Refreshing the parts

If you’re a regular reader of Know+How, the chances are you’ve been doing your job for a good few years. In fact, you could do it with your eyes closed. What’s worrying is that some people probably do.

After a while doing the same job – installing and maintaining drives, for example – it’s easy to slip from ‘doing it by the book’ to ‘doing it the way I always do’, which might not be quite the same thing. We forget; we take shortcuts; we don’t have the proper tool to hand; we’ve got the Production Manager on our back and we just need to get the job done and done fast. Before we know it, we’re not actually doing it right any more, but we just don’t realise. And that’s when the problems can start.

So if you want to avoid slipping into ?bad habits, poor installation, sloppy maintenance and premature failure, ?you need a bit of refreshment.

If a job’s worth doing
The vast majority of drive failures are a result of incorrect installation, which can arise from, if you like, too much knowledge and experience. After all, when you’ve been doing the job as long as we all have, why do you need to even look at the installation instructions? We don’t need anybody to tell us how to install a drive, do we?

Well, the fact is, we do.

Drives change and develop in their design over time. If we don’t check, our knowledge doesn’t change in line. So we carry on installing the way we always have, which is not the right thing to do. The product may work – but it isn’t installed correctly.


Worse still, if there is a failure and the installation instructions haven’t been followed to the letter, liability falls on the shoulders of the installer, not the supplier ?or manufacturer.

One of the most common installation faults noticed by ERIKS is under-tensioning of friction belt-drives. This could be because ‘I know how much tension should be in the belts by feel’ or because ‘I haven’t got my tension indicator handy, so I’ll just guess’. Either way, the usual result is a belt-drive that’s grossly under-tensioned, which leads to slippage, over-heating of the belt, secondary curing which makes the belt hard, and eventually excess wear on ?the pulley.

When the slippage is noticed, the obvious answer is to change the belt. But if there’s already a groove worn in the pulley, a new belt will only have point contact in the groove and will fail prematurely. Very soon ?a new pulley and a new belt will be required, but if the new set-up isn’t correctly ?installed and tensioned, the whole cycle ?will repeat itself.

One way of making sure you don’t fall into the trap is to keep yourself equipped with an Essential Maintenance Tool Kit from ERIKS. This has the essential items you need to ensure your drives are correctly installed and running at their ?optimum efficiency.

?Fenner Belt Tension Gauge – ? a simple-to-use tool that ensures accurate belt tension every time, for optimum drive performance
? Fenner Belt Efficiency Kit – containing a guide to efficient wedge belt operation; belt tension indicator; pulley groove gauge
? Fenner Drive Alignment Laser – ? projects a laser line onto targets, enabling rapid adjustment to perfect alignment of pulley and sprocket, leading to increased drive efficiency and energy savings
?Fenner Pulley Groove Gauge – ?see Free Offer inset

Another way of maintaining your installation standards and refreshing your know-how is with the extensive information available from ERIKS and our partners.

Visit the ERIKS or Fenner websites and you can order a free copy of the Fenner Drive Design Manual, which will help you to identify, select, install and maintain the right drive for your application, whatever it may be.

So as you can see, there really is no excuse for not refreshing your knowledge and staying right up-to-date with the tools and techniques that will help you to achieve a better service life from your drives, rated power at the rated efficiency, and less downtime. And when you do, that’s the perfect excuse for that other kind of refreshment.

Worn pulleys waste up to 10% of their energy input and lead to premature belt wear and lower belt-efficiency.

Check the condition of your pulley grooves with the Fenner Pulley Groove Gauge, available FREE from ERIKS. Visit www.fptgroup.com and request your free groove gauge by filling in an enquiry form.