Lateral Running of flat belts: The Angled, Conical Pulley

In this paper, the influence of an angled, conical pulley on the lateral running behaviour of a flat belt within a spatial arrangement of several cylindrical pulleys will be introduced. The steering effect appears unintentionally as a result of inaccuracies (misalignment of pulley axis, varying pulley diameters) but is also used for controlled belt guiding. Outgoing from the general case of an angled, conical pulley, three independent guiding effects will be distinguished: Skewing a cylindrical pulley in the plane of the approaching belt- plane, skewing a cylindrical pulley in the plane of the leaving belt- plane and the influence of a conical pulley shape. Mechanical models for the prediction of the steering effects are presented. Measurements on particular configurations were taken and compared with the results of a simulation model.