Chain Drive

Pretty much everyone has at least seen a chain system in their life in the form of a bicycle. This system of course is driven by human input rather than a motor. Automated systems behave no differently though, you have several sprockets, and chain that wraps around them. One sprocket is driven and the others perform work on the load. Chain tends to be noisier than belts and cannot be tensioned as tightly meaning there is a bit more backlash inherent in the system. In exchange though, chain can move much heavier loads for their size.

We sell ANSI#25 and #40 chain and sprockets (that is 0.25" pitch and 0.5" pitch). The #25 is rated for 100lbs of working tension while the #40 is rated for 800lbs. Chain is sold by the meter and you can form closed loops of any length you'd like with the link kits that we sell. To calculate how many links you will need for a particular sprocket spacing you can use this calculator, just enter in the number of teeth on each sprocket, the chain pitch, and the center to center distance between the sprockets to get the number of links you will need. If the number is not whole, you should always round up (and probably even add one). Once you know how many links you will require you will need to use the link kit to connect your chain up.