocity of driving pulley or sprocket (rad/s); 2, angular velocity of driven pulley or sprocket