Pulleys: Beginners Guide - Design Considerations

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Beginners Guide

3. Design Considerations for Pulleys

The procedure for selecting pulleys for a conveyor for any given application involves the evaluation of a number of
factors pertinent to the installation.
This section of the Handbook outlines the main factors affecting pulley design however, for a more comprehensive
design procedure, consult the pulley design section.
Consideration should be given to the following :a) Application / Environment
The specific application for which the pulley is required should be understood.
A conveyor may require a self-cleaning bend pulley for a tripper or a gravity take-up pulley. Short conveyors are
sometimes designed with crowned pulleys rather than flat pulleys, to assist with training of the belt while long overland
conveyor drive pulleys must be lagged and the drive is a shaft-mounted unit.
Having listed the different pulleys on the project, the designer should consider the environment in which the pulleys are to
operate. Pontoon-mounted drive pulleys found on a dusty ash dump for example, may require special bearings and seals
compared to a pulley on a conveyor in a fertilizer plant where the environment is extremely corrosive and may require a
stainless steel pulley.
The choice of whether or not pulley lagging is required is often dependant of whether the pulley and belt is to operate in a
wet, moist or dry condition. This affects the friction between the belt and pulley which in turn affects the decision to
include lagging or not.
b) Conveyor design
For each conveyor the engineer is required to undertake a complete design. The outputs from this design specify the belt
width, the drive selection, the conveyor profile, the location and arrangement of the pulleys and take-up, the tensions in
the belting and
the belt selection, etc.
As far as the design and selection of pulleys is concerned, the following information is generally required from the
conveyor design and application :Belt
width:

The belt width will dictate the minimum face width of the pulley. The following table
indicates standard belt and pulley face widths.

Belt Width (mm) Pulley Face Width (mm)

450

550

500

600

600

700

750

900

900

1050

1050

1200

1200

1350

1350

1500

1500

1700

1650

1850

1800

2000

2100

2300

2400

2600

Belt
Irrespective of where the pulley is located in a conveyor system, the pulley will have
tensions: to be designed with the belt tensions in mind.
Belt tensions will affect the shell design as well as the shaft design, bearing selection

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and orientation of the tensions relative to the support structure for the bearing
mounts.
Belt tension calculations should include the tensions based on a dynamic analysis of
the conveyor under load. This issue becomes a significant consideration when longer
conveyors are designed.
For examples of the forces applied to pulleys, click on the following thumbnails.

Conveyor
duty:

The selection of bearings includes a calculation to determine the life expectancy of

the bearings. The duty of the conveyor i.e. hours operated per year and load
conveyed will affect the pulley bearing design and life.
In addition to this, the design of the pulley shaft, shell, locking element, etc. requires
an understanding of the duty of the conveyor and hence pulley.

Belt
selection:

The type and class of conveyor belting to be used on a conveyor has a direct
bearing on the diameter of a pulley.
The minimum pulley diameters recommended by belt manufacturers should be
observed in order to prevent over-stressing of the belt.

Angle of The design will specify the angle of wrap of the belt around the drive pulley(s). This
Wrap:
angle of wrap is required to ensure that the full torque can be introduced to the belt
through the drive pulley.
The angle of wrap affects the load seen by the pulley and the resultant force which the
shaft support bearings and plummer blocks must be designed for and the orientation
of the bearing housings.
c) Standardisation
The client may have specified a preferred pulley type and design and the components to be used i.e. pulley shell
dimensions, locking elements, etc. may be specified in order to standardise on the spares holding requirements at the
site, and for interchangeability.
Such information is essential and may affect the design of the new conveyor and its components. In the case of pulleys,
the drive may require two 55 kW drives and pulleys to be installed rather than a single 110 kW drive through one pulley.
The shaft detail may be affected by the type of drive unit and the mounting detail for example, a hollow shaft-mounted
reducer versus a flexible low speed coupling.
d) Specifications
The clients' standard specifications may call for specific design procedures and selection criteria to be applied to pulley
design.
Factors of safety or the allowable deflection in the shaft which the client wishes to prescribe, must be taken into
consideration when designing a pulley.
e) Layout
The particular layout of the conveyor may affect the design of a pulley assembly.
In a case where access is extremely restricted, the discharge chute at the head pulley may require the pulley bearings to
be closer together than the standard width so that the chute can be narrower.
Another example could be the need to install two drive units onto one pulley, rather than a single drive unit mounted
onto one pulley. This may be necessary to standardise on a particular drive size.

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f) Pulley design
The design of the pulley and its components must take into consideration a number of factors listed below :Dimensions:Standard pulley dimensions should be observed wherever possible, in the interests
of standardisation in the industry.
The following chart provides a guideline for the standard pulley dimensions.

Belt width Face width

W
450
500
600
750
900
1050
1200
1350
1500
1650
1800
2100
2400

F
550
600
700
900
1050
1200
1350
1500
1700
1850
2000
2300
2600

Chute plates I/S

A
650
700
800
1000
1150
1300
1450
1600
1850
2000
2150
2450
2750

Bearing centres
Wide
Narrow
B
C
1000
760
1050
810
1150
1020
1350
1170
1550
1370
1700
1520
1850
1680
2050
1830
2300
1980
2450
2130
2600
2280
2900
2580
3200
2880

Clearances for wide centres

See legend below
D
225
225
225
225
250
250
250
275
300
300
300
300
300

E
50
50
50
75
75
75
75
75
100
100
100
100
100

G
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
75
75
75
75
75

Legend:D = Pulley face to centre-line bearing housing.

E = Pulley face to belt edge.
G = Pulley face to inside chute plate.
Accessories:Locking elements, bearings and plummer blocks are off-the-shelf components
manufactured in standard sizes and for certain limitations.
The design of pulleys and shafts must take this into consideration.
Click the following to view some tables of standard equipment for pulleys.
PIC x 3
Drive
friction:

The transmission of torque from the drive unit to the belting through the drive pulley
is a further factor which affects the design of the pulley.
The following table provides the recommended friction factor for pulleys under
different operating conditions :-

PIC
Materials:The materials of manufacture may affect the design of the shaft, hubs, shells and end
plates.

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If an application requires a pulley to manufactured in stainless steel for example, this

may have a bearing on the shell thickness, fabrication technique, reinforcing, etc.
The detailed design of pulleys and their component selection should thus be
undertaken by experienced engineers and equipment suppliers.

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