Why is there a pully timing belt in this system before the encoder
Why is there a pully timing belt in this system before the encoder
(OP)
Hi all
As you see in this following photo which is the driving system for a bottle filling machine, there's a set of gears run by an electromotor, that end up to a pully timing belt system that provides the machine position read for an encoder. my question is: if there are two or three gear to gear contacts before this pully, that can have an error. but when we get to the encoder we use belt to increase the rotating precision ? I feel something is missing or I don't know

As you see in this following photo which is the driving system for a bottle filling machine, there's a set of gears run by an electromotor, that end up to a pully timing belt system that provides the machine position read for an encoder. my question is: if there are two or three gear to gear contacts before this pully, that can have an error. but when we get to the encoder we use belt to increase the rotating precision ? I feel something is missing or I don't know






RE: Why is there a pully timing belt in this system before the encoder
RE: Why is there a pully timing belt in this system before the encoder
I agree that if the encoder is meant to monitor the output shaft then it's a bit of a waste, performance wise, to have a timing belt drive it when there are gears downstream.
RE: Why is there a pully timing belt in this system before the encoder
It may be that the encoder is used as an input to some other part of the system to synchronize with the position of this shaft and that other gear errors don't matter.
RE: Why is there a pully timing belt in this system before the encoder
RE: Why is there a pully timing belt in this system before the encoder
There's two factors at work that I suspect resulted in this belt-driven encoder arrangement:
1) There is gear error, but that gear error is very very small. Depending on the gearsets and how they're designed, you might have a rotational position error window that's anywhere between a couple of arcminutes, down to a few arcseconds wide. In a machine of that type, a rotational position error which does not compound and is only a couple of arcminutes wide simple doesn't matter. If positioning of the encoder is a challenge, using a train of gears could potentially increase the error, not reduce it.
2) Encoders on machines of this type are usually mission critical, and if a machine is well maintained, an encoder failure is one of the few things that can bring production to an immediate halt. Point is, encoders and their drives are designed so that they can be replaced as quickly as possible. That belt drive arrangement is much easier and faster to R&R than a train of helical gears would be.
The points made by other posters, such as packaging the encoder in the enclosure, etc are relevant as well.
RE: Why is there a pully timing belt in this system before the encoder
je suis charlie
RE: Why is there a pully timing belt in this system before the encoder
RE: Why is there a pully timing belt in this system before the encoder
je suis charlie