Attribute Schema Library
Attribute schemapower transmission & bearings

V-Belts Attributes

A V-belt is a rubber drive belt with a trapezoidal section that transmits power by wedging into a matching sheave groove. HVAC air handlers, pumps, compressors, ag equipment. Almost entirely replacement business — the buyer is usually standing next to a stopped machine holding the old belt.

The category is hard to catalog for one reason: the belt's most important number, its length, is published three ways and the label rarely says which. ARPM IP-20 designates classical A–E belts by datum length, IP-22 narrow 3V/5V/8V by effective length, IP-23 light-duty 2L–5L by outside length; ISO 4184 publishes datum lengths for the metric SP sections. Legacy trade numbers like A48 came from inside length. Suppliers send whichever their datasheet uses.

The rest follows. Section and construction merge into one string — 5VX is a section plus a raw-edge cogged build. Band count hides inside the part number (2/B59). Minimum sheave diameter and HP ratings live in the drive design manual, not the item record. And the number stamped on the belt in the buyer's hand is often a competitor's brand.

Core

Every SKU needs these. Without them the record is not a product, it is a row.

Belt Section
enum
5VX (also: 3L, 4L, A, B, C, D, AX, BX, 3V, 8V, SPZ, SPA, SPB, SPC)

Sets top width, thickness and the groove it seats in. A classical B will not run correctly in an SPB groove; the sections are not interchangeable.

Industry Number (Belt Trade Size)
identifier
5VX1180

The ARPM size stamped on the belt and the string every maintenance buyer types into search. Brand-independent, so it is the natural cross-reference key.

Length Designation Basis
enum
Effective (Le)

States which of the three lengths the trade number encodes: inside, outside, effective (Le) or datum/pitch (Ld/Lw). Without it the length number is unusable.

Effective / Datum Length
number · in
61.9 in

The dimension drive design actually uses — measured at the belt's pitch line, matching the sheave datum diameter. What center-distance math needs.

Outside Circumference
number · in
62.0 in

What a belt rule reads on a used belt, and the facet McMaster indexes on. Also splits the HS/HTS subheading at 180 cm (4010.32 vs 4010.34).

Top Width
number · in
0.656 in (21/32)

Confirms section against an unmarked belt and drives sheave groove match. B section is nominal 21/32 in; 3V is 3/8 in.

Thickness
number · in
0.406 in (13/32)

Second half of the section identification when the belt markings are worn off, and a check against groove depth on the existing sheave.

Belt Construction
enum
Raw edge, molded cog

Wrapped, raw-edge cogged, or raw-edge plain. Changes HP rating, minimum sheave diameter and whether the belt is safe on a clutching drive.

Number of Bands (Strands)
number
2

Distinguishes a single belt from a joined/banded belt. 2/B59 is one part with two strands under a tie band, not two B59s.

Manufacturer Part Number
identifier
90932059

The orderable key. Distinct from the industry number — Gates 90932059 and 2/B59 are the same belt at different levels of specificity.

Differentiating

What buyers actually compare on. This is where catalogs win or lose the filter.

Tensile Cord Material
enum
Flex-bonded polyester

Polyester is the default; aramid buys shock-load and stretch resistance at a price. Buyers on shredders and crushers filter on it.

Body / Cover Compound
enum
EPDM

EPDM gives wider temperature and ozone range; chloroprene is the oil-service default. Decides whether the belt survives the environment.

Min. Recommended Sheave Datum Diameter
number · in
5.73 in

Hard limit on retrofit. A 3VX runs on 2.2 in pitch diameter where plain 3V wants 2.65 in — the reason to pay for the cog.

Operating Temperature Range
range · °F
-22 °F to +140 °F (-30 °C to +60 °C)

Rules the belt in or out near ovens, dryers and unheated outdoor drives. Ranges genuinely differ by compound, so it cannot be defaulted.

Compliance & identifiers

Standards, regulatory data, and the identifiers channels reject you for missing.

