DRIVE BELT FOR A CONTINUOUSLY VARIABLE TRANSMISSION AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING A TRANSVERSE ELEMENT FOR SUCH A DRIVE BELT

摘要

Drive belt (3) provided with an endless tensile means (31) and a number of relatively thin transverse elements (32) that are slidably mounted on the tensile means (31) and that have a front main face (40) and a rear main face (41), which are mutually separated over a thickness of the element (32) and which are predominantly oriented in the longitudinal direction of the drive belt (3), and that also have two side faces (36) one provided on each lateral side of the element (32) for arriving into a frictional contact with a pulley (1, 2) of a transmission in which the drive belt (3) is to be applied. Each side face (36) of the element (32) merges with a respective further surface (40; 41; 52),which is at least predominantly oriented in the longitudinal direction of the drive belt (3), through a transition surface (50; 50(a), 50(b), 50(c)) represented by a relatively sharp edge, which in cross-section may be described, at least effectively, by an arc having a radius of curvature equal to, or smaller than 0.3 mm.