Rope drive Rope drive A rope drive is a form of belt drive, used for mechanical power transmission. Rope drives use a number of circular section ropes, rather than a single flat or vee belt. The first multiple rope drive was a 9 rope drive of 200 bhp produced by Combe Barbour for their Falls Foundry, Belfast, in 1863. James Combe experimented first with circular ropes laid from leather strips, then from manila hemp. The idea of using rope drives had arisen from his earlier, 1856, experiments in using a rope drive together with an expanding vee pulley, as part of a
Block and tackle each of the parts of the rope must be "F/n." This means the input force on the rope is "F"="F/n." Thus, the block and tackle reduces the input force by the factor "n." Ideal mechanical advantage correlates directly with velocity ratio. The velocity ratio of a tackle is the ratio between the velocity of the hauling line to that of the hauled load. A line with a mechanical advantage of 4 has a velocity ratio of 4:1. In other words, to raise a load at 1 metre per second, the hauling part of the rope must be pulled at 4