When the sheaves on your belt drive are properly aligned, they perform much better. There is no loss of energy or efficiency. Components work better and last longer. The chance of the belt or even the drive components being damaged is greatly reduced.
Misalignment can cause the belts to have sidewall stresses and uneven tensile member shock loads. In the end, the belts have either tensile member failure because of sidewall cracking, or they roll over inside the sheaves. Misalignment comes from non-parallel shafts, offset pulleys on the shafts or pulleys that have an angular skew at installation.
It doesn’t matter whether you are using power transmission belts that are synchronous belts, V-belts, flat belts – whatever. They all need to be aligned. So do chain drives, and the Goodyear Laser Alignment Tool works with these, as well. The problem, up until now, has been how to do it.
Measuring with a string and a straight edge can be cumbersome and inconvenient since it often requires two people. In addition, you need a straight edge that is roughly the same length as the center distance of your drive. And how do you guarantee the “straightness” of a straight edge?
Other alignment tools have numerous small parts which can easily be lost or applied incorrectly.
Goodyear has a better answer. Their new Laser Alignment Tool quickly aligns drive components, helping to improve efficiency and reduce costly maintenance. It is fast and convenient.
The laser source attaches to the sheaves magnetically. It only takes a few seconds to deliver a highly visible sight line. When the laser beam is shined at the magentically