The Gates 507C Sonic Tension Meter is an excellent tool for measuring belt installation tension accurately by reading the frequency of vibrating belt spans.  It is widely used in industry and is considered to be one of the finest belt tension measuring tools available. Gates provides full support for 507C meters including troubleshooting, accuracy certifications and repairs when needed.

Gates 507C Sonic Tension Meters are warranted for 2 years (sensors not included). No-charge repairs are available for meters within the warranty period. Repairs are also available for meters outside of the warranty period. Meters are evaluated in house and repair estimates are provided before work is completed.

For linear belt applications, it is often desirable to determine belt speed. The speed depends on both the sprocket pitch diameter and rpm.  It is calculated as follows:

S = (pd x rpm)/3.82

     Where:
      S  is the belt speed in feet/minute
      pd is the sprocket pitch diameter in inches
      rpm is the sprocket speed

Labels: linear, speed, velocity

Outside of the Gates EZ Align Precision laser Tool, a straightedge and/or a string are commonly used to measure and monitor misalignment in belt drive systems.  Unfortunately, these tools are commonly misused which can result in inaccurate conclusions about the actual drive alignment. 

Labels: belt installation, Gates Application Engineers

F = MA Actually, a simple formula that is quite often forgotten or overlooked by designers. The key point to remember is that the appropriate sizing of your belt drive is only as good as the load calculation or estimation used to design it. F = MA

1. On all two-sprocket drives, the minimum flanging requirements are two flanges on one sprocket or one flange on each sprocket on opposite sides.

2. On drives where the center distance is more than eight times the diameter of the small sprocket, both sprockets should be flanged on both sides.

3. On vertical shaft drives, one sprocket should be flanged on both sides, and all the other sprockets in the system should be flanged on the bottom side only.

4. On drives with more than two sprockets, the minimum flanging requirements are two flanges on every other sprocket or one flange on every sprocket —on alternating sides around the system.

On made-to-order sprockets, flanges must be securely fastened, such as using mechanical fasteners, welding, shrink-fit or other equivalent methods.

There are many components used in belt power transmission systems that are critical, but some may not be as readily apparent as others. An example is electric motor mounting bases.

While motors can be bolted directly to structures by their mounting feet, this does not always allow for necessary movement and adjustability. Adjustable motor bases are commonly used to secure motors while providing a means of positional adjustment. While types, designs, and methods of adjustment vary with brands and size, the best designs adjust with large linear screws.

Focusing on belt drive systems, adjustable motor bases are used to shift motor positions for belt removal and for new belt installation. They are also used to shift motor positions for belt pre-tensioning. Another critical function of adjustable motor bases is adjusting and maintaining motor shaft position for alignment with driven shafts. Accurate shaft alignment is very important for good belt performance, especially with synchronous belt drive systems.


Figure 1 illustrates an adjustable motor base utilizing a single adjustment screw. While screw adjustment is superior to bases that only slide, side forces exerted by belt drives on motor shafts generate torsional forces. Single screw adjustment bases often deflect resulting in non-parallelism between motors and driven components. Correction with single screw designs can only be accomplished by applying external forces to motors and bases, which becomes difficult with increasing motor size. Single screw adjusting bases are used mainly for their economics, but do not generally maintain adequate shaft alignment nor belt tension.


Figure 2 illustrates an adjustable motor base utilizing duel adjustment screws. While motor bases of this type generally have fairly heavy duty designs, small torsional deflections can be compensated for fairly easily while applying pre-tension to belts. Adjustments to shaft alignment and belt tension levels are easy and accurate with this type of motor base design.

The design and condition of adjustable motor bases can have a critical effect on belt drive service and performance. When performing maintenance operations, replacing belts or converting V-belt drives to synchronous drives, consider upgrading inferior and insufficient motor bases to heavy duty duel adjusting screw types.

When UL certification is desired for a product that includes a belt drive, it is typically applied for by an original equipment manufacturer for their finished product (e.g. air conditioner, compressor, lawn mower, vacuum cleaner etc.) rather than at the component level (e.g. v-belt, synchronous belt, bushing, pulley, etc.).  Gates has not applied for UL approval of  v-belt or synchronous belt drive components.

Labels: U.L., UL, Underwriters Laboratories