Mechanical Drive Efficiency
Mechanical Drive Efficiency
(OP)
I would like to determine the mechanical drive efficiency for common roller chain, V-belt drives, and timing belt drives. All of the vendor information I can find gives rather vague information, that drives are "high efficiency" or something similar. Quantification is also vague "90%-98%" or similar quotes.
Is there any place where real mechanical drive efficiency numbers can be examined, calculated, compared?
Is there any place where real mechanical drive efficiency numbers can be examined, calculated, compared?





RE: Mechanical Drive Efficiency
Numbers I have seen from real life tests, by people I trust, at low speed:
Roller chain 98% Timing belt 90%
Cheers
Greg Locock
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
RE: Mechanical Drive Efficiency
Efficiency gets especially low when operating at a small percentage of capacity.
Common practice is to simply be very conservative. If you really need accurate numbers, you have to experiment, and take care to duplicate worst case service conditions.
RE: Mechanical Drive Efficiency
Temperature can have a big effect on lubrication and stiffness of belts.
Sprocket or pulley radius on how much force is required to bend belting.
Speed of drive in relation to lubrication type.
Barry1961
RE: Mechanical Drive Efficiency
Please let us all know how this works out for you!
RE: Mechanical Drive Efficiency
Bruce Jackson
Project Engineer
Gates Advanced Technical Center
Rochester Hills, MI