COUPLED DRIVES APPARATUS

COUPLED DRIVES APPARATUS

The CE108 Coupled Drives apparatus shows the problems of controlling speed and tension in coupled drives. Many applications use coupled drives, for example: magnetic tape drives, textile machines and paper mills.

The apparatus has two electric motors, coupled by a continuous flexible belt. The belt also passes over a swinging arm with a ‘jockey wheel’ that measures the belt speed and tension. A manual control allows the user to adjust the spring tension at the swinging arm.

The basic control problem is to vary the torque in the motors to regulate the belt speed and tension. The user guide also shows techniques for speed and tension control, simultaneous control of velocity and tension, and analysis of multi-variable control systems.