Chain offering experiencing significant success

19th July 2013

By: Zandile Mavuso

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor: Features

  

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Linear motion products manufacturer and supplier SKF attributes the provision of cost-effective end-to-end customer solutions across diverse applications to its understanding of bearing systems, combined with its power transmission technology.

The company’s power transmission range includes chains, belts, pulleys, sprockets, couplings and bushings as well as hub taper locking elements and complements the company’s core technologies – bearings and units, seals, lubrication, mechatronics- and engineering services.

“SKF is experiencing significant success with its power transmission products and, more notably, with its chains,” says SKF product manager for power transmission Frans Pienaar.

He adds that there are a large number of chain configurations and materials available to meet the different types of chain conveyor applications.

“As conveyor chains are used to pull or elevate a load, usually in a straight line, at relatively low speeds, rather than to transfer power from one shaft to another like other types of chains, they are rated in terms of their allowable working loads and not by power or speed,” explains Pienaar.

A conveyor chain is found in almost every industry and SKF can supply chains for vir- tually any conveyor requirement, including lifting applications in sectors such as agriculture, sugar, cement, coal and minerals processing. In the agriculture industry, Pienaar says farmers are increasingly putting quality before price. “As SKF chains for machines like harvesters and planters offer the best of both, since our entry into the agrichain market in 2011, we have seen considerable growth in market share,” he says, highlighting a recent successful application of an SKF chain product.

Inferior-quality chains were being used on a farmer’s planters and were not coping with the arduous wet, dry and dusty conditions. The chains were stretching, rusting and breaking, and needed replacing every season. Chain adjustments in the field also caused constant interruption of the planting process and reduced productivity, explains Pienaar.

“The farmer desperately needed a solution. SKF came to the rescue with a competitively priced, high-quality chain which is hot dipped, prelubricated and prestressed, eradicating the main concerns of rust, which can cause stiff links, and excessive wear,” he notes.

SKF transmission and precision roller chain offerings are based on European and American standards. Owing to the advanced manufacturing capability of SKF, any product can be designed for any cus- tomer’s needs. SKF can supply customised designs with increased link plate and side bar thicknesses, or with customised pitch.

Pienaar notes that since high manufacturing standards play an important role in the quality of the company’s chain, it is imperative that the raw materials used to manufacture each chain component meet stringent specifications and undergo rigorous processes and strict inspections. The shape of the inner and outer link plates on SKF chains have been adapted to have a wider waist link-plate design, which, according to Pienaar, provides an increase in fatigue strength.

In addition, stringent plate- thickness controls allow the chains to run smoothly. Depending on its size, SKF chains use solid rollers that are cold-drawn from bar stock to improve fatigue strength and resist the damaging effects of shock loads. All rollers go through a hardening process to improve wear resistance and increase service life.

“We are able to offer unsurpassed quality products from a single world-class supplier and our dependable high-quality rugged chain, combined with our brand name, give our customers confidence not only in our products but also in our service and capabilities,” he concludes.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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