Tsubakimoto Chain Company

Takashi Tohara

Tatsuya Konishi

Hiroshi Hashimoto

Akira Hirai

Toyonaga Saitoh

Takayuki Morimoto

Toshifumi Sato

Tsuyoshi Kabai

Takeo Sasaki

Syouhei Adati

Toshiyuki Nakajima

There is provided a silent chain that is reduced in weight and widthwise size by reducing the length of a short pin while preventing the occurrence of excessive stress concentration in the short pin of a rocker pin including a long pin and the short pin. The short pin of the rocker pin extends through all plates of the guide row and all plates of the non-guide row in the width direction. The short pin is provided with a first stopper, and a second stopper. A first end surface of the short pin is prevented from being positioned in a first adjacent pin hole by contact between the first stopper and the first contact portion, and a second end surface of the short pin is prevented from being positioned in a second adjacent pin hole by contact between the second stopper and the second contact portion.

Silent chain

In a silent chain of the inner flank engagement and outer flank seating type, the link plate teeth are arranged so that their rearwardly facing inner flanks protrude slightly beyond the outer flank overlapping link plate teeth in a preceding row when the chain is straight and in tension. The rearwardly facing inner flank is composed of an arc-shaped engagement starting region adjacent the tip and a straight engagement guiding region extending toward the root.

Low friction sound-type silent chain

A link plate for a transmission chain composed of a plurality of link plates flexibly connected to one another has a guide-contacting edge for direct sliding contact with a chain guide. The guide-contacting edge is composed of a plurality of surface portions in alternating relationship with a plurality of grooves along the direction of chain travel.

Link plate

In a chain transmission, the guide-contacting portions of inner and outer plates of a chain each comprise a pair of front and rear flat surfaces, an intermediate concave oil-retaining surface and convex connecting surfaces. The lengths of the flat surfaces are such that adjacent flat surfaces of overlapping inner and outer plates overlap even when the plates in contact with the portion of a convex guide surface having the smallest radius of curvature.

Chain transmission for use in an engine

The plates of transmission chain for an engine are formed with a guide-contacting configuration composed of spaced flat surfaces that come into sliding contact with a flat chain guide, and convex surfaces, continuous with and between the flat surfaces, for sliding contact with a convex chain guide. The convex surfaces are connected by a concave surface that, with the guide surface, forms an oil-retaining clearance. The radius of curvature of the convex curved surfaces of the plate preferably increases gradually from the location where they meet the flat surfaces toward the location where they meet the concave surface. The plates can have the same configuration on the side facing the inside of chain loop as on the side facing the outside of the chain loop.

Transmission chain for use in engine

In a silent chain, link plates having two different back heights are arranged so that V-shaped oil guiding walls, opening in the direction of chain travel, are formed on the back of the chain that comes into sliding contact with the shoe of a chain guide.

In an endless silent chain composed of alternating guide link rows and joint link rows connected by connecting pins, each guide link row is composed of a stack of three, centrally located, link plates and two outer guide plates, and each joint link row is composed of two pairs of link plates in abutting, side-by-side relationship. The pairs of link plates of the joint link rows extend into the spaces between the guide plates and the centrally located stack of each of two adjacent guide link rows.

A low friction roller chain, bushing chain or silent chain is composed of links in which at least some of the link plates have convex and/or grooved edge surfaces adapted to slide on the surface of a chain guide.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Takashi Tohara