Belts require you to do your homework ahead of time, but definitely have some advantages over roller chain. We typically use belts in various mechanisms on our robots; this year we used 5mm HTD pitch belts in our roller claw.
These belts only appear loose as the other side plate for our roller claw has been removed for the photo; with the second side plate installed we never had any problems (nor any need for a tensioner) with the belts. The smaller sprockets were machined from aluminum timing belt stock, and the larger ones are hybrid aluminum hub/polycarbonate body sprockets; both of these we purchased from SDP/SI. The belts are from Gates.
They just kind of sit there chilling, like "Hey I'm a trailer, where's my robot?" - artdutra04 [more] 
23-05-2011, 02:39
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