Tension decay on conventional v-belts means downtime, as re-tensioning is inevitable, and future repairs and replacements are highly probable.
When operation managers account for the time, labour, and material for v-belt maintenance over the course of a year, the costs can add up quickly.
With product demand steadily rising around the world across every industry, manufacturers are looking for better, faster, stronger solutions that can withstand the rigours of continuous productivity– and traditional v-belting solutions and materials just do not make the cut anymore.
In an effort to innovate and revolutionise v-belt technology for the current age, the drive solutions experts at Gates® have developed the Quad-Power™ 4 v-belts range of high-performance, long-life, service-free, belting solutions.
That’s right – imagine a v-belt drive solution that is entirely service-free.
A high temperature raw-edge, notched, and narrow section v-belt
Need to reduce downtime and maintenance costs? Quad-Power 4 v-belts are the answer.
The Gates Quad-Power 4 next generation v-belts have been designed to maintain stable tensioning over their entire lifetime, eliminating the need for re-tensioning and undue maintenance.
As the national product manager for Belts at Motion Australia, Rob Michelson says that this line of high-performance belting solutions has proven an excellent addition to their broad range of belting solutions, due to Motion Australia’s increased capacity and long-life attributes.
“The Quad-Power 4 belts are ideal for high heat applications with pulleys that are two small for standard v-belts,” says Michelson.
“Their ability to save space with a compact design and service-free maintenance requirements allow operations to increase efficiency by up to three per cent– making them a true high-performance belting solution.”
In early 2021, Michelson connected with his colleague Brian Crouch, the account manager at CBC Geelong who had identified a problem at a local natural gas processing and storage company. The site was experiencing standard v-belt failures on their Triethylene Glycol (TEG) Dehydration unit pumps.
TEG pumps play an important role in removing water vapours from natural gas streams to prevent corrosion of the pipelines.
With the help of Gates technology, Michelson and Crouch ran the existing belt drive parameters through the Gates Design Flex® Pro™ Software – a handy free drive design tool – and it became obvious that the legacy drive was undersized, resulting in premature failure of the v-belt and pulleying arrangement.
After working through some dimensional challenges, Michelson and Crouch recommended replacing the existing belts with the Gates Quad-Power 4 v-belts to better accommodate the pulleying arrangement and shaft size.
The customer agreed to the upgrade and switched out the belts on all their TEG unit pumps. Since that time, they have been running smoothly and the customer is extremely happy with the results.
As a strategic supplier to Motion Australia, Gates enjoys a mutually beneficial relationship, working toward the common goal of providing high performance, efficient belting solutions to Australian industry, according to Michelson.
“With the Quad-Power 4 v-belts, Gates has championed versatile high-performance belt technology that is compact and service-free. It’s a great opportunity for us at Motion Australia to continue to help customers optimise their equipment and maximise their productivity,” concludes Michelson.
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