[Pat Roche]

This is a little advice for tensioning sprocketed belts. When you tension a belt you only want the belt to be taught. It should be a straight line between belt sprockets when under no load and when you push on it with your hands you want to be able to flex it a little. The amount of flex will be determined by the distance between the two belt sprockets. Over tightening it will cause the belt to stretch much faster and eventually lead to a shortened belt length. An under tightened belt will be tossed from sprockets much like chain would. The last thing is to make sure that the two sprockets the belt is running on are inline and parallel. Belts are perfectly feasible for drive applications but you should get all the information on them before using them in application. A good exercise is to set up a test platform using a motor and some belts and play with different tensions and measuring the displacement of the belts and find your most efficient and longest lasting belt tension to increase efficiency and increase your belt life.

Best of luck,

Pat