Customer Overview
A prominent London high-rise commercial tower — over 35 floors of mixed office and retail space — relies on a bank of large centrifugal air handling fans to circulate conditioned air throughout the building. The fan drives run continuously, with V-belt transmissions connecting motors to fan shafts across multiple plant room levels.
The building's facilities management contractor partnered with Orbic Engineering Solutions following repeated belt failures that were disrupting planned maintenance schedules and creating unplanned costs.
The Challenge
The FM contractor's engineering team identified persistent problems with the existing standard V-belt drives serving the main air handling fan bank:
- Belts slipping under peak cooling load conditions, reducing fan performance
- Short service life (6–9 months) causing unplanned replacement callouts
- Belt stretch requiring frequent re-tensioning between maintenance cycles
- Heat build-up and noise from slipping drives in sensitive occupied floors
- High cumulative cost of emergency labour and belt stock
- Incompatible belt sets across multiple fan drives complicating procurement
Inconsistent performance across plant room levels was also creating energy waste, with motors drawing excess current to compensate for transmission slip.
Orbic's Solution
Orbic Engineering Solutions specified and supplied Optibelt RED POWER 3 high-performance wedge belts across the full fan drive installation. RED POWER 3 is Optibelt's premium wrapped wedge belt, built with a rubber-coated fabric cover, low-stretch polyester tension cord and polychloroprene compound — engineered for demanding continuous-duty applications where standard V-belts are unable to maintain consistent performance.
Key Product Features
- Wrapped wedge belt construction with rubber-coated fabric cover for high wear resistance
- Particularly low-stretch polyester tension cord for minimal belt elongation in service
- Up to 50% higher power transmission capacity compared to conventional standard V-belts
- Maintenance-free — no re-tensioning required during belt lifetime when correctly fitted
- Up to 97% transmission efficiency, reducing motor energy draw
- Temperature resistant from -30°C to +100°C, suitable for plant room environments
- S=C Plus set-constant manufacturing: matched sets supplied to tight length tolerances
- Available in SPZ, SPA, SPB and SPC profiles — direct replacement for existing drives
Orbic worked closely with the FM contractor's engineering team to audit each fan drive, confirm correct belt section and length, and supply matched RED POWER 3 sets for all units. The changeover was carried out during a scheduled plant room access window with no pulley modifications or motor repositioning required — a direct replacement fitted using standard tensioning procedures.
As an authorised Optibelt distributor, Orbic provided full technical data sheets, manufacturer warranty support and recommended re-tensioning intervals to embed RED POWER 3 into the site's planned preventative maintenance programme.
Results
- Belt service life extended to 24+ months from 6–9 months previously
- Significant reduction in unplanned callouts and emergency labour costs
- Lower energy consumption across all fan drives
- Improved drive reliability and reduced noise levels on occupied floors
- Reduced total cost of ownership through extended service intervals
- Simplified procurement — standardised belt specification across all fan drives
Why Orbic?
- Authorised Optibelt distributor — access to full technical support and manufacturer warranty
- Full drive audit and belt specification service
- Supply of matched RED POWER 3 sets to tight S=C Plus tolerances
- Technical documentation and PPM integration support
- Reliable local supply with fast response for commercial FM environments