Chain and Sprocket Motion Assembly

Hello,

 

I'm trying to complete a custom chain/sprocket assembly and then open it in Studio for movement of both parts. I have everything moving but the chain links aren't lining up correctly at the radius. I used this YouTube link (

) in the creation of this assembly. I'm using a center point on the link to have it follow the path. If more info is needed I can answer any questions.

 

I'm also having trouble getting the sprocket and chain to move together at the same speed. The chain wants to move faster and I can't find the setting to either slow the chain down or speed the sprocket up. I will attach a couple pics showing what the links are doing once the start to wrap around the radius. Any suggestions/advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you,

William

in the image it appears as though your links arent concentric with the pins. I am guessing that you have each link following that sketch path.

 

So as someone who has done this in Inventor years ago as well as in solidworks i need to ask. Why? It is a crazy performance hog to try something like this. I did it just as a challenge but wouldn't actually do this on a real assembly. Solidworks added a chain/sprocket tool in 2015. PTC had one for years oddly. I don't think Inventor has one yet but i haven't looked.

 

So i guess the big question is what do you want to accomplish here. Are you trying to fake the chain motion or get something realistic? If you want to fake the assembly motion let us know how its currently setup with the joints and motion. When i did this i typically would run it in a simulation/animation with gravity on so the chain would sag. It is not worth moving it in the assembly environment with contact interaction because it is too PC intensive.

I need to put an animation together for my sales dept. to show the interaction with the sprocket teeth and the chain barrels. Needs to show the sprocket contact point on the chain in motion. I didn't think accomplishing this would be this difficult but it has been a bear. :-(

here is one i did in Solidworks about 7 years ago.

 

 

 

 

From the image i think if you reduce the Diameter of the circle/arc path around the sprocket so that the pins are closer to the root of the sprocket you might be okay. The key is to figure out if you want to fake it with a path or if you want to replicated with physical dynamics. In solidworks to make those animations i actually used the physical interaction between the chain and sprockets. The left sprocket drives the chain and the right sprocket is driven by the chain. Thats also why the chain hangs down because i added gravity as well.

 

Inventor has a Roller Chain tool in the "Power Transmission" section in the Design tab of an assembly. It makes the sprockets and path etc for you but the chain itself is faked.

can you share the assembly with me? i don't have the time to make a demo part, but maybe i can take a quick look at yours and see if it can be "massaged" into working.

Do you want me to post the parts/assembly on here or email them to you?

Either is fine. I don't know what the restrictions are for you with only 3 posts in terms of posting files etc. Posting here either uploading a zip through the forum or a link is best because more people can see it and possibly help out.

Here are two of the files. Will attach the link and assembly on the next post.

Sprocket 1.ipt

Chain Path 2.ipt

It looks to me that the center of the links are tangent to the gear's pitch circle rather than the link pin centers. It might be easier to change the circle to be closer to the diameter of the yellow circle I added.

Alternatively, you could scale the gear up.

I exceeded the 500mb thread attachment size. Can't upload anything else.

it won't let me open the sprocket. says its not valid for some reason. I agree that your path is wrong and needs to be closer to the root of the sprocket.

 

Try rolling the end of the model browser up and saving a Zip of the assembly. Do Save-As>Pack n go