V Belt Monitoring System (Micro Project Overview)

V Belt Drive Transmission Monitoring System
The aim of the project is to research and develop a robust, economical, marketable, and attractive method to constantly monitor and indicate the state of a V belt transmission system. Funded by Sensdata and Yorkshire Forward as a ‘Micro Project’ and supported by companies such as Corus PLC, Yorkshire Water PLC, Beatson Clark (Glass) PLC and D S Smith (Packaging) the project aims to provide a solution to the age old problem of unwanted belt ‘slip’ with the benefit of saving considerable amounts of energy.

The ‘Micro Project’ Grant for Research and Development is a DTI funded scheme, managed in this region by Yorkshire Forward. It is aimed at helping businesses to carry out research and development work that will lead to technologically innovative products or processes. It is suitable for individuals planning to start up businesses in England and at businesses with fewer than 250 employees already operating in England.

Project Overview
Generally, the power developed by a standard electric motor is transferred to a load, for example, a fan, by connecting the motor to the fan by a V belt, similar to the fan belt arrangement in a car engine. In most cases the efficiency of a newly installed V belt when driving a load arrangement is 98%, which logically indicates that 2% of power transfer i.e., raw energy is wasted, (when the drive motor is running on full load). This is generally due to heat caused by friction in the belt pulley arrangement and bearings of the drive and load. Over time, as the belt, pulleys or bearings wear, the power transfer can reduce considerably with, obviously, an associated increase in energy losses and eventual malfunction of the transmission system.

Currently, the method to determine the dynamic condition of the V belt transmission system is very labour intensive and involves a skilled craftsman monitoring the speed of the drive and load using a stroboscopic tachometer and then computing the differential speed to derive an indication of transmission efficiency on which maintenance is actioned.

The time period between the task of determining the condition of the V Belt system can be monthly, bimonthly or semi annually or even when the drive ceases to function. Generally, because this type of drive system is utilised in non-critical applications the scheduled time period between these tasks can be very lengthy in which time considerable amounts of energy can be wasted. Given that many V belt transmission systems commonly exist in manufacturing industry and other sectors the cumulative energy losses are proposed to be considerable.

The project aims to develop a small, economically cheap, monitoring system dedicated to a single transmission system, which will intelligently evaluate and indicate the state of the system or alternatively, a network of transmission systems connected to some central asset management control system.

There is a need for the work to be carried out in the proposed project since use of the system will:

• Negate the need to schedule maintenance personnel to determine the state of a transmission system.
• Allow specific scheduling of personnel to look at the transmission only when required i.e. when its condition is poor.
• Save time and labour costs, relieving personnel to work on more important jobs and reducing maintenance budgets.
• Increase yield and company profits.
• Significantly and importantly considerably reduce the amount of energy wasted due to the poor state of the transmission system.

The outcomes form the project are anticipated to be:

• A robust system capable of constantly and automatically monitoring and indicating the state of a V belt transmission system.
• An economical ‘to run’ device such that the power consumption of the device is negligible compared with the annual energy losses of the monitored parent system.
• An economical ‘to buy’ device, such that the device and any associated peripheral equipment is less that the cost of half the cost of the annual energy losses of the parent system running at 90% efficiency on full load. That is a pay back time of less than 6 months.
• A physically attractive device, which will promote ease of installation, configuration, use, interpretation and maintenance.
• A device, which is scalable, adaptable and usable in numerous market sectors.
• A device, which is intellectually unique and is world wide patent protected.