My question is: if a rubber belt sustains wear, is it possible for the associated dust to become magnetic? A bit of background here: my workplace was recently contaminated by a fine layer of black dust. It is suspected that this black dust originated from the air supply. The unit that provides air to the building is driven by five rubber v-belts (Gates 5V1500). The unit blower and shaft are out of alignment and slight friction on the belts has resulted in degradation with every revolution, distributing fine black dust in the building. Now, the belts do not contain metal, only mainly rubber. The dust is highly magnetic. The belts are not. Why is this? Thanks.
If the belts had some magnetic properties but But what I suspect is the dust was charged from going over the surface of the pulleys over and over and collected charge from above "The unit blower and shaft are out of alignment and slight friction on the belts has resulted in degradation with every revolution" the side of the pulley was rubbing on the metal pulley and picked of the charge. The other possibility don't forget rubber is also sticky and it was just plain surface tension
