End-to-end power transmission requirements for various types of applications in industries such as agriculture, sugar, cement, coal and minerals processing, are readily available from a single-source supplier.

A range of conveyor chains, belt drives, wedge belts, standard and specialist couplings, locking elements and rapidly detachable bushes, combined with specialist services, are available from bearings-specialist company SKF.

The company’s conveyor chain is suited to conveying or lifting a load at relatively low speeds. Belt drives are recommended for applications where the speed limit of chain drives is exceeded or if the cost of running chains becomes exorbitant. The company explains that belt drives need higher speeds to generate the friction required to drive a system. The company’s belt drive range consists of friction, including vee, poly wee and wedge, as well as toothed belt drives and are particularly suited to the packaging and automation sectors, where high accuracy with low torque is required.

In addition, the company offers an XP range of wedge belts that have a 30% to 40% higher power rating compared to standards wedge belts. These belts are suited to space-constrained applications where the same torque with less slippage is required via a smaller belt profile.

The company’s power transmission division offers both standard as well as specialist couplings. Standard shaft-to-shaft coupling types include grid, gear, disc, rigid, chain, FRC, jaw couplings as well as universal joints. It also provides a range of gear couplings, up to size 160 and above on special request, which correlates to a shaft size of around 500 mm.

The steel disc coupling is designed for medium to high torque and reduced maintenance. It offers high speed, high temperature and high running accuracy.

The company offers specialised couplings that can be customised to suit brake discs, drums or modified units that include shear pin torque protection. The materials and heat treatment processes can be customised to suit specific applications.  

The company’s range of locking elements include self-centering, non-self-centering and products with high torque ratings, mostly used on conveyors to link head and tail pulley drums to drive shafts.

The power transmission range also includes rapidly detachable bushes. Similar to a taper lock, the units are suited to applications with shaft diameters that are relatively large in relation to the hub diameters. The bushes are installed by means of a key in the shaft and are tapered into the corresponding hub or pulley.

The company’s range of power transmission products is supported by its supply chain and specialist services and it aims to reduce total cost of ownership for its customers.