How to Measure Your Roller Chain?

Roller chain is the type of chain drive most commonly used for the sketch of roller chain,  mechanical power on many kinds of domestic, industrial and agricultural machinery, including conveyors, wire- and tube-drawing machines, printing presses, cars, motorcycles, and bicycles. It consists of a series of short cylindrical rollers held together by side links. It is driven by a toothed wheel called a sprocket. It is a simple, reliable, and efficient means of power transmission.

 

To find the chain pitch, you’re looking for the distance between the center of two pins. For larger chains you might be able to find this using a ruler or tape measurer, but a caliper is always your best bet.

 

The roller is the cylindrical component in between the two plates of the link, through which is the pin. Use the caliper to measure the distance from both ends of the roller, which should extend to the inside of both plates.

 

The roller diameter is essentially the thickness of the cylinder. Slide the caliper against the rounded sides of the roller to determine the diameter.

 

Each roller chain link has plates on either side. These plates can either be straight (sometimes known as a straight sidebar) or curved. Lay the chain flat on a table so that the rollers are visible from the top. Looking at the chain from the side, simply measure from the top of the plate to the bottom to determine the height. For a curved plate, measure at the or tallest part surrounding the pin.

 

Keeping the chain flat with the rollers facing up, to find the plate thickness you will be measuring the width of the plate. This is where a caliper is very important as thicknesses can range from 0.03” to 0.218” with plenty of outliers.

 

Now that you have your roller chain dimensions, contact us more information about our products, or tell us your needs, our professsional team is always glad to help you.