[Knufire]

Originally Posted by Cothron Theiss

While the GT2/GT3 profile is superior to HTD in almost every way, including service life, backlash, vibration, and load-carrying capacity, HTD belts respond slightly better to reversing shock loads. GT2/GT3 are much better suited for most industrial uses, but reversing shock loads are so common in FRC, what's best for industry isn't the same as what's best for us. The people at AndyMark and Vex knew this and made the informed decision to sell HTD pulleys and belts instead of GT2/GT3 after discussing it with people from Gates and other industry vets.





Just to add on to what Eli is saying about Gates' stated torque ratings not always being applicable to FRC purposes, remember that all of those values are rounded averages of many tests.

On the sourcing belt front, you have to remember that the GT2 and GT3 profiles are still patented by Gates, whereas the patent on HTD ran out so there's many, many more suppliers of HTD.

On load ratings on the design manual, those also might be based on fatigue and not instantaneous loading.