What Is a Conveyor Roller Chain?

Roller chain is a type of chain drive used to transfer mechanical power. It is widely used in household, industrial and agricultural machinery, including conveyors, plotters, printing machines, automobiles, motorcycles, and bicycles. It is linked by a series of short cylindrical rollers and driven by a gear called a sprocket. It is a simple, reliable and efficient power transmission device.

Roller chain usually refers to precision roller chain for short pitch transmission. It is the most widely used and has the largest output. The roller chain is divided into single row and multiple rows, which is suitable for low power transmission. The basic parameter of a roller chain is the chain pitch p, which is equal to the chain number of the roller chain multiplied by 25.4 / 16 (mm). The suffixes in the chain number are A and B, which indicate two series, and the two series complement each other. ^[1]

As shown in the figure, the roller chain is composed of an inner link plate 1, an outer link plate 2, a pin 3, a sleeve 4, and a roller 5.

The center distance between two adjacent pins on the chain is called the chain pitch, which is represented by p. It is the main chain

The length of the chain is expressed by the number of links. Generally, even-numbered links are used.

GB / T1243-1997 stipulates that the roller chain is divided into A and B series, of which A series is used for high

Chain drive is widely used in various machinery in various industries such as agriculture, mining, metallurgy, petrochemicals and lifting transportation. Chain drive can transmit power up to 3600kW, commonly used below 100kW; chain speed up to 30 ~ 40m / s, commonly used chain speed below 15m / s; transmission ratio up to 15, generally less than 6, to .2 ~ 2.5 is appropriate.

According to research, the application of chain in China has a history of more than 3,000 years. In ancient times, the rollover and waterwheel used to bring water from low to high in rural areas in China were similar to modern transportation chains. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Su Song's "Xin Yixiangxiangfa" records that the armillary sphere is driven like a modern metal chain drive. This shows that China is one of the earliest countries in the application of chains. However, the basic structure of modern chains was first conceived and proposed by Da Vinci (1452-1519), a great scientist and artist of the European Renaissance. Thereafter, the pin chain was invented by France's Gal in 1832, and the Slater sleeveless roller chain in Britain in 1864. However, it was Hans Renault of the Swiss who really reached the level of modern chain structure design. In 1880, he perfected the shortcomings of the previous chain structure, designed the chain into a popular simple roller chain, and obtained rollers in Britain. Chain invention patent.