Lets talk about belts...

Over the past few months, we have been testing out a number of different belts on our 13 printers strong print farm.

We print a lot of white parts and over time we have found that black neoprene belts have been rubbing slightly and causing rubber to get into the print. We have tried white PU belts but we found that these stretch and become loose very easily and begin to affect print quality.

Does anyone have an alternative belt material (preferably white) or a high-quality supplier for standard belts?

Thanks!

Regards,
Kevin

I Changed the bearings to Flanged thereby eliminating the rubbing.



Requires two as a replacement for the original, add a washer between the two bearings will allow the belt to lay flat between the flanges.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2018 11:27AM by Roberts_Clif.

All the white polyurethane belts I have ever seen/used have steel cores. They don't stretch any amount that matters. The steel core makes the belt stiffer, so it takes more energy from the motors just to bend it around the pulleys, so it's best used with relatively large diameter pulleys.

I have used cheap, Chinese no-name belts from Folgertech and from $2/ft Gates LL2MR09 and found no differences in performance, except the no-name belts did shed a little rubber dust and I've seen no such dust coming from the Gates belt.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

Stock Drive Products has Tru Motion belts that are some sort of while polymer compound with a fiberglass core (SDP/SI). The fiberglass is stiffer than the kevlar core found on a lot of polyurethane belts, but not as stiff and unwieldly as the steel core belts mentioned by the Dentist.