Page 15 - Industrial_Technology_EXTRA_April_20th_2020_Classical

caused by chain identified its GT4 Winner chain as a suitable
failure – specifically solution. Designed to provide strength in high
the drive chain wear environments, the chain boasts four key
installed in the features which are designed to reduce
paper coil elevator. The wear and minimise chain elongation:
heavy coils of paper at the 1: Lube-grooved (LG) bushes hold
site are moved by 10 elevators oil at the point of contact which
to different floors of the facility, provides an internal reservoir for
ready to be cut and processed. lubricant where the chain needs
Chains from three different brands it most (sizes RS16B –
were being utilised across the elevators, RS24B).
none of which were robust enough to offer 2: Seamless and per-
long service life. The use of three different fectly cylindrical bushes
chain types resulted in inconsistent wear, result in both better
resulting in the chains becoming uneven, In contact between the
addition to the general atmospheric challenges of pin and bush and
the application area, the chains installed on the improved lubricant
elevators were regularly subjected to very high shock retention.
loads – which was causing the plates of the chain to 3: Centre sink rivets – for
crack. easy disassembly – which are designed with markings
While offering a reduced cost at initial purchase, to identify pin rotations caused by chain overloading
budget chain struggles to meet application (sizes RS08B - RS16B).
requirements long term. Premature failure leads to 4: Ring Coined connection links allow the chain to
plant downtime, which risks order schedules. be specified up to its full kW rating; unlike the typical
Maintenance intervals are also shortened, increasing standard slip-fit connecting links used by competitors
the frequency of repairs. As a result, despite offering which are usually much weaker than the base chain.
an initially cheap solution, the TCO of an inferior The GT4 Winner was trialled on a single elevator
chain during its lifetime is greatly increased compared at the Austrian facility to gauge performance and
to a premium chain. potential benefits. Increased strength ensured that the
Realising this, the manufacturer approached premium Tsubaki chain could withstand the shock
Tsubaki to provide an improved chain solution. loads inherent to the application comfortably,
Offering over a century of experience in designing and eliminating the issue of cracked plates. This also
manufacturing high performance chain, Tsubaki is a minimised elongation and minimised likelihood of
key supplier of power transmission components to the premature failure, which consequently reduced
paper industry, as well as the agriculture, automotive, maintenance requirements.
metals, mining, food and beverage sectors. Longer service life, a decreased risk to uptime and
A century of success is underpinned by a reduced maintenance translated to a greatly improved
responsive service and a global engineering capability, TCO compared to the previous chains. The successful
which ensured that Tsubaki engineers were quickly test period led to the GT4 Winner being installed on
on-site at the Austrian plant to carry out a thorough all 10 of the paper coil elevators.
inspection.After assessing the 10 elevators, Tsubaki www.tsubaki.eu

April 2020 • INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY EXTRA! • p15