The current push belt status is nicely shown by the Nissan Murano with push belt CVT that has a ratio coverage of 5.4 and can cope with a 3.5 liter V6 180 kW/350 Nm engine with torque converter, applying drive side torque levels on the belt that lie above 500 Nm [2]. Figure 1.1 Example of a partly disassembled Van Doorne push belt with approximately 400 elements and 2 sets of 9 rings. 2.2. BELT-PULLEY MICRO/MACRO SLIP In the push belt CVT system, torque is transmitted by means of friction between the belt elements and the pulley sheaves.
Therefore, the maximum transmittable torque is determined by the normal force and the coefficient of friction. This situation can be explained by means of a so-called slip curve [9] as is shown in Figure 2.1. On the horizontal axis of the slip curve, the primary or input torque Tp is denoted and on the vertical axis the slip rate.
