Endless metal belt assembly with minimized contact friction
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorWilliam G. Herbert
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An endless metal belt assembly is made with opposing adjacent belt surfaces that may contain a roughened surface containing protuberances, indentations and/or pits and are configured such that a lubricant can be held and circulated between the adjacent surfaces. The roughened surface may be formed by an electroforming process in which one or more components of the electroforming bath and the operating parameters of the electroforming bath are adjusted to create the protuberances, indentations and/or pits. A belt assembly formed in this manner is useful as a driving member for a continuously variable transmission.
Claims26
An endless metal drive belt assembly comprising:
- an endless first metal drive belt having an outer surface;
- an endless second metal drive belt movable relative to and surrounding said first metal drive belt and having an inner surface adjacent to and opposing said outer surface;
- and
- a gap between said adjacent and opposing surfaces defining means for containing lubricant therein;
- wherein the surface geography of at least one of said outer surface and said inner surface as determined by the presence of at least one of (a) a substantially uniformly distrusted plurality of (i) protuberances with a maximum peak to valley distance equal to about 95% of a width of said gap, or (ii) indentations, and (b) pits in the form of through-holes is controlled by variation of parameters of the forming process to retain lubricant between said adjacent and opposing surfaces;
- wherein said at least one of protuberances, indentations and pits is capable of enhancing lubricant circulation between said first and second belts.
An assembly of claim wherein both said inner surface and said outer surface contain pits.
An assembly of claim wherein both said inner surface and said outer surface contain protuberances and pits.
A process of preparing an endless metal drive belt assembly, comprising:
- forming an endless first metal drive belt having an outer surface;
- forming an endless second metal drive belt movable relative to and surrounding said first metal drive belt and having an inner surface adjacent to and opposing said outer surface;
- wherein a gap is formed between said first belt and said second belt defining means for containing lubricant therein;
- and
- wherein at least one of said outer surface and said inner surface comprises at least one of (a) a substantially uniformly distrusted plurality of (i) protuberances with a maximum peak to valley distance equal to about 95% of a width of said gap, or (ii) indentations, and (b) pits in the form of through-holes;
- wherein said at least one of protuberances, indentations and pits is capable of enhancing lubricant circulation between said first and second belts.
A process of preparing an endless metal drive belt assembly by electroforming comprising:
- determining parameters of an electroforming process which will form a surface on an electroformed metal drive belt having a geography which contains at least one of (a) a substantially uniformly distrusted plurality of (i) protuberances with a maximum peak to valley distance equal to about 95% of a width of a predetermined gap for containing lubricant between adjacent belt surfaces of said belt assembly, or (ii) indentations, and (b) pits in the form of through-holes;
- wherein said at least one of protuberances, indentations and pits is capable of enhancing lubricant circulation between said first and second belts;
- and
- electroforming an endless first metal drive belt having an outer surface and an endless second metal drive belt movable relative to and surrounding said first metal drive belt and having an inner surface adjacent to and opposing said outer surface;
- wherein at least one of said surfaces is electroformed in accordance with said parameters.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.