Urethane vs. Neoprene Belts

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by gingersalad

Hi guys! Rookie-ish member here. I've been working on a swerve drive for offseason, and I'm going to use belts instead of chain to reduce weight.

I saw McMaster had two types of belts: urethane and neoprene. According to the description, neoprene is more flexible than urethane. Does this affect performance in any way? What has your team's experience been? What would you recommend?

Thanks lots!

Do you have any specific part numbers you are looking at? This will help to get a discussion going...

-Brando

[JesseK]

Part #'s would definitely help. For example, the little 1/4" round urethane belts offered by McMaster will either have too much slip or cause too much torque loss as the belts round the pullies due to tightening to remove the slip.

[gingersalad]

I read a post regarding types of belts in drives, and I was considering using 3/8" 0.2 pitch for both steering and driving the modules.

Types of belts thread: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ght=belt+pitch

Hmm, for part numbers... how about comparing 1679K19 (urethane) and 6484K219 (neoprene)? They're both 3/8" 0.2 pitch, single sided with trapezoidal teeth, and have an outer circle of 9".