A fan pulley is a grooved wheel that transfers power from an engine to a fan, which moves air to cool the engine. Proper belt tension is important for high-speed pulleys. Fans and pulleys have been used for centuries, with humans as the original motors.
A fan pulley is, as the name suggests, a pulley attached to a fan. The pulley is a metal or hard plastic wheel with a grooved outer edge. The groove is usually V-shaped and is constructed to fit a belt that fits into it. As the belt moves, it spins the pulley, which spins a hub and spins the attached fan blades.
The job of the fan is to move the air. It has two or more long flat blades attached at one end to a central hub. As the hub spins, the blades spin too, and because the blades are angled slightly, they grab the air and push it behind them. Fans can be mounted directly onto a motor shaft, but this is not always convenient. A fan pulley is used when the engine is some distance away from the impeller and power from the engine needs to be transferred to the impeller to make it spin.
Fans and fan pulleys are a vital component of many automobile engines, producing a surplus of heat. This heat must be removed to prevent the engine from overheating and burning its lubricating oil. The water is circulated through the engine’s interior and pumped into a radiator, which absorbs the heat from the water. A fan, often driven by a pulley, is mounted near the radiator. The fan draws air through the radiator so that the air can absorb heat, which it then carries away.
In high speed fan pulleys, such as in automobiles, it is imperative that there is a good fit between the drive belt and the fan pulley. A wheel is placed against the belt to maintain proper tension between the belt and pulley to prevent the belt from slipping. As the sides of the groove in the fan pulley wear, the belt will ride all the way across the bottom of the groove, causing the fan to stop.
Fans and fan pulleys predate the industrial age. In hot climates, fans were used to cool people and humans were the motors used to turn them. In some cases, a slave or servant operated an arm lever or foot pedal, and fans were mounted overhead, where a series of pulleys transmitted power via ropes.
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