Plastic Roller Chain

[shai]

I don't have much expiriance with the vex chains, but our team is going for timing blets this year. They are lighter and easier to work with.

[ttakashima]

If you are not using it for high torque areas of your robot than it should be fine. The HS chain from VEX has a tensile strength of 50 lbs.


It should not have broken for an 8-1 reduction seeing as you could lift your VEX robot with it - X2

Our prototype is all VEX, it worked fine even with the window motor installed.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by ttakashima

The HS chain from VEX has a tensile strength of 50 lbs.

...but don't expect to be able to load it WITH 50 lbs an not have it fail often. Find the definition of "Factor of safety" and use maybe 10 here. Also, compare that number with McMaster's spec on steel #35.

[Henry Williams]

I know that VeX chain looks pretty beefy but one of the other Pudue area teams (1747-HBR) used plastic chain in the past and it really depends on how you use it. One year they had no problem but they were spinning a turret on it (hardly any load) but another year they broke it alot because they had some stress on it. Obviously it's nice because of the weight reduction but just keep in mind what sorts of things you intend on doing. Hope this can be helpful.