The middle sketch shows the joint when the belt is stretched. The lower sketch shows it passing over a small pulley, where it will be seen that in the act of bending over the curve there is no friction between the lace and the belt, and this is the reason of its superiority over other methods, where there is always more or less friction between the lace and the belt when bending over a curve. Another advantage is, that in this system the lace does not come into contact with the pulley, so that whatever friction or slipping may take place between the belt and the pulley, the lacing is perfectly unaffected by it.
Fig. 2694.
A lap joint is one in which the two ends of the belt overlap, as in [Fig. 2694]. The overlap is cut down to a plain bevel so as to reduce the joint to nearly or quite the same thickness as the main body of the belt. The lap joint is employed to join together the strips of leather forming the belt, and to fasten the ends of the finished belt together. In making the belt the overlap is cemented and riveted, while in joining the ends it may be cemented, or riveted, or laced.
The advantage of rivets lies simply in that they are easily applied. Their disadvantages are that they grip but a small area of the belt, namely, that portion beneath the rivet head and washer surface; hence, when rivets are used the joint should always be cemented also. A more important defect is, however, that the heat generated by the compression of the rivet while riveting it is sufficiently great to burn the leather beneath the rivet-head. The reason that the leather under the head and not under the washer or burr at the riveted end of the rivet burns is, that although the heat due to riveting is most at the burr end of the rivet, its passage from the rivet to the washer is less rapid than it is through the body of the rivet, because in the one case it has to be transferred from one body to another (from the rivet to the burr), while in the other its passage is uninterrupted and continuous.
Fig. 2695.
Rivets for lap joints are usually placed about, as in [Fig. 2695], the rows a and c being about 1⁄2 inch from the edges b and d respectively, and the row f about 3⁄8 inch from the edge f of the lap, while the rivets are about 5⁄8 inch apart in the rows.