What Is the Difference Between a Sprocket and a Gear?

A sprocket is a wheel with a cog-type buckle sprocket, which is used to mesh with a block with a precise pitch on a chain link or cable. Sprockets are widely used in chemical, textile machinery, escalators, wood processing, three-dimensional parking garages, agricultural machinery, food processing, instruments, petroleum machinery and other industries.

The service life of the sprocket is short, and it can not meet the requirements of production practice. According to the use status, processing status and manufacturing technology of the sprocket, some improvement measures are proposed for the sprocket:

(1) The original sprocket design material is 40Cr, the overall quenched and tempered hardness is HB220 ~ 250, and the teeth are quenched HRC48 ~ 52. This method can hardly improve the wear resistance of the sprocket because of the limited quenching hardness of the teeth. It is recommended to change the sprocket material to 20CrMnTi, carburizing and quenching treatment, the hardness of the chain socket can reach above HRC60, and its wear resistance is more than 2.5 times that of 40Cr material. This can greatly increase the service life of the sprocket, reduce the frequency of repairs, increase productivity, and reduce production costs;

(2) The shape of the original sprocket chain socket is directly forged, which has a large dimensional error and rough surface, which also reduces the wear resistance. With the wide application of CNC machine tools and the reduction of machining costs, it is recommended to leave a little margin after forging and finish machining by digital milling to improve dimensional accuracy and surface roughness, thereby achieving the purpose of improving wear resistance. ^[2]

1. The tightness of the sprocket should be appropriate. Too tight will increase the power consumption and the bearing will be easy to wear; too loose the sprocket will easily jump and delink. The tightness of the sprocket is: from the middle of the sprocket, it is about 2% -3% of the center distance between the two sprocket.

2. The sprocket should be mounted on the shaft without swinging or skewing. In the same transmission assembly, the end faces of two sprocket wheels should be in the same plane. When the center distance of the sprocket wheels is below 0.5 meters, the deviation can be 1 mm; when the center distance of the sprocket wheels is more than 0.5 meters, the deviation can be 2 mm. However, there must not be friction on the side of the sprocket teeth. If the two wheels are offset too much, it is easy to cause off-chain and accelerated wear. Care must be taken to check and adjust the offset when replacing the sprocket.

3. After the sprocket is worn seriously, the new sprocket and new sprocket should be replaced at the same time to ensure good meshing. It is not possible to replace only new sprockets or new sprockets individually. Otherwise it will cause poor meshing and accelerate the wear of the new sprocket or new sprocket. After the tooth surface of the sprocket is worn to a certain extent, it should be turned over in time (refer to the sprocket used for adjustable surface) to extend the use time.

4. The new sprocket is too long or extended after use, and it is difficult to adjust. Depending on the situation, the chain link is removed, but it must be

As a new gear product, the transmission speed of the sprocket is high. In its specific application process, due to the advantage of high speed, the noise is very small, which is also conducive to achieving a good processing environment. The sprocket is not only installed with high precision in its application, but also has excellent machining accuracy, which saves a lot of trouble for future maintenance work. Moreover, the advantages of the compact structure of the sprocket make it have a large transmission ratio, and its own service life is relatively high.