Belts vs. Chains

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by EricH

Same here. In 2001, we had #25 in the drive. During 2003, when it was our practice robot, we spent more time replacing chain than we did driving.

We used some in our shooter in 2006 (intermediate pulley system to the shooter wheel). The rest of the power transmission there was a belt, and we never had a problem. Actually, most of our shooter/loader was belting, either for transport (timing belt driven by an FP) or for shooting (Big CIM to intermediate axle, where we put chain the rest of the way).

Originally Posted by Chris Fultz

YES, #25 can break and will, especially on a drive train. We have an absolute rule that no #25 on the drive.

We do use it in some other lower stress / lower power areas.

There is a good write up of chain vs. belt on the gates website -
http://www.gates.com

On the contrary to the above posts...

I have personally used #25 chain on 3 robots. 1 of which did ALL of the gear reduction through chain and sprocket (yep thats right 12 chains per side) and I have never had a chain break.

A lot of people tend to think that #25 chain is weak and will not work. Our team looked extensively at the numbers of #25 vs #35. The result was us using #25 chain on our robot (and not a chain broke).

Tension. Tension. Tension. Keeping those chains tight is the miracle cure of chain breakage.