Frequently Asked Questions About DriveN Pulleys

Q. If composites are light weight, won't pulley wear be accelerated?
A. Absolutely not! At the conclusion of a 70,000-cycle test, 1 minute on/1 minute off, the Fenner composite pulley had not lost any mass—zero detectable wear. Test spec: 48" prop fan with 1 Hp 1750 rpm 3 phase motor; AFD 10.4 pulley with both wrapped and raw-edge construction V-belts.

Q. At elevated operating temperatures, will they warp?
A. Not even at 200°F. We heated test units for hours at 200°F, and then allowed them to cool down—just the kind of conditions they'd see on a restaurant vent fan. Both axial and radial runouts remained unchanged and within specifications.

Q. Will composites become brittle at cold temperatures?
A. No worries, even at -73°F. An AFD 10.4 was cooled to minus 73°F in a liquid nitrogen test cell and stabilized. Using a raw-edge cogged V-belt, a tension equivalent to the running torque of a 50 Hp motor was applied. The composite pulley remained intact with no signs of fracturing.

Q. With a glass-reinforced material, will belts wear more quickly?
A. Not a factor with the Driven unit. Again, using the 48" prop fan test, we evaluated both wrapped and raw edge cogged belts from two of the leading US manufacturers. During 200 days of cycling 3 minutes on/1 minute off, belt wear was monitored. Wrapped and raw edge belt wear stabilized after 40 days at 1.5% and 2.5% respectively; comparable to wear typical with cast iron pulleys.

Q. How does the metal hub lock into the plastic?
A. Anti-rotational features in each end face give you the torsional hold you need. The custom designed sintered metal hub incorporates round pins in each end face; this combined with the shear strength of the composite ensures a more than adequate torsional hold to handle starting and running loads.

Q. What about belt slip in wet applications?
A. Nothing to worry about. On our 48" test fan, with either water misting or full immersion, no additional belt slip on start-up was detected. Similar results were obtained for wrapped and raw edge cogged V-belts as well as for PowerTwist Plus high performance link V-belts.

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