How Often Should You Change an Industrial V Belt

This article gives you an insight on how often you should change an Industrial v belt.

A machine that uses multiple belts is, by definition, a complex piece of machinery. It is trying to balance different tensions, forces and vibrations which impact different parts of the system. V belts stretch and slip over time. If belts wear unevenly, or one wears out a long time before others, it may be because the tension needs to be adjusted. The other belts in the machinery may be unevenly worn or just about ready to snap too. Some equipment has multiple V belts. So when one of them becomes worn or breaks, it’s understandably tempting to replace just that one. But it’s important to replace all of them at once.

So if one V belt is worn or breaks, it may mean that it was simply slightly weaker than the others, or that the system itself is out of balance. In either case, one new belt can "unbalance" a well-worn, functioning system.

This is why you should change all of the V belts from manufacturers at once. Replace them with the best quality belts you can afford. After running your equipment with the new belts in place for a day or two, re-check the tension and adjust it if necessary. Check the equipment again in a week or so to make sure everything is running smoothly and under the correct tension.

Some V belts can last years. If you can’t remember the last time you changed all of the V belts in your system and one breaks, it’s probably safe to say that it’s time to change them all.

Plant managers’ to-do lists can get long pretty quickly, and making sure V-belts on electric motors are properly installed and maintained might tend to slip a few notches down the list. But that would be a mistake. Improperly maintained V-belts wear out faster and make motors work harder to produce the same power output, therefore wasting energy.

If you keep the innumerable V-belts in your plant working efficiently, it can pay big dividends—in the form of lower power usage, longer belt life and improved machine uptime.

The Replacements

When replacing industrial V-belts, maintenance professionals must verify that the replacements are the correct size. The belt should ride in the groove with its top flat surface level with the outer edge of the sheave. Belts should always be installed in matched sets, and never install belts from different manufacturers on the same motor. Otherwise, the belts may have different stretch characteristics and coefficients of friction and may not have the same load-carrying ability. Overloading will cause rapid wear and reduced belt life.

Sheave wear is also a crucial issue. Misalignment and improper belt tensioning can cause sheaves to wear prematurely, and when that happens, a formerly flat groove sidewall can take on a concave shape and the surface that interacts with the belt can be damaged. Eroded sheave sidewalls can reduce V-belt drive efficiency up to 12 percent, and operating sheaves with rough, worn sidewalls can cut V-belt life by as much as 50 percent.

Sheave gauges are available to assess the condition of the sheave wall. There are also laser alignment tools to ensure proper alignment of parallel and angular sheaves.

Industrial V belts are used for a variety of purposes in various industries. One should purchase V belts from famous manufacturers to get good quality at competitive prices.

If you are looking for industrial V belts, you should purchase from famous V belt manufacturers in India like Polydrive.in to select from a wide array of belts, including V belts, cog belts and more. They are one of the leading V Belt manufacturers in India.