When it comes to the lack of service life, excessive wear and unreliability of drive chains, it is advisable to think outside the box and ask an alternative provider. In the present case, a Dutch one could Steel mill thereby increasing the productivity of its heat treatment in the long term. How? By him Tsukaki its failure-prone drive chains High-tech lifting chain with a service life of up to 15 years.

Contents

• Buffer tower for coating steel chains
  • Precise lubrication of the lifting chains required
  • Tsubaki specialists on site
• Ensure synchronous running

Buffer tower for coating steel chains

When coating steel sheet, annealing is an important process to achieve better processability and reduced hardness of the metal. In the continuous annealing process, the individual steel sheets are automatically welded together at their ends so that they form an endless strip. In the annealing section there is a buffer tower as inlet and outlet storage. The towers ensure a steady flow of steel by continuously feeding an adjustable amount of steel into the processing lines. Four buffer towers form the heart of the buffer towers roller chains, which raise or lower special platforms for the supply and removal of the steel.

Precise lubrication of the lifting chains required

The Drive Chains are heavily stressed and must be lubricated accordingly with oil or grease. Of course, these media must not enter the annealing process. It is therefore important that the steel is fed cleanly. This requires precise lubrication and is like walking a tightrope: if the lubrication is too high, the steel becomes dirty; if it is too low, the chain becomes dry and fails prematurely. 

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In this case, the height of the tower made access to maintenance work on the chains more difficult and the steelworks operator had to do so Maintenance carried out rather irregularly and reactively. This caused the original chains to buckle and fail due to inadequate lubrication. Inspection of the broken chains showed that the wear was unevenly distributed, causing overload to other chain strands. So the steelworks turned to Tsubaki for help. The drive specialist has a range of innovative chain technologies in its portfolio, including lubricant-free and corrosion-resistant chains as well as chains for use in environments as demanding as the steel industry.

Tsubaki specialists on site

After a visit to the steel mill, the drive specialists recommended replacing the existing chains with some of their standard BS chains. The technology of GT4 winner has been continually improved over several design generations so that it now meets the requirements of most applications. This current version of the eighth generation offers with the G8 RS roller chain Compared to the previous generation, a 20 percent longer service life. One of the features, for example, is a special chain lubrication that is applied in the last production step. This inhibits corrosion and increases the service life of the chain. The in-house developed oil used leaves no sticky residue on the chain surface that could be transferred to the steel sheets.

The G8 Super is one High performance drive chain and was designed for applications in which large loads have to be transported at low speeds. Based on a new heat treatment process, the use of thicker material and an innovative geometry, this chain offers greater strength compared to the standard GT4 chain. This made the exchange chain ideal for the buffer tower.

Ensure synchronous running

But there was another problem that was troubling the steel producer: the buffer tower very long chain strands installed, which caused massive problems in synchronous running due to different wear elongation. The experienced drive specialist was able to help here too: Due to similar problems in the past, the drive specialist added an optional production step in production that ensures the required tolerance in chain strands used in pairs or groups. With its unique Match & Tag-Service, the company guarantees a maximum chain length difference of 0,5 mm - regardless of the total length of the chain strands.

Finally they were sprockets exchanged, which are also of high quality. In order to shorten assembly time, the chains were delivered extra long. This made installation in the high, difficult-to-access tower easier. The annual agreed inspection of the chains rounds off Tsubaki's customer-friendly service. The buffer tower has been running continuously and very reliably since the drive elements were replaced.

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