pic: Offseason Drive Train Progress

[AustinSchuh]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

We've run AM 22T for seasons without any issue.

971 ran them last year, and had no issues. They are quite a bit lighter. But, they are a lot more expensive than steel. Your call there.

I personally won't put a chain run on one of my robots without some sort of tensioner, but if this has worked for you in the past, then go for it. I know that 233 has run 25 chain without tensioners, and it has worked for them.

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by AustinSchuh

971 ran them last year, and had no issues. They are quite a bit lighter. But, they are a lot more expensive than steel. Your call there.

I personally won't put a chain run on one of my robots without some sort of tensioner, but if this has worked for you in the past, then go for it. I know that 233 has run 25 chain without tensioners, and it has worked for them.

We also used 22T 25p 7075 aluminum sprockets in our drivetrain this past year without any problems, but we ended up machining them ourselves from 1/2" 7075 plate (which was cheaper than buying steel sprockets). We designed for initial exact chain length, but needed to add tensioners as the chain stretched. For that, we ended up just throwing in some of our Lexan floating idlers (which are quite possibly the lightest possible roller chain tensioner ever), and they worked without any problems.

[JesseK]

Yea, we're considering the price difference between the steel and aluminum sprockets; $7 vs $16 is a big difference for 16 sprockets (prototype+production).

We actually got some help from 233 in DC to make our chains tensionerless this year. They put alot of emphasis on proper spacing for the chain. We may try to pre-stretch to an extent as well. Maybe we'll also have some Teflon ready in case we wind up needing tensioners.