Pneumatic base for facilitating the installation and tensioning of a drive belt
OwnerGilles Laroucheinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A belt tensioner comprises a belt trained on a drive pulley driven by a drive unit mounted on a base supported on an air-spring bellows linearly extendable under fluid pressure from a collapsed position to an extended position to cause joint movement of the base, the drive unit and the drive pulley and thereby change the tension in the belt. A pressure regulator is operatively connected to the air-spring bellows for regulating the fluid pressure in the air-spring bellows such as to maintain the tension substantially constant in the belt during use.
Claims12
A power transmission belt arrangement comprising a power unit mounted on a pneumatic base, the pneumatic base comprising at least one pneumatic actuator and a power unit mounting plate mounted for pivotal movement about a pivot axis, the pneumatic actuator being displaceable between a collapsed position and an extended position to cause pivotal movement of the power unit mounting plate with the power unit fixedly mounted thereon, a drive pulley mounted to a rotating output shaft of said power unit, a belt trained on the drive pulley and extending around a driven pulley for transmitting a torque from said output shaft to said driven pulley, whereby pivotal movement of said power unit mounting plate via actuation of said pneumatic actuator provides for the adjustment of the distance between the drive pulley and the driven pulley and therefore for the adjustment of the tension in the belt.
A belt tensioner comprising a belt trained on a drive pulley driven by a drive unit mounted on a base supported on at least one air-spring bellows linearly extendable under fluid pressure from a collapsed position to an extended position to cause joint movement of the base, the drive unit and the drive pulley and thereby change the tension in the belt;
- and a pressure regulator operatively connected to said at least one air-spring bellows for regulating the fluid pressure in said air-spring bellows such as to maintain the tension, substantially constant in said belt during use.
A method of maintaining a desired tension in a drive belt extending around a drive pulley and at least one driven pulley, the drive pulley being mounted on a rotating shaft of a drive unit;
- the method comprising:
- mounting the drive-unit on a pneumatic base including at least one pneumatic actuator displaceable between a retracted position and an extended position, the movement of the pneumatic actuator varying the distance between the drive pulley and the driven pulley, and setting the pressure of the pneumatic actuator at a fixed value corresponding to the desired tension in the belt, whereby belt tension fluctuations are automatically compensated by a corresponding extension variation of the pneumatic actuator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.