Component selection – chain drives

This is one of the SEED curriculum engineering design guides. SEED (Sharing Experience in Engineering Design) is an organisation of teachers of design in tertiary education.

This guide gives an insight into the types, terminology used, selection procedure and uses of standard chain drives. The most common applications for chains drives are discussed and a simplified strategy is given to help the infrequent user select an appropriate chain system using information from a manufacturer’s catalogue. Chain drives are an important and widely used type of mechanical element. They have two major uses, that is, for power transmissions and for materials handling purposes on conveyors. In addition, specific types of chain are used for supporting loads and for lifting purposes. As a transmission, chain drives can operate efficiently at high loads and they may be used where precise speed ratios are required. Selecting the best type of transmission drive will depend on the specific requirements of the application. Certainly, chain drives are widely used throughout mechanical engineering and, therefore, deserve to be very seriously considered at the preliminary stages of design.

This guide includes the sections: Preliminary Selection, Types of Chain, Factors Affecting Roller Chain Selection, Lubrication of Chains, Roller Chain Terminology, Standard Sizes, Chain Power Ratings, Chain Nomenclature, Roller Chain Selection Example,  and Chain Costs. Other information includes suggested further reading and details of leading chain manufacturers.

[Description and screenshot taken from the SEED Curriculum for Engineering Design page for this guide. (c) The Design Society used under the terms of their (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) license.]

Link: http://www.bath.ac.uk/idmrc/themes/projects/delores/co-design-website/dpg/cha/chahome.html
Author: J. Vogwell
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Rights: Copyright 2011 The Design Society - This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. See http://www.bath.ac.uk/idmrc/themes/projects/delores/co-design-website/teachers/curriculum/about.html