When crafting a pulley, you should aim at coming up with a durable, reliable, and cost-effective product. Using not-so-strong materials for your timing belt can cause severe effects on your construction or industrial projects. Two of the most common materials used in making timing belt pulleys are aluminium and plastic. How do you choose between these two materials? Here are some of the features and uses of these two materials to help you make a choice.

Aluminium timing belt pulleys

Aluminum is preferred in various industrial and construction applications for its structural strength. It has the following properties:

• It is a lightweight metal that's easy to handle. When used on pulleys, aluminium reduces the dead weight and energy consumption while increasing load capacity and performance efficiency.
•  Aluminium has high resistance to wear and tear and chemical corrosion. It naturally generates an oxide coating that protects it from corrosion. Though not necessary, painting and anodizing treatment can be utilized to improve its corrosion resistance.
• It is resistant to high temperatures.
• Aluminium is inexpensive and easy to fabricate; therefore, material wastage during manufacture of timing belt pulleys is minimized, and this translates to lower production costs.
• Aluminum has high tensile strength, hence is not easily breakable
• It is recyclable, making it an eco-friendly material to use in industrial and construction applications.

Aluminium metal is ideal for timing belt applications that involve high temperatures due to its resistance. If the timing belt pulley is used in high horsepower drive systems, aluminium is ideal as it has high tensile strength making it ideal for high horsepower drive systems.

Plastic timing belt pulley

Plastic is probably one of the most versatile materials available today. It is no surprise that it has been used in making pulleys. Plastic has various features that make it a suitable material for this particular application. They include the following:

• It is a lightweight material. Plastic is lighter than aluminium hence making it more efficient in reducing inertia and weight and energy consumption and increasing performance efficiency.
• Plastic has a natural resistance to corrosion from chemicals, lubricants, and other chemical corrosives. It is also resistant to oxidation.
• Plastic is inexpensive and easy to obtain, making plastic timing belt pulleys cost-friendly. Also, using recycled plastic can save on the cost of manufacture

The disadvantage of plastic is that it has low tensile strength. It is only suitable for use in low horsepower drive systems. Also, when using plastic timing belt pulleys, temperatures should be controlled as material deflection is possible.

Aluminium and plastic are both sturdy materials for use in timing belt pulleys. However, depending on your application requirements, one material may be ideal. With these features, you can wisely choose the most suitable one for your needs.