MISALIGNMENT EQUATION FOR THE VAN-DOORNE METAL PUSHING V-BELT CONTINUOUSLY VARIABLE TRANSMISSION

The existence of belt/pulley misalignment in the Van Doorne metal push ing V-belt continuously variable transmission (CVT) has always been re cognized by researchers and the manufacturers themselves. However, its effect has always been assumed to be negligible and search through th e literature reveals no work published so far to verify this assumptio n. Misalignment of the belt may increase losses and the need to improv e efficiency is now of paramount importance. This paper is an initial effort by the authors to address this area and study the geometrical b ehaviour of the belt misalignment theoretically. An equation to repres ent this geometrical behaviour has been developed and it is able to ca lculate the magnitude and position of the belt misalignment at differe nt speed ratios and at different assembled zero belt misalignment spee d ratios. The condition necessary to minimize the magnitude of the bel t misalignment has been determined. Verification of the equation was o btained by using a solid modeller from a Unigraphics Version 10.4.0 co mputer aided design (CAD) package. It is intended that the findings fr om this study will enable the authors to study further the effect of m isalignment on the efficiency and performance of the transmission.