Radially Forged Chain Link for Lower Weight and Higher Load Capacity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing chain links used in mining applications, particularly for plow or conveyor chains, face challenges in balancing weight reduction with maintaining tensile force and resistance to abrasive wear, while also requiring improved manufacturing methods for enhanced design freedom and material structure.
Innovation Solution
The chain link is produced using radial forging, which reduces the cross-sectional area of the legs while maintaining the cross-sectional area of the curves, resulting in a lighter and more durable design with a longitudinally oriented material structure, enhancing load-bearing capacity and reducing material costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If the cross-sectional area of the legs is reduced to decrease weight, then the weight of the chain link is reduced, but the tensile force transmission capability is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The chain link features non-uniform cross-sectional areas with larger curves and smaller legs, optimizing material distribution. The curves maintain larger cross-sections to handle bending stresses and connect to sprockets, while the legs have reduced cross-sections to minimize weight. This local differentiation of structural properties resolves the contradiction between weight reduction and strength maintenance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies radial forging to fundamentally change the material structure, creating a longitudinally oriented fibrous structure that significantly increases tensile strength. This parameter change in material microstructure allows the legs to maintain high strength despite reduced cross-sectional area, enabling weight reduction without compromising tensile force transmission capability.
2Ease of manufacture
If conventional forging is used to produce chain links, then the manufacturing process is simple, but design freedom is limited and material structure is suboptimal
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces conventional flat-die forging with radial forging, substituting the mechanical system of force application. Radial forging uses radially arranged punches that apply compressive forces from multiple directions simultaneously, enabling complex three-dimensional shape formation and superior material structure creation, thereby significantly increasing design freedom while remaining manufacturable.
3Strength
If radial forging is used to create longitudinally oriented material structure, then load-bearing capacity is improved, but the manufacturing process becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from two-dimensional flat-die forging to three-dimensional radial forging, adding the dimensional aspect of radial force application from multiple directions. This dimensional change enables the creation of longitudinally oriented material structure and complex geometries, improving load-bearing capacity while the modular radial punch system keeps the manufacturing process manageable.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The radial forging process achieves a chain link with increased load-bearing capacity, reduced wear, and lower material costs, while allowing for greater design freedom and minimizing production errors.
Implementation Method 1
radial forging, also known as rotary swaging or longitudinal forging. Radial forging is essentially an open-die forging process in which the cross-section of the workpiece is reduced in a deformation zone using usually three or four counter-rotating dies or punches arranged radially around the workpiece's longitudinal axis
Implementation Method 2
the cross-section of the workpiece is reduced in a deformation zone using usually three or four counter-rotating dies or punches arranged radially around the workpiece's longitudinal axis in a plane perpendicular to the workpiece's longitudinal axis. The workpiece is rotated about its own longitudinal axis between each punch stroke
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a chain link (1) for a link chain (2), the chain link (1) having two limbs (4, 5) running parallel to one another which are connected to one another at their ends via rounded portions (6, 7). The limbs (4, 5) and the rounded portions (6, 7) of the chain link (1) are circular in their respective cross sections (8, 9, 10, 11), the limbs (4, 5) having smaller cross-sectional areas (8, 9) as compared to the cross-sectional areas (10, 11) of the rounded portions (6, 7). The chain link (1) is produced by radial forging with the following method steps: - providing a profile bar (18), the profile bar (18) being formed of a steel material, - inserting the profile bar (18) into a radial forging machine (24) and performing a radial forging operation with a lengthwise reduction of the diameter (D18) of the profile bar (18), so that the profile bar (18) is axially oriented in the forged length portion, the diameter (D18) being reduced at least in the region of the later limbs (4, 5), - removing the radially forged chain link semi-finished product (19) and shaping to form a chain link (1) and welding terminal ends (23) of the shaped chain link (1).