Composite Belt Structure for Low Bending Stiffness and Torque Transfer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automobile power transmission belts require significant energy to turn, leading to increased fuel consumption and emissions, and improving energy efficiency while maintaining durability and performance is a challenge due to competing impacts of material and thickness adjustments.
Innovation Solution
A high efficiency belt design featuring a backing layer, rib material layer, and embedded cords with aligned reinforcement materials, manufactured through a process involving mixing, calendering, bannering, and curing, which achieves a balance of reduced bending stiffness and increased coefficient of friction, resulting in lower energy requirements for operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If belt thickness is reduced to lower bending stiffness and make the belt easier to turn, then energy consumption is reduced, but the coefficient of friction decreases and torque transfer capability is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs composite materials consisting of rubber matrix combined with specifically oriented reinforcement cords (芳纶, 聚酯, or 尼龙). This composite structure enables the belt to achieve both reduced bending stiffness for easier turning and maintained torque transfer capability through the synergistic combination of flexible rubber and high-strength reinforcement elements arranged in specific patterns.
Solution Approach 2:
The reinforcement materials are strategically positioned in specific zones within the belt structure, with different orientations and densities in different regions. The cords are arranged to provide enhanced strength where torque transfer is critical while allowing flexibility in regions where bending is required, creating local variations in mechanical properties that resolve the contradiction between stiffness and friction.
2Use of energy by moving object
If belt thickness is reduced to lower bending stiffness, then the belt is easier to turn, but durability is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The combination of rubber matrix with high-strength reinforcement cords creates a composite structure where the rubber provides flexibility and shock absorption while the reinforcement cords provide tensile strength and durability. This composite approach allows the belt to be thinner and more flexible without sacrificing the durability that would normally require greater thickness.
Solution Approach 2:
The belt is segmented into distinct functional layers and zones with different material compositions and reinforcement patterns. This segmentation allows different regions to specialize in different functions - some areas optimized for flexibility and bending, others for strength and durability - enabling the overall belt to be thinner while maintaining reliability through distributed functional specialization.
Data Source
AI summary
A high efficiency belt having reduced bending stiffness while maintaining a high coefficient of friction. The belt includes a backing layer, a rib material layer, and cords embedded within, wherein the coefficient of friction of the high efficiency belt is greater than or equal to 0.03 mm/N times the bending stiffness for belts having a thickness in the range of from 2.6 mm to 4.2 mm. The belt can include a bending stiffness in the range of from about 30 N/mm to about 65 N/mm and an anisotropic modulus of elasticity ratio of between 1.1 and 5.0. Methods of manufacturing the high efficiency belt are also described and can include forming sheets of rib material with parallel aligned reinforcement fibers transverse to the direction of rotation of the high efficiency belt.