Ordering Belts
 

Our team used a conveyor-belt made from drawer liner this year. It worked very well in regard to traction, but we couldn't keep it from coming off. We were using this conveyor belt to lift the balls.

Instead of fussing with it anymore I want to replace it with individual o-ring belts.

The problem is what kind of belt to order? I know nothing about belts and durometers and I'm kind of at a loss of how to go about doing this.

I have the circumference I want, but how do I know how much these different belts stretch?

Here's the belt I'm thinking of ordering:


Will this work? What have other teams used?

[EDIT]I want to use endless belts.[EDIT]

Re: Ordering Belts
 

I know a lot of teams had great success with Orangle Eagle 85 belts from Fenner Drives (http://www.fennerdrives.com/) you can order them from Mcmaster. Most teams I've seen use it with what amount to a customized soldering iron to fuse the belt together, thought fenner's website should give you more information.

Belt Diameter Per Foot
1/8" 59725K702 $0.45
3/16" 59725K703 0.65
1/4" 59725K704 0.81
5/16" 59725K705 1.26
3/8" 59725K706 1.76
1/2" 59725K707 2.96

Re: Ordering Belts
 

We used round urethane belting from McMaster on our robot (5/16" diameter--major overkill). I believe they told us to order 10% shorter than we needed, due to the belts stretching. Do NOT trust this number. It is more like 2-5%.

The process we had to go through to mount the belts on our rollers was incredibly hard, and downright dangerous, due to how little they stretched. We had to put one side on our roller, and then use a set of ratcheting tie down straps to pull the other roller towards it's mount on our subframe, until we could line up the roller with the shaft. There was an incredible amount of tension on the roller while doing this--I don't even want to think about what would have happened if one of the straps gave way before we got the shaft in.

In addition, this caused our ball pickup system to be horribly inefficient. We probably lost 30% or more due to friction.

Re: Ordering Belts
 

Heh, wow. Thanks for the details. I've always wondered how you guys got those on. Yeah, I was looking over those belts quite a bit on 968's and they did seem fairly hard and not stretchy. Kirk said McMaster will fuse them for you at any length. I reckon you probably have to call them to set that up eh?

Re: Ordering Belts
 

One of the teams at IRI (I forget which one) used a special velcro that is made for holding together portable soccer goals. it was very strong and a relaible way of moving the balls up into the robot.