The huge number of V-belts and pulley (sheave) systems in industrial and commercial settings—combined with their historical susceptibility to belt slippage and attendant maintenance requirements—has resulted in incalculable losses due to wasted energy, costly parts replacement, and lost productivity. A solution has long been needed but has proven elusive.
Problems caused by slippage
- Belts and expensive pulleys wear out and must be replaced
- Electricity and fuel are wasted—as much as 20–50 gallons of diesel per day for a single forage harvester
- Engine power is robbed and converted to waste heat, which conducts into the worst possible places, like bearings and gearboxes
- Process speed diminishes near proportionally to the slip rate
- Process power (torque × speed) can degrade at over twice the slip rate
- Productivity suffers because operators can’t use all the horsepower they paid for!