Transmission Chains

Chain and Sprocket System

How Does a Chain Drive Work?

Chain drive is a kind of flexible transmission composed of chain and sprocket (small sprocket and large sprocket). Movement and power are transmitted through the sprocket teeth and the chain meshing. Chain work is widely used in mechanical manufacturing.

Which is Better Chain Drive or Belt Drive?

Compared with friction belt drive. The chain drive has no elastic sliding and overall slipping, so it can accurately average the transmission ratio and has high transmission efficiency; because the chain does not need to be as tight as the belt, the radial pressure acting on the shaft is slight; The chain is made of metal materials. Under the same use conditions, the overall size of the chain drive is small, and the structure is compact; At the same time, the chain drive can work in high-temperature and humid environments.

Chain Drive VS Gear Drive

Compared with gear drive, chain drive has lower requirements for manufacturing and installation accuracy and lower cost. In long-distance transmission, its structure is much lighter than gear transmission.

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How to Measure Drive Chain?

The chain length accuracy shall be measured according to the following requirements:

1. The chain is cleaned before measurement
2. Surround the tested chain on the two sprockets, and the upper and lower sides of the tested chain shall be supported
3. The chain before measurement shall stay for 1min under the condition of applying one-third of the minimum ultimate tensile load
4. During the measurement, the specified measuring load, shall be applied to the chain to make the chains on the tension of the upper and lower side. The chain and sprocket shall ensure regular meshing.
5. Measure the center distance between two sprockets

Measure chain elongation

1. To remove the play of the whole chain, it is necessary to measure under a certain degree of tension on the chain
2. During measurement, to minimize the error, the measurement shall be carried out in sections 6-10
3. Measure the inner side L1 and outer side L2 dimensions between the rollers of the number of segments to obtain the judgment dimension L = (L1 + L2) / 2
4. Find the elongation length of the chain, which is in contrast with the use limit value of the chain elongation in the previous item

Chain elongation = judgment size – reference length / reference length * 100%

Reference length = chain pitch * a number of links.

What is the Conveyor Chain on Production Line?

Another common application of chain drives is conveyor chains. The conveyor uses a chain drive specially designed for material transportation. They have hundreds of different design and motion characteristics, such as low friction, high-temperature resistance, and chemical resistance. They can also be antistatic and magnetic.

Conveyor chain drives can be used in packaging, automobile, food and beverage production, pharmaceutical, and textile industries. Accessories can be installed on the conveyor chain to adapt to various applications.

Drive Chains in Lifting Equipment

Traction chain is widely used in forklifts, port stackers, textile machinery, parking garage, drilling rig, climbing operation platform, pipe benders, and other occasions. Through unique design, high-quality alloy steel materials, straight heat treatment process, and environmental protection surface treatment process are selected. The products are typically high strength, fatigue resistance, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and reliability. The hoist equipped with this material chain is widely used in coal, mining, metallurgy, casting, electric power, water conservancy, chemical industry, building materials, and other fields. Plate chain for forklift, plate chain for stacker, plate chain with hollow pin shaft, multi-plate pin shaft chain, three-dimensional garage chain, and accessories such as clamps and pear-shaped pieces.

Drive Chain in Agricultural Industry

The agricultural industry is powered by a variety of chains that power a variety of machines to simplify the labor-intensive work of farmers. We supply a variety of agricultural chains, including S, C, CA, and ANSI types. In the agricultural machinery industry, the chain is applied to agricultural machineries such as rice, wheat, corn, and cotton to provide driving and conveying kinetic energy and realize mechanized operation in agricultural production from arable land sowing to harvesting. It is mainly used in various clothing equipment such as rice machinery, corn recycling machinery, cotton processing machinery, and silage machinery.

What is a Drive Chain on a Bike?

A bicycle is a transmission-type machine. Its transmission device includes the driving, driving, chain, and transmission. The gear ratio and transmission ratio are related to the efficiency of bicycles. The essence of the rear wheel operation is that the flywheel under the chain drive drives the rear wheel to rotate. The flywheel has the same angular velocity as the rear wheel. The rear wheel’s radius is much larger than the radius of the gear. The linear speed increases, and the speed increases. The bicycle pedal uses the lever principle to take the wheel axle of the flywheel as the fulcrum and use a long iron rod to rotate the flywheel on the chain, which can save labor. Gear is used on the pedal flywheel to prevent the chain from slipping.

What is a Drive Chain on a Car?

The chain transmission system is widely used in the automobile engine’s timing, oil pump, and balance shaft transmission. It is characterized by compact size, high reliability, and high wear resistance, which are unavailable in gear transmission and belt transmission. Roller chain, sleeve chain, and toothed chain for automobiles, the driving sprocket speed is usually as high as 5000-10000r / min, and the transmission power is far greater than that of the ordinary chain. Its allowable wear elongation is not more than 1%.

Chain Drive Mechanism Design

Roller Chain Parameter Selection

1. The number of small sprocket teeth can be selected according to the following table:

The number of large sprocket teeth Z2 = iz1. Since the number of links is often even, the number of sprocket teeth should preferably be an odd number that is a prime number with the number of chain links, so as to make the wear uniform

2. Pitch

On the condition that the transmission power is met, the smaller pitch shall be selected as much as possible, and the small pitch multi row chain can be selected for high-speed and heavy load.

3. Transmission ratio
4. Center distance and number of links

Arrangement of Chain Drive

The rotation plane of the two sprockets shall be in the same plane, and the two axes must be parallel, preferably in a horizontal arrangement. If it is required to be inclined, the included angle between the center line of the two sprockets and the horizontal line shall be less than 45 °. Meanwhile, the chain drive shall make the tight side (i.e. the driving side) on the top and the loose side on the bottom, so that the chain link and the sprocket teeth can smoothly enter and exit the mesh. If the loose edge is on the top, the chain and gear teeth may interfere due to the excessive sag of the loose edge, and even cause the collision between the loose edge and the tight edge.