Quote:
Originally Posted by joeweber
What if ?.... you used a 7 in plastic pulley on an 8 inch wheel than installed a .75 pulley on the CIM. This would be a 10 to 1 ratio and You could eliminate the gear box and have a quick robot. How wide should the belt be for this and would it hold up under the stress?
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Joe,
I had noticed this too - that the linear shaft speed of a CIM motor is just about what you want for the linear speed of a wheel's tread (regardless of wheel diameter). I did spend some time on the McMaster-Carr website and other places and found that belts 5mm width and smaller can handle the small diameter pulley you'd need on the motor shaft. To save weight, you could use 6" wheels with ~5" or larger pulleys. You might have to go to custom pulleys, though, if you have the casting or machining capability. As AdamHeard pointed out, though, even going up to a .75" drive pulley gives a really high wheel speed, probably faster than you want.
It looks on the surface like 5mm wide belt might have the strength to do a 1 CIM/1 wheel combination like you suggest for a mecanum drive. I honestly have no experience with what stresses a drive train actually sees during competition, so I don't know what the real strength requirement is.
- Steve