School of Mechanical Manufacturing

Engineering

Name: Muhammad Sharjeel Farzad

CMS-ID: 333675
Section: ME 12-A
Mechanical Vibrations Lab

Lab Report No.1

Belt Drives including open drive and cross drive
using Flat Belt and Round Belt
Title of Experiment:
Investigate the Belt Drives including open drive and cross drive using Flat Belt and Round Belt

Objective: -
The objective of this experiment is to investigate the belt drives using flat and round belts. The belt
drive will be both Open and Cross drives. The belts will be mounted on the driver and the driven
pulleys and the relationship between the Diameters of Driver and Driven Pulleys and their
Number of Turns will be determined through this experiment. Moreover, the Direction of
Rotation of driver and driven pulleys will also be observed. The experiment will be demonstrated
with both Types of Belts: 1) Flat Belt 2) Round Belt.

Introduction: -
A belt drive consists of two pulleys mounted on two shafts and are driven by a common belt. One of
the pulleys is called the driver pulley which rotates to further cause the rotation of the driven
pulley. When we have a need to transmit power from one shaft to another shaft we use a belt drive.
Among the belt drives there are further two types: 1) Open Belt drive 2) Cross Belt drive. The only
difference between the two is that if we require that the direction of rotation of driver and driven
pulleys to be same, we use the Open belt drive and if we want Driver and driven pulleys to rotate in
opposite directions, we use a cross belt drive.

Procedure with Flat Belt: -

Open Belt Drive Configuration: -

1. Prepare the belt drive apparatus and take a Flat belt.
2. On the apparatus, there are two parallel shafts, On the back ends of the shafts are attached
two pulleys with diameters D 1=95 mm and D 2=31.7 mm. The pulley with larger diameter
is the driver pulley and that will smaller diameter is the driven pulley.
3. Attach the Flat Belts around these pulleys in Open Belt Drive Configuration.
 4. Rotate the Driver Pulley by one rotation and count the number of rotations of the driven
pulley.
5. It was observed that for one rotation of the driver pulley the driven pulley covered almost 3
turns.
6. Also observe the direction of rotations of the both pulleys which will be same

Crossed Belt Drive Configuration: -

1. Now mount the same flat belt around the above mentioned two pulleys in crossed
configuration.
2. Count the number of rotation of the driven pulley for one rotation of the driver pulley.
3. That will remain same i.e 3.
4. Also note a change in the direction of rotation of the driver pulley.

Procedure with Round Belt: -

Open Belt Drive Configuration: -
1. On the belt drive apparatus at the front ends of shafts, there are two pulleys of identical
diameters. D 3=60 mm∧D4 =60 mm .
2. Take a round belt and mount them of the pulleys at the front ends of the shaft in open belt
Configuration.
3. Since both pulleys have same diameters any of them can be the driver pulley.
4. Rotate the driver pulley by one rotation and count the number of turns rotated by the
driven pulley.
5. Observe the direction of rotations of driver and driven pulleys.

Crossed Belt Drive Configuration: -

1. Now use the same round belt and wrap it around the pulleys on the front ends of the shafts
in a crossed belt drive.
2. Rotate the driver pulley by one rotation and count the number of turns rotated by the
driven pulley.
3. Observe the change in direction of rotation of driven pulley.

Observations: -
For the Flat Belt: -
Diameter of the driver Pulley=D 1=95 mm

Diameter of the driven Pulley=D 2=31.7 mm

No . of Rotations of Driver Pulley=N 1=1

No . of Rotations of Driven Pulley=N 2=3

Ratio of Number of turns: -
N2 3
= =3
N1 1

Ratio of Pulley Diameters: -

D1 95
= =2.996 ≈3
D2 31.7
N 2 D1
=
N 1 D2

Direction of Rotation for Open Belt Drive: -

Observations Driver Pulley Driven Pulley
1 Clockwise Clockwise
2 Counter- Clockwise Counter- Clockwise

Direction of Rotation for Crossed Belt Drive: -

Observations Driver Pulley Driven Pulley
1 Clockwise Counter- Clockwise
2 Counter- Clockwise Clockwise

For the Round Belt: -

Diameter of the driver Pulley=D 3=60 mm

Diameter of the driven Pulley=D 4=60 mm

No . of Rotations of Driver Pulley=N 3=1

No . of Rotations of Driven Pulley=N 4=1

Ratio of Number of turns: -

N4 1
= =1
N3 1

Ratio of Pulley Diameters: -

D3 60
= =1
D4 60
N 4 D3
=
N 3 D4

Direction of Rotation for Open Belt Drive: -

Observations Driver Pulley Driven Pulley
 1 Clockwise Clockwise
2 Counter- Clockwise Counter- Clockwise
Direction of Rotation for Crossed Belt Drive: -
Observations Driver Pulley Driven Pulley
1 Clockwise Counter- Clockwise
2 Counter- Clockwise Clockwise

Results and Discussions: -

Results of the Flat Belt and Round Experiment: -
The Results of the flat belt experiment show that the pulleys on the back ends of the shafts have a
relation between the number of turns and their diameters. When the driver pulley is rotated by a
single turn the number of rotations covered by the driven pulley is 3. It has been found through the
experiment that the ratio of the diameters of the driver pulley to the diameter of the driven pulley
is same as ratio of Number of rotations of the driven pulley to number of rotations of the driver
pulley.
N 2 D1
=
N 1 D2
Similarly for the round Belts the front shaft pulleys were used and the same relation was observed
during the experiment,
N 4 D3
=
N 3 D4
Moreover, we also determined the difference between the open belt drive and the Crossed Belt
Drive for both cases. It was found that: -

 In open Belt drive, the Direction of Rotation of the Driver Pulley and the Driven Pulleys will
be same.
 In Crossed Belt drive, the direction of rotation of driver and driven pulleys are opposite i.e if
the driver pulley moves clockwise the driven pulley will rotate counter-clockwise.

Discussions on Flat Belt Experiment: -

The results of the flat belt experiment show that the diameter ratios and the Number of Rotations/
Turns of the Pulleys are Mathematically related as ,
Number of Rotations of Driven Pulley Diameter of the Driver Pulley
=
Number of Rotations of Driver Pulley Diameter of the Driven Pulley
Which gives us the advantage that we can find the belt drive ratios for our applications. The
experiment was performed accurately but there can be some causes of errors in the Experiment: -
1. If the Belts slip on the pulleys then the mathematical relation between the diameter ratio
and number of rotation ratio will not hold true and the experiment will give inaccurate
results.
2. Make sure that the belts have properly stuck with pulleys surface so that no slippage occurs.
 3. The Pulleys should be marked by a marker before counting the number of turns.

Conclusion: -
The experiment was done to test the Flat belt and Round belts in both Open belt drive and a
crossed belt drive. The results of the experiment concludes that the diameteral ratios and the
rotation ratios of the pulleys are linked and we can successfully use Flat and Round belts to
transmit power between the shafts at our desired angular speed. Also, we can control the rotation
directions of the shafts by either open or crossed belt drive configuration.