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RE: Roller Chain??

Being a "newbe" to the SolidWorks world, how do others represent roller chain in an assembly? I have a special chain conveyor approximately 85 inches, center to center, using 4 strands across the conveyor bed. The chain is 5/8 inch pitch roller chain with a set of extended pins and a special drive finger on every 4th link. I'm using a 40 tooth sprocket on 1

1/4 inch shafts at each end. The chain ends up being 312 pitches long. I've been fussing with a single strand of chain, using all sorts of mates, trying to develop a complete strand. After making the inner and outer links, I'm using arrays to make the long, flat sections of the strand. The end links are mated to the sprockets with a concentric mate to the tooth form and then using other arrays, the rest of the inner and outer links are a shown around the sprocket. Somehow, what I'm doing doesn't seem right. When I get done, all of the pieces are locked into position and I can't move them along the path. This assembly is getting big too, 1258 parts before adding guides, frame, drive or any of the other stuff. I'm using large assembly mode and loading everything lightweight to help with size. It would seem like there should be an easier/better way to do this so I'm asking the group, "Is there an easy/better way to represent roller chain? How is it done?" R. Wink
Reply to
R. Wink
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I model chains as a part. Sketch the centre line, model a link then use a curve pattern to attach to centre line, you have to make the length of the centre line divisable by the pitch obviously. I have examples if you like.

steve

Reply to
solid steve

The first question to answer is what is the purpose? Do you really need to show all the links? When we do chains, we make the chain part by putting the attaching links at the ends, or a couple links on a sprkt, then the whole rest of the chain is represented by a swept volume that represents the chain path. Take the profile of the link, sweep it along the pitch line path, and you have a simple chain. You can make the path a particular length by using an equation that holds the length to a certain number of pitches.

To spend your time mating all the links, buys you basically nothing, as you have found. Let me know if you need an example. FYI, if you need the RC chain links, I have a couple files with all the sizes as configs.

WT

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Reply to
Wayne Tiffany

Ditto what Wayne just said. Sounds like you're spending an inordinate amount of time on this project, unless it is for visualization.

Reply to
Fye

I have put some RC chain files on our user group site. Go to

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and you will find the collection.

In the chain assy, the path for the sweep would normally have the ends constrained to the pitch diameter of the sprkts, but you could also just dimension them. You can also modify the path to suit, such as putting in an idler, changing the diameters, etc. The whole premise is that you represent the path of the chain with the volume that will sweep around the path. Take a look and let me know if something is not obvious.

WT

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Reply to
Wayne Tiffany

Reply to
R. Wink

I already posted a link here for you to download an example. In that file, I created the equation that will control the distance between the ends based on a total length of chain. Take a look at that stuff and see if it makes sense.

WT

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Reply to
Wayne Tiffany

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