Maximum speed for transmission belts

[corrosionman]

We have a 1 ton flywheel with a 9 inch dia spindle and need to spin it at 4500 rmp. There is no load other than its own inertia and no restriction on time to reach required speed using 10 kw motor controlled via a soft start inverter.
We propose to drive the system by a flat belt on the spindle but I'm wondering if this is feasible. The belt would be doing 180 feet per second and will suffer some stress in passing round the spindle itself. Any comments please ?? CM

 

[GregLocock]

What's the moment of inertia of the flywheel?



Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[electricpete]

Neale's "Tribology Handbook" has this to say about flat belt speed limitations:
"The ease of joining polyamide strip tension member belts enables them to be made of virtually any length; their flexibility makes
them suitable for highly serpentine or out of plane layouts. At low belt speeds, drives are less compact and bearing loads are higher
than for other belt types, but as speed increases above 20 rn/s.,flat belts come into their own. Speeds up to 70 m/s are possible."

... and this to say about pulley speed limitations (this paragraph doesn't state whether it applies to flat or grooved pulleys).

"The maximum safe surface speed of cast iron pulleys is 40 m/s. Steel of 430 MPa tensile strength may be used up to 50 m/s
and aluminium alloys of 180 MPa tensile strength up to 60 m/s. Aluminium alloys are not recommended for uncovered
rubber drive faces because of wear/abrasion problems with aluminium oxide. For operation up to 70 m/s special designs
using high strength steel or aluminium alloys are required. Plastics are commonly used for low-speed, low power
applications."

So apparently 60 m/sec is achievable with flat belts but special consideration of pulley might be required. (Maybe this is related to the ideas discussed in "burst speed of a disc" thread? )

At any rate, it would obviouisly be good to check your design with a belt and pulley supplier such as Gates.


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