Mechanical Power Transfer???

[FudgyWudgy]

I’m trying to figure out “power transfer” using drive belts, probably serpentine, possibly cogged.

If you have a primary drive belt that comes forward from say a 25Hp motor to power a secondary serpentine belt. The thing I can’t figure out is this. The second belt goes around a line of say five, seven, nine, etc. pulleys, causing each one to counter rotate. Then at either end you would have two idler pulleys completing the circuit or route. The simple thing would be – in say a five shaft configuration; you would simply put a second pulley, drive pulley, on the center of the five individual shafts (shaft number three), right? The problem is – those five shafts that the second belt is on – needs to move (altogether as one continues unit) side to side (linearly) approximately three inches, approximately two hundred forty cycles per minute. It would almost seem like the action of a wigwag that you would see in a standard washing machine. Incase you need it, each of those other shafts represents about .25Hp +/-. And one more thing, their (as a collective whole) rotational speed would be variable, 400 – 1200RPM.

How can I energize that second set of shafts while they are moving back and forth, side to side?

Thank you in advance.

Wes

 

[Jboggs]

Check out "ball spline bearings". They transmit torque while allowing linear motion.

 

[FudgyWudgy]

Thank you Jboggs for your suggestion & your timely effort. Unfortunately I didn't explain myself correctly I think. I'm currently working on trying to put a picture together, let me try this verbal illustration for now though.

Imagine a lawn mower that has its engine at the rear, from that comes forward a primary drive belt to the cutting deck/s. This mower is "goofy" in that it has two decks, one directly in front of the other (not side by side). Each deck has a row of five shafts that penetrate the deck, going from side to side, a pulley on top of each shaft and a cutting blade on the bottom of each shaft. Each shaft is counter rotating because all five of those shafts run off of one serpentine belt. That's two decks with a total of ten shafts, each deck having its own belt for its five shafts. Here's the challenge -

It would be no big deal to power each deck with their five shafts but the problem is that these decks move from side to side at about 240 cycles per minute. As the front deck goes right, the second deck goes left. And they continue to go back and forth linearly for the duration, at that speed. Yes I did say it was one "Goofy" mower.

The way I understand a ball spline to work would allow the pulley to move up and down the shaft at a right angle to the drive belt. Whereas with this scenario the primary drive belt would come forward parallel to the ground and all the other belts would also be parallel to the ground.

I hope that makes more since and thank you again for your help.

Wes

 

[John2025]

Pivot the whole thing in an arc with the drive pulley at the center point?