Why Banded Belts Just Make Sense
With the advent of banded belts, we no longer have to tolerate belt-driven equipment failures leading to unnecessary downtime.
Pros and Cons of Banded Belts
The banded belt solution has many benefits over the use of multiple single belts. These pros include:
- Avoid belt slippage and damage
- Reduce the heat on the sheave due to less friction
- Extend belt life cycle
- Reduce equipment downtime
- Lower maintenance costs
However, there are some downsides to take into account. The banded belt cons include:
- Not typically a stocked item at most vendors
- Longer lead times to purchase
- Need to adjust spare parts strategy
- Requires more inventory in your storeroom
Conclusion
If you are having a lot of failures with belt-driven equipment, it could very well be due to the multiple single belt configuration problems discussed in this blog. The alternative for improved reliability is to invest in banded belts, as the best way to avoid slippage and associated wear/damage issues. Given the discussion above, it is a solution well worth considering. Allied Reliability can help by assessing your situation and making recommendations to mitigate precision belt maintenance.
About the Author
Mark Kingkade
In his current role with Allied Reliability, Mark is a regional analyst responsible for working closely with clients to provide valuable insights into their maintenance and reliability practices.
Mark has over 30 years of experience working in the maintenance and reliability field holding his CMRP certification since 2008. He has presented on Vibration AnalysisThis Predictive Maintenance technique is widely used to evaluate mechanical rotating equipment to determine if any undesirable changes are present that might give an early indication of imminent failure. Uses transducers to translate a vibration amplitude and frequency into electronic signals to determine the equipment’s actual condition. This may lead to the recommendation of a logical course of maintenance actions to correct the problem before secondary damage or catastrophic failure can occur. Additionally Vibration Analysis can be used for the modeling, prediction, measurement and analysis of structural dynamic response in design and root cause failure analysis. In design, vibration modeling and prediction is used to anticipate and avoid undesirable dynamic response. In root cause failure analysis it is used both to understand undesirable response and as a factor in determining true root cause. several times at notable conferences including those organized by Noria and reliabilityweb.com. He has extensive experience having held various roles on predictive maintenanceThe use of instruments and analysis to determine equipment condition in order to predict failure before it takes place so corrective maintenance can be done in a planned and scheduled fashion. Examples include vibration analysis, oil analysis, thermography, airborne ultrasonic’s, NDT, motor current signature analysis, trending of process parameters, etc. (PDMPredictive Maintenance) teams, as well as expertise as a millwright planner, and a proven track record in industrial machine repair and installation.
Mark is knowledgeable in condition monitoring technologies and program development, with his core competency in vibration analysis as an ISO Cat 3 analyst but has also been involved with other technologies that include oil analysis, thermographyA predicitive maintenance method that detects infrared energy emitted from an object, converts it to temperature, and displays an image of the temperature distribution., ultrasonic testing, motor current analysis, and motion amplification.
Mark also has experience in performing and developing procedures for acceptance testing and current state equipment inspections as well as developing operator careSpecific, detailed activities accomplished by operators to ensure proper asset operation, routinely check asset operating parameters (pressure, temperature, speed, etc), make necessary adjustments, lubricate, and make minor repairs incidental to the production process, and provide early detection of potential problems requiring maintenance support. and basic care inspection procedures and involvement with PMPreventive Maintenance Optimization work. One of his greatest passions is being allowed to mentor others that have an interest in vibration or any of the other PDM technologies.
Connect with Mark on LinkedIn.
