pic: Conveyer belt tracking
 

Re: pic: Conveyer belt tracking
 

Two years ago we used rubber belts and just placed a sticky piece of rubber about a cm wide in the center of where we wanted the belts to ride. They would want to center on this piece of rubber.

In this picture you can see the place rubber on the rollers where we have belts prior to removing them.

Re: pic: Conveyer belt tracking
 

If this is flat belt, build up the area under where you want the belt to stay with tape.

Flat belts will track to stay on top of a RAISED area of your roller.

It sounds very counter-intuitive, but try it and it will keep your belts in place.

Re: pic: Conveyer belt tracking
 

Thanks for the ideas folks!!

Re: pic: Conveyer belt tracking
 

We have done this in the past with great success. Electrical tape works well for this purpose.

Re: pic: Conveyer belt tracking
 

I concur, look up information on "crown roller" for the "why" in how it works. For your axles you'll have multiple crowns.

Re: pic: Conveyer belt tracking
 

Any chance the 'crown' method works for timing belts? We're adjusting our approach to one of our designs, and pulley alignment may not be perfect afterwards.

Re: pic: Conveyer belt tracking
 

Crowned Pulleys, make them your friend. My first robot I made I discovered this phenomena by accident, it was a very happy accident.

Re: pic: Conveyer belt tracking
 

Flanged pulleys, for us, have always been adequate in cases of slight mis-alignment.

Re: pic: Conveyer belt tracking
 

The physics works for flat belts on a smooth shaft. Teeth are going to complicate things a little.

Re: pic: Conveyer belt tracking
 

Timing belts usually run in sheaves (V-belt grooves) rather than on crowns. The flanges around the sheaves maintain alignment. Note that sometimes only one pulley will have these flanges, and the others are wide enough to work where the guided one leads. The drive belts on this year's KOP drive are a good example.

Here's a better example showing one flanged pulley and one unflanged pulley.

Re: pic: Conveyer belt tracking