Toothed Chains in the Primary Drive: INA Sets New Standards in Performance at Tokyo Motor Show

2007-10-24 -- Schaeffler KG and the INA brand have been supplying primary drive systems for chain and belt drives for many years. This includes hydraulic and mechanical tensioning elements in particular, idler pulley units and guide rollers, and with ID2 ®, innovative optimized drive wheels.

In comparison with toothed belts, chains have proven even more successful as drive elements in the primary drives of internal combustion engines during the last few years due to advantages such as high power density, resistance to high temperatures and freedom from maintenance during the entire life of the engine. Whereas mainly sleeve and roller chains have been used as primary chains on the European market up to now, so-called "inverted tooth chains" (silent chains) dominate the American and Asian markets.

The new high-performance toothed chain means that INA has now extended its product range with a new development, which will meet the requirements of the European market in particular. Compared with a conventional 13 mm wide toothed chain with 3/8“ pitch currently available on the market, the INA IT Chain (which is only 10.5 mm wide) facilitates significant increases in durability and wear resistance with lower mass.

The new INA IT Chain has a new system for interlocking the links in the chain with fine-blanked rotating joint plates as well as an intermediate link joined by a press fit. The strength of the assembly is thereby increased and the deflection of the pin is decreased. The wear behavior of the chain is improved considerably in conjunction with the high surface quality of the fine-blanked joint plates. This means that the life of the INA IT Chain is several times longer than the life of a conventional chain. The performance and reliability of the press fit joint has been developed in dynamic simulations as well as by using finite element calculations and has been confirmed in durability tests and wear endurance tests on test stands and in vehicles. A fleet of test vehicles has recently completed around one million kilometers in road endurance tests.

The Swiss company Hydrel (also a member of the Schaeffler Group) is responsible for the fine-blanking tools as well as the initial production of the links under volume production conditions. The chain pins for all primary chains are manufactured in the highly-specialized needle roller bearing plants of the Schaeffler Group to so-called “bearing quality”. Complex production lines and assembly machines have been de-veloped for the first volume production run at the end of 2007. The Schaeffler Group’s expertise and that of the chain manufacturer Renold Automotive, which was acquired by the Group in 2006 and which has since been integrated into the Group, was used in this area. The current new developments, the comprehensive range of standard components from Renold Automotive, and the special chains for transmission applications from the LuK brand mean that the Schaeffler Group is the system supplier with the most expertise in chain drive applications worldwide.

Source: Schaeffler Group

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