How to avoid a major cause of energy loss in a plant

Most belt drives are energy guzzlers. In fact, belt slippage is a major cause of wasted energy in belt drives, resulting in the loss of up to 15 per cent of electrical energy. However, there is a solution to this costly problem, and Rosta can help.

The challenge

All V-belt drives are subjected to continuous elongation, which generates slippage on the power transmission between motor and driven gear. Most belt drives waste at least five per cent of energy from the inefficient torque transmission of loose belts. Periodic retensioning of the belt sets is one way to avoid energy-consuming slippage. But, for a 50-horsepower motor, for example, this takes at least one man-hour, five to six times per year. That’s an hour where that machine isn’t running, which also impacts all of the downstream machinery in the production process.

The solution

The spring-loaded Rosta motorbase automatically compensates belt slack, avoids excessive belt slippage and, as a result, saves on energy and regular maintenance — only once or twice a year. And if a belt change is required, it takes just minutes because realignment of the pulley parallelism is not required. 

The result is that Rosta’s motorbase lasts up to three times longer than belt sets exposed to continuous heat-generating slippage.

The selection

Rosta’s motorbase is available in various styles. Its Type MB 50 motorbase, for example, is the most universal self-tensioning base for friction belt drives with 7.5- to 45-kW electric motors. Its Type MB 100, on the other hand, is a self-adjusting universal motorbase for friction belt drives with drive power in the 90- to 250-kW range. Type MB 27 is ideal for smaller belt drives with electric motors from 0.75 to four kW, while Type MB 38 is more suited for the three- to 18.5-kW range, and Type MB 70 is for heavy-duty belt drives with electric motors from 37 to 110 kW.

Rosta has been supplying various industries in Canada with rubber suspension elements and special machine components since 1988. To learn more about how its motorbases can save money on the plant floor, contact Rosta.

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