Tsubakimoto Chain Company

Forbuild Co., Ltd.

Takayuki Morimoto

Hitoshi Ohara

Masatoshi Sonoda

Shuuji Hamaguchi

Tsuyoshi Kabai

Minoru Komada

Shouhei Adachi

Takashi Nakagawa

Naoki Okamoto

Hiroki Ishida

Shunji Sakura

Yoshinori Iwasaki

Takashi Tohara

Shiro Inoue

Yoshiki Motoshima

Kosuke Yabuki

Ryosuke Nanri

Kazufumi Kotani

Syuuji Hamaguchi

Shigeki Doi

Syouhei Adati

An object of the present invention is to provide a silent chain drive device that can minimize loss of strength and wear of link plates, as well as prevent the chain from lifting up to achieve better power transmission efficiency. The silent chain drive device includes a silent chain designed for inside flank meshing/inside flank seating, and a sprocket with sprocket teeth. The plurality of link plates in the silent chain, which each have a pair of teeth, are configured to make contact with the sprocket teeth only at the inside flanks of each pair of teeth when the silent chain wraps around the sprocket and meshes with all of the sprocket teeth.

Silent chain drive device

To provide a metal chain having reduced weight and size but uncompromized strength, and manufacturable/assemblable with reduced work burden and cost. A metal chain is formed by coupling together a plurality of inner links and outer links alternately and pivotably in a longitudinal direction of the chain. Each of the outer link includes a pair of front and back pins and a pair of left and right outer plates. Each of the inner links includes a pair of front and back bushings and a pair of left and right inner plates. The pair of front and back bushings and the pair of left and right inner plates of the inner link are integrally formed as one component.

Metal chain

In a silent chain, rocker joint pins are composed of first and second rocker pins having mutually engaging front rolling surfaces. Each first rocker pin is fixed to pin fixing link plates of a first link, and extends through holes in other link plates of the first link. Each first pin has a back surface engaged with portions of the pin holes in the other link plates of the first link on the inner side of a pitch line, but is spaced by a gap from portions of the same pin holes on the outer side of the pitch line. The second rocker pin moves with link plates of a second link which forms a link pair with the first link, and elastically deforms the first rocker pin when the second link is flexed relative to the first link, thereby resisting flexion of the link pair and reducing impact noise.

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

There is provided a chain comprising guide link rows and non-guide link rows disposed alternately along the length of the chain with each plate of each row overlapping each plate of each of two adjacent rows. For each guide link row, a pair of pins is provided for connecting the guide link rows and non-guide link rows in articulating relationship. The first connecting pin extends into a first hole of each of the guide plates of its guide link row and into and through the second hole of each link plate of an adjacent non-guide link row. The second connecting pin extends into a second hole of each of the guide plates extends into and through a first hole of each link plate of an adjacent non-guide link row. The connecting pins fit tightly into each first hole into which it extends and fits loosely in each second hole into which it extends.

Chain

In a chain transmission incorporating a silent chain engaged with a sprocket, the plates of the chain are connected by sets of rocker pins extending through pin holes in the plates. The pin holes are elongated toward the center of each plate, and the elongation of each pin hole is greater than the maximum amount by which the distance between points on the respective rocker pins of each set increases when said chain is inflected to the maximum extent permitted by the sprocket in a portion of the chain in seating engagement with said sprocket.

In a silent chain, cushion pads are provided in the inner flank regions of at least every second link row. These cushion pads restrict inward flexion of the chain and reduce vibration of the free span regions of the chain. The cushion pads can be individual pads each associated with a link plate, or elongated pads each associated with a row of link plates. In either case, side parts protruding toward the outside of the loop formed by the chain can also restrict outward flexion of the chain.

In a rocker joint silent chain, the link plates have two different engagement pitches, and the connecting pins are composed of combinations of rocker pins and joint pins, where each rocker pin has one of two thicknesses and each joint pin has one of two thicknesses, so that the rocker joint pins of the chain have three different thicknesses. The link plates and connecting pins are arranged randomly along the length of the chain.

Rocker joint pin type silent chain

In a silent chain having interleaved guide rows and joint rows, guide plates at the outer sides of the guide rows are connected by engagement pins which extend through overlapping recesses formed on the outer flanks of the guide row plates, and on the inner flanks of the joint row plates. The engagement pins contact sprocket teeth before the outer flanks of the guide row plates contact the sprocket teeth. Cutouts formed in the guide plates adjacent the engagement pins allow the guide plates to deform and thereby absorb the impact imparted to the engagement pins by the sprocket teeth.

In a silent chain comprising interleaved and relatively pivotable rows of link plates, protrusions formed in the link plates contact relatively pivotable link plates in adjacent rows so that the area of contact is reduced. The protrusions can be annular, or they can be in the form of arcs that are of a size and position such that the arcuate protrusions of each plate do not interfere with the arcuate protrusions of an adjacent plate as the chain bends during use. The plates can have rectangular protrusions, or arcuate protrusions each consisting of an arc-shaped collection of dot-shaped protrusions.

To provide a compact lifter device, which can attain a work-piece's lifting/lowering operation in a stable supporting state and can reduce the parts number and an assembly load. A lifter devicein which a pair of work-piece lifting chainsrespectively fed movably forward and backward by a pair of regularly/reversely rotatable driving sprocketswhile being sandwiched by the sprockets includes flexing suppression membersdisposed oppositely to each other, and each of these flexing suppression memberscomprises a number of blocksdisposed at mounting intervals of two times the chain pitch P on a drawing side of the work-piece lifting/lowering chainand a lifting/lowering support barof a length corresponding to a chain's upright state, disposed on a feeding side continued to the drawing side of the work-piece lifting/lowering chainso that the flexing suppression membersare engaged with each other to lift or lower a work-piece in a chain's upright state of the fed chain.

Lifter device

A conveyor chain has a number of chain units connected together by connecting pins in an endless fashion. Each of the chain units is composed of a plurality of inverted tooth plates disposed in the width direction of the chain, and a slat disposed on one side of the tooth plates and extending across the width of the chain transversely across the tooth plates for carrying an object to be conveyed. The tooth plates each have a pair of inverted teeth formed on the other side thereof for meshing with sprocket teeth, and a pair of pin-accommodation holes for receiving a pair of connecting pins, respectively. The connecting pins each connect adjacent two chain units such that the tooth plates of one chain unit are interleaved with the tooth plates of the other chain unit.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Takayuki Morimoto