Static Conductive (ARPM/RMA IP-3-3)
boolean
Yes

Required wherever combustible dust or vapour is present. ISO 1813 sets the maximum resistance for antistatic belts in explosive atmospheres.

ARPM Standard Conformance
enum
ARPM IP-22 (narrow multiple V-belts)

Which cross-section and sheave-groove standard the belt is built to. Also tells the buyer which length basis to expect.

GTIN-14 / UPC-A
identifier
00072053301476

Required to list on Amazon Business and to match on customer punchout and receiving scans. No GTIN, no listing.

Country of Origin
identifier
Mexico

Needed on the commercial invoice, on government and Buy American contract lines, and for duty calculation against the HTS subheading.

The fields that aren't in the schema at all

What most v-belts catalogs are missing.

The table above is the schema most catalogs already have. These are the attributes that usually aren't in it — each one surfaced by a signal from the live market rather than by an audit of what's already there. This is what Anglera's Schema Foundry does on a real catalog, in this category.

Competitor signal
+ Length Designation Basis

McMaster filters on Outer Circumference, Grainger on Outside Length, Gates publishes Hi-Power II by effective length. Most distributor records carry one column called Length with no basis stated.

Buyer filters 60 in and gets belts measured three different ways. One ships, the take-up runs out of travel, machine stays down, belt comes back.

Supplier signal
+ Min. Recommended Sheave Datum Diameter

ARPM and manufacturer HP tables flag every pitch diameter below the minimum recommended. The number is printed in the drive design manual; item records rarely have a field to hold it.

Belt gets sold onto an undersized sheave, fails early from cord fatigue, and the warranty claim lands on the distributor, not the mill.

Search signal
+ Interchange / Cross-Reference Numbers

Grainger's own V-belt guide prints an interchange table: Browning Super Gripbelt, Goodyear HY-T, Gates Hi-Power, Dayco Super Blue Ribbon. Search those names on most distributor sites, get zero hits.

The buyer is holding a worn belt with a competitor's brand on it. If that string isn't indexed, they buy from whoever did index it.

Competitor signal
+ Static Conductive

Grainger exposes a Static Conductive facet with an explicit 'Not Static Conductive' value. Most catalogs leave the field off entirely, so blank means unknown rather than no.

Grain, wood dust and coal handling RFQs get filtered at the spec sheet. A conforming belt loses to one that bothered to publish the field.

Marketplace signal
+ Number of Bands (Strands)

Banded belts are catalogued as '2/B59' or '3/5VX1180' — the strand count lives inside the part number string, so it can't be filtered, validated or compared.

A single B59 ships against a 2/B59 line. Half the drive capacity and no field anywhere in the record that would have caught the picker's error.

How Schema Foundry finds these

Messy in, governed out.

The same value, spelled every way power transmission & bearings suppliers spell it. A filter only works once they agree.

Belt Section
5VX5V X5VX CoggedNotched 5V5-VX5VX Raw Edge
5VX

Section and construction get mashed into one string. 5V and 5VX share a groove but not an HP rating or a minimum sheave diameter.

Length Designation Basis
LeEff. LgEffective LengthLwPitch LengthDatum (Ld)
Effective (Le)

ISO 4184 datum length (Ld) equals DIN 7753 pitch length (Lw). ARPM quotes narrow sections in effective length. Same belt, three numbers.

Top Width
21/32 in21/32"0.66 in.65616.7 mm16,7 mm
0.656 in

Fractions, decimals, rounded metric and EU comma separators land in one column. A numeric facet cannot range-sort mixed strings.

Operating Temperature Range
-22°F to 140°F-30°C ... +60°C-30/+60 CMin -22 F / Max 140 F-22 to 194 F
-30 °C to +60 °C (-22 °F to +140 °F)

Suppliers send split Min/Max columns, single strings, and both scales. Ranges truly differ by compound, so a bad convert hides valid stock.

