Coupled Drives Apparatus

•    Coupled Drives apparatus shows the problems of controlling speed and tension in coupled drives.
•    A manual control allows the user to adjust the spring tension at the swinging arm.
•    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.
•    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.
•    Many applications use coupled drives, for example: magnetic tape drives, textile machines and paper mills.