Patent ID: 7169072

Claim:
A composite driving belt provided with a carrier and a plurality of transverse elements assembled slidably thereon, the carrier comprising one or more bands disposed radially around each other, each element being provided with a radially outward directed carrier contact plane for contacting a radial inner contact plane of said carrier while in operation, wherein, the carrier contact plane of the element, as seen in side elevation, is provided over a major part of a width of the element and is provided with a convex curvature for contacting the carrier inner contact plane, the convex curvature defined by at least substantially corresponding to the shape of a non-circular half ellipse, the corresponding ellipse being defined by the mathematical formula for an ellipse in which the ellipse's largest width corresponds to the width of the element and the local radius of curvature at the ellipse's largest height is smaller than the smallest radius of the curvature of the belt, the belt is constructed for operation in a lubricated environment with a lubricating medium collected between the carrier contact plane and the carrier during operation in all drive ratios of the belt, wherein, i) the carrier contact face of an element is shaped such that the contact between an element and the carrier, under all operating conditions in each drive ratio of the belt, defines a wedge shaped space between the carrier contact face of the element and the contact face of the carrier, and ii) said elliptical shape of the carrier contact plane defines the wedge shape to collect a lubricating medium between the carrier contact plane of the element and the carrier during operation in all drive ratios of the belt to provide a concentration of lubricant at an axial line of contact between the carrier and the element in which shearing occurs within the lubricant and no shearing occurs between any contacting surfaces of the element and carrier.