Machines work by force and motions. They work with gear in them. These gears don’t work single handily. They want other gears to collaborate with them. Well, machines don’t work on single gears. They work on multiple gears. In actuality, machines need to transfer force and work different mechanisms. Well, for gears to work on different mechanisms and so, the machine to work properly, they need belts. By belts, I mean rubber belts.
What is V-Belt?
V-Belts are rubber belts that are applied on wheels and gears to support other wheels and gears. Well, they are made of rubber to hold the wheels properly. The main work of these belts is to provide mechanical supports. Well, they make the gears work as pulleys. Pulleys are used in mechanical systems to decrease the tension or the force on a particular point. So that, even a single small part of a machine can make a bigger part work on its own. The part that makes V-belts different from other types of rubber belts is its shape. As the name suggests, a V-belt is V-shaped and helps a lot when it comes to transmission of force and tension as compared to other types of belts.
More about V-Belts
There are different types of V-Belts. Well, one the basis of size, V-Belts are divided into five types, type A, type B, type C, type D, and type E. All these types differ in sizes and hence, are used for different purposes.
Advantages of V-Belts
There are many advantages as to why the V-Belts are used in machines. Some of these advantages are mentioned below.
- They help in transmitting higher torque with lesser width and lesser tension as compared to other types of belts.
- Because of the size of these types of belts, they can even be used in an area where there is less arc of contact for the belt and the machine part.
- They can operate at speeds ranging from 5 m/sec to about 30 m/sec.
Disadvantages of V-Belt
There are also some of the disadvantages of using a V-Belt. Apart from being great in an application, due to the shape of V-belts that is V-shape causes a wedging effect. This effect results in a 3% loss of overall efficiency of the working of the machine. Apart from this, V-belts also don’t work properly at heavy loads and tend to slip more. They often get damaged during slipping.
Final Verdict
Well, apart from being a little disadvantageous, V-belts are used widely in the machine industry. They are used to drive a gearbox connected to a motor, are used in Lathe machines, and many more. For more about it, ver correas trapeciales.
