Timing belt in drive success

[s_forbes]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

We are machining some 24T 5mm gt2 9mm width pulleys currently that we will be using on a prototype. I'll update with results.

We cut 2 test items on our router that felt really nice on the belt by hand, and the full set is being cut on a production cnc so I can only a high quality.

We cut off of the sdp-si CAD.

I will be interested to see how that turns out.

Our belt system was sketchy last year, but sufficient enough to last through a regional and champs with no failures. Lots of lessons learned, primarily that the tension required in the belts necessitates a stiff frame (our fiberglass material is good stuff, but flexes way too much). Especially with a serpentine path and cantilevered idlers.

Interesting to note, we used 5mm pitch GT2 belt profile coupled with HTD sprockets. Not optimal, but functional enough to work well if the rest of the system is designed properly. We did this for cost purposes, the HTD sprockets were given to us as a sponsorship from Gates. Had we used the proper profile for the pulleys the drivetrain may have performed better, but it worked great at competition.

An entertaining video from when we were testing the first iteration of our idler system. We fixed this with a better idler design.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YQk0fjhk-o