Showing posts with label High Strength Chains. Show all posts
Showing posts with label High Strength Chains. Show all posts

Tuesday, 10 March 2009

Corrosion and Moisture Resistant Roller Chains

Roller chains are an aspect of manufacturing and construction that are commonly used for the transmission of mechanical power. They are often found in an array of industries such as architecture, agriculture and mining and they are what keep conveyor belts moving. They are an important feature to get a number of jobs done and as the majority of these jobs are take place within corrosive and moist conditions it is essential that you have a roller chain that can withstand such conditions.

Corrosion is basically the breaking down of essential properties in a material due to a chemical reaction from the materials surroundings. In this case the material is a roller chain and the surroundings are the conditions that the chain is being used in.

Within corrosion there is a loss of electrons due to a react with water or oxygen. Due to the fact that most roller chains are exposed to moisture that could cause corrosion you need to be careful when choosing what chain to opt for as some may not be up to the job. So just how do you know which ones are best at preventing corrosion and other damage that can be caused by an exposure to moisture?

There are two main types of roller chains that you should be looking at to prevent such things; these two are stainless steel and nickel plated. Both of these have their advantages and disadvantages, the way you decide which to use comes down to the environment that you will be using them in. For example stainless steel offers the greatest resistance to corrosion and exposure to extreme temperatures. The corrosion resistance that stainless steel chains offer is superior to nickel-plated or coated chains. This type of roller chain is also available in a variety of grades depending on specific application requirements. However, while nickel plated are excellent against moisture damage they aren’t quite as good against corrosion for the pure fact that they don’t protect against corrosion caused by chemicals or acid.

Both of these roller chains are sufficient when it comes to protecting against corrosion and moisture and they are commonly used where there is a high exposure to weather, high humidity and machines that are frequently washed down with water.

As well as these two types of roller chain you are also able to get ones that have been treated with a mechanical zinc plating process with additional coatings applied for extra corrosion protection. This coating has been proved to be effective when used in wet, humid, saltwater or other moisture-related applications. In fact quite a few industries often prefer to opt for this rather than stainless steel or nickel-plated roller chains.

Corrosion, mainly due to exposure to moisture is a problem faced frequently by maintenance staff and engineers across many industries. It is through the damage caused by aspects such as chemicals, salt, routine wash downs and exposure to bad weather conditions that have a significant impact on production efficiency. So to ease this and to improve the life of machinery get a roller chain such as a coated one or stainless steel and nickel-plated that can handle the conditions that are thrown at them.

Howcroft Industrial Supplies are your answer if you are looking for Corrosion and Moisture Resistant Roller Chains.

High Strength Chains

In order for a chain to be able to undertake its job correctly it needs to have a high strength. Most chains, depending on the specific application that you need it for, are designed for the rigors of heavy loads and lifting. High strength chains are an aspect of manufacturing and a part of many industries that are in demand, so the question is does your business have them?

For whatever job you need a chain for, it is recommended that you invest in a high strength chain. So how are these chains stronger than regular ones? This comes down to the production value of the chains. They are produced with wear resistance, resistance to Rafah and hardness and strength. Thanks to the way they are made, their strength becomes many times more than the strength of the bar that was used to make them.

How strong a chain is comes down to two factors; the breaking point and the tensile of the chain. The tensile refers to how much load a chain can withstand before breaking; hence finding out the breaking point of the chain. It is however important to remember that it is never safe to strain the load of a chain to anywhere near it’s breaking point. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that every time a piece of metal is strained to a point beyond its elastic limit it is permanently stretched and weakened.

Another reason as to why high strength chains are so good at what they do comes down to the fact they have been specially designed to incorporate pins that have been produced from medium carbon alloy steel. These pins are important as they have been hardened to give the chain a higher working load capacity and an additional resistance to fatigue in high load and pulsating type applications. There is one draw back to this however, which is the fact that these chains may have a slightly reduced wear life due to the material used and the heat treatment that is placed on the chain pins.

High strength chains are used for a variety of things; one of these uses includes hoisting weights. For this use they are made from a grade of wrought iron. In this case the tensile strength is usually between 40,000 to 48,000 lbs. per square inch. If this is the use of your high strength chain then it is important that it is not made from steel, instead wrought iron should be used as it will be able to withstand more.

There are numerous pieces of machinery and a vast array of industries that rely on high strength chains to get jobs done in the best possible way and in the quickest time allowed. They are a very important part of construction and manufacturing; in many cases people rely on them so much without even actually realizing it. This is why you need to make sure you invest in the best available so make sure you shop around for them.

If you are in the market for some High Strength Chains then look no further than Howcroft Industrial Supplies; they are stockists of everything you could possibility need for any industry.