Everyone knows one type of drive chain: the bicycle chain. The bicycle chain shows the essential advantages of a chain drive. It is simply, cheap, robust, light weight, resistant and easily cared for.
As the name implies, a conveyor chain is used to transport material. Carriers and attachment points are mounted on the chain that allow for transport of materials or connection of conveying containers.
Load chains are designed to move/lift the largest loads whilst featuring the smallest possible dimensions. In contrast to drive and conveyor chains, a load chain does not run around sprockets as a closed strand but is often open, with two ends.
Most technical tasks can be solved by standard chains and their adjustment to the particular conditions. But sometimes it is necessary to build a chain for specific requirements.
No chain without a matching sprocket. A sprocket has cogs that need to fit perfectly into the gaps between the chain bushes/chain rollers. The calculation of the exact outline of a cog is by no means trivial and primarily depends on the chain to be used but also on ambient conditions in which it is to be used.
Spur gears with standard cogs are manufactured with the same machinery and in a similar way than sprockets. That is why we are pleased to offer spur gears up to module 32, also available made from special material and with hardened cogs.
Conveyor chains for heavy materials or large scraper chains are subject to substantial wear and tear if they run, steel on steel, in a guide rail. Friction can be significantly reduced with the standard rollers according to DIN 8166. However, that may sometimes not be enough.
Sometime chains have to fulfil very complex tasks and are fitted with various carriers. Or the chain does not just transfer forces but serves as a bracket for tubes and cables at the same time.
Often apron conveyors are used for the transport of bulk cargo which basically consist of a conveyor chain with screwed on steel cells. These steel cells are shaped so that they may be smoothly directed round the sprockets and yet not have a gap through which the material to be conveyed may trickle of.
