Self-Failure Diagnosis for Timing Belt Transmission System Using Tension Differential-Type Torque Sensor

Power transmission systems with timing belt are often used in various machines because of their simple mechanism and easy treatment. However, the diagnosis for those transmission system has not fully established. This paper discusses self-failure diagnosis for a timing belt transmission system using tension-differential-type torque sensor (TDT sensor). A tension pulley is usually incorporated into a part of the transmission system, so that the system can maintain a proper tension during operation. Since such a tension pulley receives force directly from the timing belt, it is expected that the diagnosis of the timing belt can be done with much high S/N ratio and thus with high reliability. Based on this idea, the authors designed a TDT sensor available for a timing belt application, and explored a diagnosis algorithm detectable not only for a timing belt with V-crack but also for a timing belt with blinding at a tooth. Through a number of experiments, we verified the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and also found an interesting behavior of the sensor signals which is not expected.