Precise Friction Measurement in Drive Chains Using a Chain Joint Tribometer

Abstract

For high performance racing applications as well as to achieve global emission goals, the efficiency of chain drives in vehicles is of great importance. In previous studies research on drive chains for motorcycle transmissions and timing drives of combustion engines is done with regard to efficiency and wear of the entire drive trains. Hence a test rig, the chain joint tribometer, was built. That enables to do wear and friction research on all parts inside of a chain joint like pin and bush. In conventional test rigs for efficiency investigation in circulation mode, the effects of different friction contact points overlap. So, research on the tribological system “chain joint contact” is in the focus. This rig can represent arbitrary load curves, in particular the contact force and the relative motion of a real chain drive. The chain joint tribometer closes the gap between investigations on whole chain drives standard tribometer tests. In this paper, results of friction analysis using drive chain segments in the arrangement of serial production are presented. Differences are distinguished between different chains having deviating surface roughnesses, which proves that the used tribometer is an adequate setup to analyze drive chains with regard to friction.