The development of an electronic system to continually monitor, indicate and control, 'belt slippage' in industrial friction 'V' belt drive transmission systems

Belts have been used for centuries as a mechanism to transfer power from some form of drive system to a variety of load systems. Within industry today, many designs of belts but particularly friction, trapezoidal shaped 'V' belts are used and generally transfer power generated by electrical motors to numerous forms of driven load systems. It is suggested that belt systems, through their simplicity are sadly neglected by maintenance functions and generally are left unattended until high degrees of 'belt slippage' through loss of friction or 'belt breakage' provokes maintenance attention. These circumstances are most often identified through the reduced or loss of manufacturing production or the occurrence of catastrophic circumstances such as fire caused through excessive friction/high belt slippage conditions. Obviously, these situations incur financial losses to companies and in some cases the near loss of the company's main manufacturing plant. Consequently, a satisfactory, viable solution is currently sought by industry to improve on current labour intensive maintenance practices. This paper will present an account of the development of an industrially robust, accurate and repeatable electronic system which continually monitors and indicates the degree of 'slippage' in a 'V' belt drive transmission system and in the circumstance of belt breakage or high belt slippage will enable and control the switching off the drive motor.