Somebody once advised to forget dusting because ‘after a year the dust doesn’t get any worse’. But he obviously wasn’t thinking about a quarry. And since proper maintenance of heavy machinery is a lot more involved than a bit of light dusting, you’d be ill-advised to abandon it. But simply by changing to a new kind of belt drive for your machinery, you could actually eliminate the need for maintenance even in the dustiest, dirtiest working environment.
At the moment, if you’re working in a quarrying environment, you are almost certainly using wedge or vee belts for the drives on, for example, your high power compressors, slurry pumps and crushers. (In fact, in any industry where you need to transmit high torque effectively in an adverse environment, you’ll probably be using the same.) This belt design uses friction between the belt itself and the pulley to transmit power, and when first installed can be as much as 95% efficient. However, in a dusty environment particles can quickly build up on the pulleys, where it acts as a lubricant; reducing the friction and causing slip therefore reducing the power being transmitted and the efficiency of the drive – by as much as 5%. That’s when the need for maintenance comes in: involving downtime, incurring costs, and having a negative impact on productivity.
As an alternative, the Conti Synchrochain® synchronous belt is maintenance-free, and provides maximum power transmission and maximum resistance to an adverse environment.
Whilst a vee belt will need inspecting for wear and tension at regular intervals, possibly once a quarter, the Conti Synchrochain will never need checking. Which means over the average 25,000 hour lifetime of a belt, you’ll save several maintenance inspections and associated downtime costs. And better still, it’s more efficient than a vee belt to start with – at approximately 98% – and it stays that way too.
The belt gets its higher performance characteristics and greater efficiency from its CTD profile and a new mix of high tech materials used in its construction. The profile ensures faultless meshing and therefore smooth running at high speeds, and prevents cogging at high torques. The material used to form its mating face is also specially selected to reduce noise, a problem with other synchronous drives.
Importantly for tough environments – from particularly dirty process industries right through to quarries – Conti Synchrochain is very hard-wearing, resistant to moisture, and operates at temperatures from –40°C to +100°C (30°c higher than a standard vee belt). Even aggressive substances such as salt, oil, grease and abrasive solid matter fail to cause noticeable deterioration or affect performance. So there’s no need to inspect the belt, no need to service it regularly, and certainly no need to run a duster over it.
However, the type of belt you use is only part of the story. Too many maintenance schedules cover the belt but completely ignore checking or changing the pulleys. Yet a slipping vee belt will soon wear a groove in the pulley, and any replacement belt will begin at a disadvantage because it will be unable to sit or run correctly on a pulley that’s misshapen due to earlier wear. In that case, a new belt will never run at its optimum efficiency, and will quickly be as inefficient as the belt it replaced. Some maintenance engineers may overcompensate by increasing the belt tension, but this will have a knock-on effect on the shafts – which may flex or bend as a result of the additional tension – and the bearings, which may fail.
So next time you have to replace your drive, why not increase the efficiency even further by changing the pulleys completely: to ones compatible with a synchronous drive belt? Then you can replace your belts with the Conti Synchrochain, save on maintenance costs and downtime, and extend bearing and belt life too.
If you’re not sure that your pulleys need replacing, why not take advantage of the special offer below and request a free Fenner® Pulley groove gauge? This will help you to identify the ideal time to change your pulleys, and to change your belts to Conti Synchrochain at the same time.
Of course not all toothed pulleys are made equal, just as not all synchronous drive belts are equal to Conti Synchrochain. The pulley not only obviously needs the correct tooth profile, but the teeth should also be hardened to help reduce wear. Fenner pulleys – available shortly from ERIKS – are ideally matched to the Conti Synchrochain and also made to the highest standards for increased wear resistance and longer life. Combine this with the less aggressive nature of Conti Synchrochain compared to some higher-priced competitive belts, and you have a longer-lasting, lower maintenance, quieter drive belt solution, which starts life as more efficient and stays that way too.
Which means you can clean up on cost savings: no duster required.
Check your pulley for free
Replacing a belt but leaving a worn pulley in place will do little to restore the efficiency of a drive, and the belt will have a far shorter life than it should. However, it’s quick and easy to tell whether a pulley needs replacing, with the Fenner Pulley groove gauge – available free of charge from ERIKS. Simply contact your local ERIKS service centre for your free gauge.