Frequently Asked Questions About DriveN Pulleys
Q. If composites are light weight, won't
pulley wear be accelerated?
A. Absolutely not! At the conclusion
of a 70,000-cycle test, 1 minute on/1 minute off, the Fenner composite pulley had
not lost any mass—zero detectable wear. Test spec: 48" prop fan with 1 Hp 1750 rpm
3 phase motor; AFD 10.4 pulley with both wrapped and raw-edge construction V-belts.
Q. At elevated operating temperatures,
will they warp?
A. Not even at 200°F. We heated test
units for hours at 200°F, and then allowed them to cool down—just the kind of conditions
they'd see on a restaurant vent fan. Both axial and radial runouts remained unchanged
and within specifications.
Q. Will composites become brittle at
cold temperatures?
A. No worries, even at -73°F. An AFD
10.4 was cooled to minus 73°F in a liquid nitrogen test cell and stabilized. Using
a raw-edge cogged V-belt, a tension equivalent to the running torque of a 50 Hp
motor was applied. The composite pulley remained intact with no signs of fracturing
Q. With a glass-reinforced material,
will belts wear more quickly
A. Not a factor with the Driven unit.
Again, using the 48" prop fan test, we evaluated both wrapped and raw edge cogged
belts from two of the leading US manufacturers. During 200 days of cycling 3 minutes
on/1 minute off, belt wear was monitored. Wrapped and raw edge belt wear stabilized
after 40 days at 1.5% and 2.5% respectively; comparable to wear typical with cast
iron pulleys.
Q. How does the metal hub lock into
the plastic?
A. Anti-rotational features in each
end face give you the torsional hold you need. The custom designed sintered metal
hub incorporates round pins in each end face; this combined with the shear strength
of the composite ensures a more than adequate torsional hold to handle starting
and running loads.
Q. What about belt slip in wet applications?
A. Nothing to worry about. On our 48"
test fan, with either water misting or full immersion, no additional belt slip on
start-up was detected. Similar results were obtained for wrapped and raw edge cogged
V-belts as well as for PowerTwist Plus high performance link V-belts.
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