Determination of Center Distance of a Roller Chain Drive
Rong Changfa, Zhu Jun, Xu Hua
(Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China)

Abstract: A series of nonlinear equations are used to calculate the center distance of a roller chain drive. The maximum and minimum distances are found to be almost the same as by the Winklhofer method which applies only when the length of chain is an even number of chain pitches. Other methods can only give approximate values. The presented method can be used in any roller chain drive where the two sides of the chain are straight. The method is significant for a roller chain drive with fixed center distance.
Keywords: roller chain drive;center distance;numerical method