V-Belt Sheave and Groove Gauges

V-belts are cheap, right? That’s what most people in industry think, but a dumpster full of worn-out belts represents a good amount of money. Not only that, but the time required to change belts, along with any downtime, can be significant. Make Belt Drives Efficient Belt drives need four things to make them efficient: Proper…

Read More

Why V-Belt Tension Gauges Matter

An often-overlooked precision maintenance tool is the V-belt tension gauge. Many maintenance technicians believe they can just go by “feeling” for what proper belt tension should be. In our Reliable Precision Maintenance (RPM) course, we often let mechanics tension the belts to what they “feel” is correct.  Then we check the tension with a V-belt…

Read More

Sheave Alignment: Aim Small, Miss Small

A belt driven fan has a laser tool mounted to it to perform a sheave alignment.

A customer recently called saying his Belt Hog Sheave Alignment Tool was out of calibration. He stated that when he placed the Belt Hog lasers in the sheave grooves, they showed a slight amount of misalignment. However, when he rotated the lasers 180 degrees to check, there was a variance of 3mm (0.118”). While this…

Read More

Belt Drive Basics

All over the world belts provide power transmission in transportation, industrial and commercial machines. Belt drives for power transmission are classified as frictional drives. The belt transmits power by contacting the sides of the drive and driven sheaves. Belts are available in several styles: Flat belts, v-belts, Synchronous (timing) belts and Multi-ribbed belts. While belts…

Read More

Maintenance Strategies: Part Four – Proactive Maintenance

Proactive Maintenance includes a number of maintenance strategies, such as Precision Maintenance, Reliability Based Maintenance, Reliability Centered Maintenance, and Root Cause Failure Analysis. The idea is to anticipate and solve problems before they become problems. Reliability Centered maintenance would begin with a study done on a piece of equipment to gain understanding of all its…

Read More

Belt Hogs for Busses?

A creative application for the VibrAlign Belt Hog sheave alignment tool has paid off for New Flyer of America and one of its customers, King County (Seattle, WA) Metro Transit Division Fleet Engineering and Vehicle Maintenance. New Flyer is a major manufacturer of heavy-duty buses in the U.S. and Canada.   The Belt Hog is…

Read More

Sheave Alignment Is the First Step in Making V-Belts Last

VibrAlign recently released an excellent “how-to” video on its You Tube channel.  This video explains not only how to use the VibrAlign Belt Hog laser sheave/pulley alignment tool, but also introduces the 3 concepts of sheave misalignment and how to correct them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmtMGikWApw However proper sheave alignment is only one step in making belts last. …

Read More

V-Belt Alignment of a Variable Pitch Sheave to a Fixed Pitch Sheave

Variable pitch sheaves are used frequently in air handlers.  They allow the design engineer to increase or decrease the speed of the driven machine.  In doing so, they allow for: Changes in amp draw of the motor, to maximize efficiency, Increase or decrease static pressure and air flow. Normally, the design engineer will specify the…

Read More

A New Twist on Belt Alignment?

In our quest to realign America, we’re always on the lookout for intriguing applications. Sometimes they pop up in odd places. My buddy Steve Matthews with PdM Solutions spotted this situation while in the field (literally!). This has to be a maintenance headache–there were plenty of belts laying around. How would you tackle this? We…

Read More