University of Gonder

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Lecture
for
Design of Machine Elements-II (MEng 4151)
on

CAPTER FOUR

4 Power Drives (Belt and Gear )

By: Andebet T.
 Introduction
• 4.1 Power Drives Machine Elements(Belt):
• Power transmission is the movement of energy from its place of
generation to a location where it is applied to performing useful
work
• We different types machine elements used for power transmission

 Flexible and non flexible power transmission

• Examples of non flexibles are gear, bearing, shaft etc..

• And belts, ropes, chains, and other similar elastic or flexible

machine elements are called flexible machine elements.
 Types of Belts:
– The four principal types of belts with some of their
characteristics

Characteristics of Some Common Belt Types. Figures are Cross Sections

except for the Timing Belt, which is a Side View (ISO Standard)
 Belts Drive Pulleys:
– Crowned pulleys used for Flat belts
– Grooved Pulleys/Sheaves used for Round and
V-belts
– Toothed Wheels/ Sprockets used for Timing
belts
In all cases, the pulley axes must be separated by
certain minimum distance, depending upon the belt
type and sizes.
– Stepped Pulleys used for variable speed
application
• Other Characteristics of Belts

– May be used for long pulley center distances

– Except for timing belt, there is slip of belts over the

pulleys and hence the speeds of belt drives is never
constant.
– In some cases, idler or tension pulleys can be used.

– Flat belts can have an open, a closed, a reversing or

non-reversing geometric configurations as shown by
the next figure.
 Non-reversing
Open type

Reversing Closed type-

not used for timing and
V-belts

Reversing Open type-

not used for timing
and V-belts
Stepped Pulleys for variable speed application
 Open type
Flat belt
Geometries

Closed type
Chain belts
Geometries
Conti…

 Flat belts are quiet, efficient for high speed and can transmit large
amount of power over long center distance.
 Usually, flat belts are purchased by roll and cut and the ends are
joined by fastening kits supplied by manufacturers.
 V-belts are slightly less efficient than flat belts, but a number of V-
belts can be used for improving their efficiency.
 Timing belts do not require initial tensioning and hence they are used
fixed center drives
 Timing belts have no speed restrictions because of the teeth
provision resulting in no-slip condition.
 Belts Materials:
– For flat belt: Leather and rubber-impregnated fabric reinforced
with steel wire or nylon cords to take the tension load.
– For V-belts: fabric and cord, usually cotton, rayon, or nylon,
and impregnated with rubber.
– For timing belts: rubberized fabric and steel wire and have
teeth that fit into grooves cut on the periphery of the sprockets.
• Design of Flat Belts:
Consider an open flat belt to be used as shown by the geometry above.

The contact angles are found to be

The belt length is given by

• Power Transmitted by a Belt
It is thus obvious that the tension on the former side (i.e. tight side) will be greater than the latter side (i.e. slack
side) as shown in Fig.

Work done per second = (T1 – T2) V N-

m/s
and
little consideration will show that torque poweron
exerted transmitted
the driving= pulley
(T1 – T2is) V
(T1W– T2) r1.
Similarly, the torque exerted on the driven pulley is (T1 – T2) r2.
T 1 and T2 = Tensions in the tight side and slack side of the belt
respectively in newton's,
r 1 and r2 = Radii of the driving and driven pulleys respectively in
meters, V= Velocity of the belt in m/s.
Ratio of Driving Tensions for Flat Belt Drive
.
Consider a driven pulley rotating in the clockwise direction as shown in
Fig.
T 1 = Tension in the belt on the tight side,
T2 = Tension in the belt on the slack side, and
θ = Angle of contact in radians
Q # 1 An open belt running. over two pulleys 240 mm and
600 mm diameter connects two parallel shafts 3 m apart.

The power to be transmitted is 4 kW from the smaller pulley

that rotates at 300 rpm. Co-efficient of friction between belts
and pulley is 0.3 and the safe working tension is 10 N per
mm width. Determine:-

a. Minimum width of belt

b.Initial belt tension.

c.Length of belt required.

 . diameter and the other 200 mm
• Q # 2 Two pulleys, one 450 mm
diameter, on parallel shafts 1.95 m apart are connected by a crossed belt.
Find the length of the belt required and the angle of contact between the
belt and each pulley.

i. What power can be transmitted by the belt when the larger pulley
rotates at 200 rev/min, if the maximum permissible tension in the belt is
1 kN, and the coefficient of friction between the belt and pulley is 0.25?

Q # 3 Design a belt drive to transmit 110 kW for a system consisting

of two pulleys of diameters 0.9 m and 1.2 m, centre distance of 3.6 m,
a belt speed 20 m / s, coefficient of friction 0.3, a slip of 1.2% at each
pulley and 5% friction loss at each shaft, 20% over load.
 ..

Thank you !!!