Endless metal belt and its maufacturing method and continuously variable transmission

A manufacturing method for an endless metal belt that is provided with a plurality of first and second elements made of metal and fitted to a circular body, wherein the first element has a first thickness, the second element, whose number is approximately equal to the first element, has a second thickness smaller than the first element, and the first and second elements are supported by the circular body so as to stack in a thickness direction of the first and second elements, comprising:

• making a plurality of endless metal belt samples by stacking the first and second elements in the thickness direction according to a plurality of random number sets;
• assembling each of the plurality of endless metal belt samples to the continuously variable transmission and measuring the noise during driving;
• and
• mass-producing endless metal belts based upon a random number used in the stacking of the first and second elements in the endless metal belt with the least amount of noise among the plurality of endless metal belt samples.