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Drive Components: Belts & Pulleys or Chains & Sprockets

Drive Components: Belts & Pulleys or Chains & Sprockets

 

I would like the ability to create Pulley belt system:

  • V-Belt (Multiple or single groove pulleys)
  • Timing Belts
  • Flat Belts

 

 

 or Chains/Sprockets:

  • Roller Chain and Sprockets
  • Conveyor Chains (electrical conduit)

 

This feature would allow me to create and animate mechanisms with realistic movement. See the below discussion for reference.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/design-validate-document/belt-assembly/m-p/5954647#M40724

 

 

34 Comments
michallach81
Advisor

Maybe something like "follow path" joint, will do? I was trying to "move" most simple examples using contact sets, but first it's a lot of calculations (even when I've made chain with zero clearance), second there still something missing in how contact sets works, there is a problem to freely rotate component. I've made a gear and I've wrapped a chain around (zero clearance), and I was able to rotate the gear for about 4 degrees, where if rotation would be equal to move it should spin without a problem.
Why I'm saying this? If we want to move chain with gears it will require to change how contact sets work, and even with that done, whole simulation will need a lot of computing. This is a reason why I think "follow path" should work, without forcing our computers.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Belts and pulleys are keys in modern development of 3D printers and in open source projects like http://openbuilds.org/

 

Support for GT2 belts are essential - thats what most 3D pritners are build on.

Anonymous
Not applicable

It would be so nice that the software of Fusion permits,

wich could rotate the belt on the pulley.

 

Sincerly Frank

O.Tan
Advisor

Also support for multiple pulley, idlers with a single belt. I've seen too many CAD softwares that has a restriction on this.

 

 

Anonymous
Not applicable

I hope to get more mechanical engineering stuff from Inventor to Fusion.

 

An advanced belt generator like in Inventor would be a very useful feature for Fusion 360!

The user should also have the opportunity to add belts which are not in the database by an excel definition. So import belts with own specifications from a .xml file.

 

riemen-generator.png

Tags (2)
tkuechle
Enthusiast

Why just excel? there are other simple spreadshet apps out there that are affordably priced or free, that can export standard file types too.

Anonymous
Not applicable

You are right a .csv file or similar should be also making the job.

promm
Alumni
Status changed to: Future Consideration

Thank you for this good idea, due to resources and other architectural dependencies it will be a while before we can work on this.  Once work is started the idea will be changed to accepted.

 

Tracking using FUS-24729

 

Regards,

 

Mike Prom

Muzzerboy
Advocate

When will you implement the belt / chain mate? This doesn't simply help you to make fancy animations of timing pulleys and chains, it also has a serious practical purpose.

 

If you want to position 2 or more timing pulleys or chain sprockets, you need to run a standard length belt or chain around them so you know the correct amount of slop to take up with the adjuster / jockey pulley. Solidworks does this rather nicely:

 

I appreciate that this is a fairly complex feature but you will probably need to think about how you will implement it in the longer term. In the meantime, I will either revert to Solidworks or possibly one of those pulley centre calculators. But the latter are not very accurate.

Tags (4)
Muzzerboy
Advocate

That's funny. The moderators must have changed the title. I thought I'd carefully named it "Implement belt and chain joints". I think a lot of the meaning has been lost. 

 

I suspect that most F360 users (including myself) would struggle with the concept of implementing both joints and mates?

Anonymous
Not applicable
Tnx for the reply
Frank
O.Tan
Advisor

@Muzzerboy, there isn't mates in Fusion and I don't think the devs even have mates in mind when creating joints and rigid groups.

 

My guess is, when there's chain & belt joints, the implementation will be vastly different from the traditional mating process and should be much faster and easier to be used.

Anonymous
Not applicable

+1

 

eda73194
Community Visitor

+1 I've been working on designing a 3D printer in F360 and got stuck because of this, I'm currently learning SolidWorks to handle this but I would rather Fusion implement this natively.

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hi There, Fusion is still not ready i suppose, to let a toothed belt
working on a toothed pulley, in my 3D printer design i just took de
proper distance from the belts and cut it to get the proper tension on
the Nema motors and pulleys
so in that case the motion simulation is still an issue
greets
Frank
tkuechle
Enthusiast
Maybe, there should be a special mate for chains. I think that Chains are by definition linked, you know as in "links in a chain"?
So, maybe we should call it a “chain-mate”? or "chain and gear” because maybe it could extend to gears and gear ratios too?

Anonymous
Not applicable
I would try it, and if it works let me know,
Currently I'm not working on chains and belts in Fusion
I think it will work well with Inventor
greetings
e9_vito
Contributor
This feature is a must!
Anonymous
Not applicable

 The first feature would at least calculate the length of the chain needed between two sprockets. Since a chain has to be some multiple of links (ok, you can have a half link joiner too) knowing that in the design phase is nice.

 

The next feature would be knowing how much flex would be in a chain path. For a given chain and pair of sprockets, the combination of links will have some degree of excess unless the axle spacing was 'perfect'. If the slop of the chain goes past some point, you then add a chain tension device to the system so the chain can't jump off.

 

 

A trickier part for simulation would be giving some range of stretch to the chain after that initial length. Again the goal would be knowing if some sort of adjustment is needed and how much adjustment would be needed.

 

-ken c

Zeeflyboy
Explorer

This is a must have feature - bonus points for common standard belt profiles (eg HTD3/5/8, GT2 etc)

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