What buyers ask

Every one of these should be answerable from the attributes above. If it isn't, that's a gap.

  • My old belt says B64 — is 64 the inside length or the effective length?
  • Will a BX cogged belt run on the same sheaves as my current B belt?
  • My motor sheave is 2.4 in pitch diameter. Is that below the minimum for a 3V?
  • Is this belt static conductive? It's going on a grain elevator drive.
  • I'm replacing a Browning Super Gripbelt A55 — what's the equivalent here?
  • Is a 2/B59 two belts banded together, or two loose belts in a bag?
  • The drive sits next to an oven and runs hot. Will this compound hold up?
  • Is this the 40° classical B or the metric SPB? They're not the same groove.

What channels require

The same SKU, different mandatory fields per destination.

Distributor faceted catalog / site search
Belt SectionIndustry NumberOutside LengthTop WidthThicknessStatic Conductive
Amazon Business — Industrial & Scientific
GTIN-14 / UPC-ABrandManufacturer Part NumberItem Type KeywordCountry of OriginPackage Quantity
cXML / CIF punchout catalogs (Ariba, Coupa)
UNSPSC class codeUnit of MeasureManufacturer NameManufacturer Part NumberCountry of OriginLead Time

V-Belts data, in practice

Why does the same V-belt have three different lengths?

Inside (Li), outside (La) and effective/datum (Le/Ld) are the same belt measured at different depths in the section. ARPM IP-20 designates classical A–E by datum length; IP-22 designates narrow 3V/5V/8V by effective length; IP-23 designates light-duty 2L–5L by outside length, so 4L620 is a 4L section at 62.0 in outside. ISO 4184 publishes datum lengths for Y/Z/A/B/C/D/E and SPZ/SPA/SPB/SPC, and ISO datum length (Ld) equals DIN 7753 pitch length (Lw). Legacy classical numbering like A48 came from inside length, while the manufacturer now publishes effective length on the same part. A Length column that doesn't say which basis it uses is not usable for selection.

Are cogged and wrapped belts interchangeable?

On the sheave, yes within a section: AX runs in an A groove, BX in a B, 3VX in a 3V. On rating, no. Raw-edge cogged belts carry a higher HP rating per belt and tolerate a smaller sheave — a 3VX runs on 2.2 in pitch diameter where plain 3V wants 2.65 in. They also flex easier and run cooler. The trade-off: the aggressive raw-edge grip makes them a poor choice on clutching drives, where wrapped belts are specified deliberately. So Belt Section alone doesn't answer 'will this work.' Belt Construction and Min. Recommended Sheave Diameter have to be their own fields, not adjectives buried in the description.

What does 'Static Conductive' mean on a V-belt record?

That the belt is built and tested to bleed off static charge instead of accumulating it. ARPM/RMA IP-3-3 is the North American static conductive test method; ISO 1813 specifies the maximum electrical resistance for antistatic belts intended for explosive atmospheres or fire-risk installations, and is what an ATEX conductivity certificate references. Gates Hi-Power II is published as meeting ARPM/RMA IP-3-2 for oil and heat resistance and IP-3-3 for static conductivity. Grainger publishes the field with an explicit 'Not Static Conductive' value — which matters, because on a record with no field at all a specifier can't tell 'not conductive' from 'nobody wrote it down.'

Do multi-groove drives still need matched sets?

Less than they used to. Belts once carried a match number encoding actual length within tolerance, and you selected a set from the same cut. Manufacturing tolerances tightened enough that Gates' V80 matching lets any two same-size belts run together regardless of lot, and Goodyear's Matchmaker line dropped matched sets. Where it still matters is shock-loaded multi-groove drives, where a banded (PowerBand) belt replaces the loose set with strands under a permanent tie band. That makes Number of Bands a real spec rather than a packaging note: 2/B59 is one part, not two B59s, and a catalog that leaves band count inside the part-number string has no field the picker can check.

More power transmission & bearings schemas

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