Lateral motion of slender endless flat belt in two-roller belt system with in-plane misalignment

Abstract

This study aims to clarify the relationship between the lateral motion of a slender endless flat belt and the parameters of a two-roller belt system, such as misalignment angle, distance between rollers, and roller diameter. A calculation method to predict the lateral motion the aforementioned configuration with in-plane misalignment was proposed based on the results of our previous study on an open-end belt system, which revealed that the lateral belt motion was determined by the relative displacement of the belt between the upstream and downstream rollers in the axial direction of the roller. An experimental setup was employed to investigate the lateral motion of such a system with in-plane misalignment and verify the validity of the method. The results based on the proposed method agreed well with the experimental results of the lateral belt motion. Furthermore, a formulation that could predict the change in the lateral belt motion, referred to as the tracking ratio or skew rate, of the slender endless flat belt in a two-roller belt system with in-plane misalignment based on the calculation method of the lateral belt motion was proposed. The computed tracking ratio based on this formulation agreed well with the experimental results. Our results demonstrated that the tracking ratio was influenced by the misalignment angle, distance between the rollers, and roller diameter.