Choosing a Reliable Conveyor Chain for Your Application

Conveyor chain is employed throughout the planet during a wide selection of applications varying from sprinkler movement within the agriculture industry to moving vehicles on an assembly line in an automotive factory. If something requires conveyance from point A to point B continually, whether it's being assembled, painted, washed, inspected, or stored for future use, the likelihood is that good that conveyor chain is at the guts of the system.

There are four critical criteria required for the max performance of a conveyor chain. They’re ultimate strength, wearability, fatigue resistance, and impact resistance.

Although the last word strength of any given chain will reflect the integrity of a particular material at a particular hardness, a high ultimate value doesn't necessarily mean that it's impervious to failure. The last word strength value is employed for application engineering and deciding what type or size of the conveyor chain to be used for various loads.

The durability value of a conveyor chain from a conveyor chain supplier is the most subjective value to think about when comparing chains. Factors affecting its durability are lubrication, loads, chain speed, and system design among others. A manufacturer controls only the hardness factor that impacts the opposite three criteria. It’s an incontrovertible fact that the harder the chain the upper its durability factor but alongside this comes a lower resistance to fatigue and impact. The harder the chain the less resistance it becomes to fatigue and impact.

While the chain moves around its horizontal turns, the side load between the chain and therefore the rollers or traction wheel makes for a subtle bending motion within the center link of the conveyor chain. This particular movement is the catalyst for fatigue. Should the fatigue go unnoticed and thus, the chain isn't replaced directly, the instance of failure is diminished.

In the case of loads that are often stopped and began, the chain from the conveyor chain manufacturer, most particularly the pusher dog, is subject to impact failure if an impression-resistant material wasn't utilized in its manufacture. Other possible points of impact on a conveyor are the loading and unloading sites. Almost like fatigue failures, impact failures happen with no warning, but they are doing not as a rule opened up because the fatigue failures do.