Energy Conservation Technique in Induction Motor: To improve the mechanical power and transmission efficiency, proper selection of belt drives and gear drives suitable for particular application is highly essential.
Belt Drives: A well designed belt transmission offers: High efficiency Less noise Less maintenance No need of lubrication
Various energy saving and efficient belt types are:
1) V-belts: Trapezoidal cross-section improves the power transferability. Efficiency is about 90% at the time of installation and may drop by 5% over the time. Loose belts lower the efficiency, so retensioning is required from time to time.
2) Cogged belts: Slots running perpendicular to the length of belt provide reduced bending resistance of the belt. More efficient than V-belts. Longer life. Cooler as compared to V-belts.
3) Synchronous belts: Positive drive or high torque drive belts. Toothed structure with toothed drive sprockets on which they run. Efficiency about 98% is maintained over a wide load range. Less maintenance and retensioning Can operate in wet and oily environment Slip free run Suitable for high torque for which other belts become inefficient due to increased slippage.
Gear Drives: Helical and bevel gear drives are more efficient (90 – 95%), hence mostly preferred. Helical gears are opted for larger loads. Spur gears are avoided in new systems due to their low efficiency. Worm gears are available with greatly reducing ratios but have inconsistent efficiency. However, proves economical upto 15HP. Energy conservation is achieved by using more efficient gears for particular applications.