Picking Out Roller Chain

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by Adam Y.

I read a book that suggested using the attachment/conveyor chain as a tank tread. More specifically I want to use the chain with the flat attachments. I thought that by bolting on neoprene rubber inbetween two chains it would make a nice (abeit expensive and maybee heavy) tank tread. At it's cheapest it would be 7.00 a foot which would cheap enough for me. Mcmaster also is not know for being cheap.

We used attachment chain from Diamond Chain for our 2002 Robot. We riveted steel cleats to the chain, which were narrow enough to allow the drive to turn, but dug into the carpet to provide pushing force.

FIRST outlawed metal cleats in 2003, so I can see why you are thinking about putting rubber cleats on the attachment chain. We actually tried doing this in 2003, with urethane cleats. We aligned our wheels, kept the chain unbelievalby tight, and we STILL threw our chain off. The urethane does no allow for turning as well as metal cleats do, since they were wider and stuck to the carpet better than metal.

I am not saying that this rubber cleated chain drive system cannot be done, but I am saying that it will be risky and tough to make it work. Rubber likes to stick to carpet and chain likes to fall off of sprockets at the slightest side force, as it's moving... so be careful in how you design your tensioning system and wheel alignment system. Don't skimp on those two features. Ensure that your wheels get aligned and create a separate tensioning device to get maximum tension on the chain.

Good luck,
Andy B.