Improved glass conveyor chain for higher productivity
3Pages

Container Glass Improved glass conveyor chain for higher productivity William C. Hall -President J i m T h o r n l e y - Vi c e P r e s i d e n t o f S a l e s Ramsey Products Corporation, Charlotte, North Carolina (USA) Higher speeds, less downtime, decreased maintenance, and reduced breakage are key factors in providing the higher productivity demanded by bottle producers. Ramsey Products Corporation has developed a high performance glass conveyor c h a i n ( U l t r a l i f e T M ) e s p e c i a l l y f o r h i g h s p e e d s a n d e n h a n c e d p r o d u c t i v i t y. INTRODUCTION For many years, Inverted tooth chain, also known as silent chain, has been used to transport glassware in both hot end and cold end applications. Providing a stable, flat and smooth, heat resistant surface, such chains are available in many different designs and sizes. Operators and designers of glass machinery can choose from a variety of standard chain pitches, link shapes, widths, joint styles, and materials. In most applications, particularly those involving speeds less than 0.5 M/s, standard chains perform well and will provide a satisfactory service life. However, as production speeds increase, chain wear rates also increase, resulting in more frequent maintenance and reduced service life. Also, as conveyor speeds increase, synchronization with other glass transport mechanisms becomes even more critical. Variations in chain velocity or irregular movements can lead to mishandling, tipping, breakage, and downtime. All of these problems, increased maintenance, breakage, downtime, and reduced service life, drive up production costs and reduce productivity. UltraLife chain close-up, and on an IS machine Recognizing the challenges inherent in higher transport speeds, as well as the growing customer interest in improved riveted pins to interfere with machine guides, a chain must be productivity, the product designers at Ramsey Products set out to optimize a chain to meet these new demands. The goal was to design a chain that would provide longer life with less frequent replaced. Chain elongation is the result of link and pin wear within the chain joint. As a chain elongates, it will wrap an ever-increasing sprocket pitch diameter, and the chains’ linear velocity will increase. maintenance and with smaller variations in surface speed. Chain replacement is necessary when the velocity impairs smooth IDENTIFYING AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT Analyzing customer comments and chain samples returned from transport of glassware, the chain interferes with other machine parts, or the chain does not properly engage sprockets. In addition, a third factor limiting chain life is lateral wear or thinning of the the field, Ramsey engineers first identified the most common reasons that chains become unusable and the contributing factors. Chain life was found to be most often limited by two factors: links. Caused by links sliding against one another, thinning links can cause chain pins to project excessively, where they collide with chain guides,and crack or break. elongation, commonly referred to as "stretch", and reduction in A similar review of maintenance needs revealed that chain chain height due to link tip wear. Link tip wear occurs as a result of friction between the chain and the supporting wear plates. When link wear reduces the overall height sufficiently to cause the chains’ elongation was the major reason for periodic repairs. Initially, retensioning can accommodate excess length. However, when the limits of machine adjustment are reached, it becomes necessary to International Glass Review

Container Glass shut down the conveyor and cut out sections of chain to reduce the overall length. Customer feedback also indicated that new chains could be a problem if the pitch was inconsistent. For example, a typical conveyor that is 25 meters long will be pieced together from 8 separate chain sections. If the pitch of the individual sections is not consistent, the chain's velocity will fluctuate as the different sections engage the drive sprocket. Analyzing all of the issues, engineers summarized that an improved chain would have the following characteristics: 1) More consistent pitch...

76mm. Twenty-three months later, after a cumulative run time of thirty-two months, a similar adjustment was made to take up an additional 152mm of elongation. Both of these adjustments were made while the chain was running, requiring no additional machine downtime. Finally, in September of 2000, after thirty-four months of run time, the chain was removed and replaced, even though the Container Glass chain was operating satisfactorily. Bill Edmonds, the hot end engineer, explained that the chain was running fine, but we decided to replace it anyway while the machine was shutdown for other...