Round Steel Chain Wear Reduction via Flattened Link Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Round steel chains used in underground coal mining experience increased wear and friction between interengaging chain links due to higher tensile forces, leading to reduced service life and increased maintenance needs.
Innovation Solution
The chain links feature thickenings on their longitudinal outer surfaces with a greater inner radius compared to the outer radius, increasing the contact surface area between interengaging bends and reducing wear, while maintaining the same diameter and allowing adjacent links to embrace the bends effectively, thus distributing the tensile force across a larger area.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the chain links are sized larger to transmit increased forces, then the tensile force transmission capability is improved, but the height of the vertical links increases which is undesirable
Solution Approach 1:
The chain legs are flattened locally at specific regions to redirect material volume into lateral bulges, allowing the overall height to be reduced while maintaining the required cross-sectional area for force transmission. This localized modification enables the chain to transmit increased tensile forces without increasing the height of vertical links.
2Length of moving object
If the chain links are flattened to reduce height, then the height dimension is reduced, but the contact surface area between interengaging bends decreases leading to increased wear
Solution Approach 1:
The invention compensates for the reduced contact surface area in the vertical dimension by creating lateral bulges that extend the contact surface in the horizontal dimension. The chain legs are flattened at the margins to form bulges that extend beyond the diameter of the chain bends, thereby maintaining sufficient contact surface area for wear resistance while achieving reduced height.
3Length of moving object
If the chain legs are flattened to form bulges, then the height is reduced and material volume is optimized, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention modifies the cross-sectional parameters of the chain legs by flattening them at the margins to form bulges. This parameter change redirects material volume from the height dimension to the lateral dimension, achieving reduced height while maintaining structural integrity. The process can be integrated into existing rolling or forging operations, minimizing additional manufacturing complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A round steel chain has chain links articulated to one another, wherein the individual chain links each have opposite chain bends, which are connected to one another by chain legs. At least every second chain link is designed as a flat link, wherein the chain legs of the flat link are flattened at the edges in the cross-section of the chain legs and have a leg width greater than the diameter of the chain bends, such that the areas of the chain legs extending beyond the diameter to the leg width form lateral bulges, which extend up to the chain bends or into the chain bends, and chain bends have thickened sections arranged on the longitudinal outer surfaces of the chain bends.