ROUND STEEL LINK CHAIN APPLICATION FOR

HEAVY LOAD, LARGE CAPACITY BUCKET

ELEVATORS

Introduction
Round link chains are well known for offering robust solutions and reliable results in a number of material handling
applications, especially those featuring heavy loads and harsh operating conditions (including the transport of corrosive
materials, operation at high temperature, handling of extremely abrasive materials). Through the decades they have become a
reference technology both in cement factories and other industrial fields such as power generation and ash handling. In the
last few years a few major manufacturers - among which CICSA is at
the leading edge - have developed round link chain applications with
additional technological refinement. Special chains featuring
advanced heat treatments have been developed that are able to
provide further life extension and reduced overall operation and
maintenance costs.
More specifically, thanks to advanced carburizing processes with
state-of-the art materials and heat treatment equipments (in some
cases also thanks to patent-pending processes) CICSA is now able to
offer round link chains and related fittings with a combination of
extremely high hardness and hardening depth with high mechanical
resistance to tensile loads, dynamic stress and fatigue.
Fig. 1: Driving station of a toothed wheel bucket
elevator with 34 mm CICSA LH-CS chain.

An example is the CICSA CS quality for chains operating on toothed

wheels elevators (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 below), particularly suitable for
large capacity and heavy load applications.

Chain features and toothed wheel technology

High speed and high capacity elevators are generally built with toothed driving wheels. Compared to more traditional
machines with smooth wheels, this solution allows to transmit movement without relying on pure friction, and carry any kind
of bulk material without adding any significant pre-tensioning load on the chain system. On the other hand this allows
developing higher traction forces without negatively affecting the chain operation.
These high performance machines use long chain strands, with few and simple couplings (e.g. the two couplings with flat
plates visible in Fig.1). The pitch between the buckets can be chosen according to different needs. Buckets are installed after
the setting up of the chains, thus making the assembling easier.
Remarkable applications have been successfully proposed in the last years, especially for clinker and raw material
transportation, where large round link chain elevators have performed very well. Table 1 shows some examples of typical large
capacity, high speed elevator specifications, operating since several years with CICSA equipments. They have confirmed a
reliable operation and cost-effective management.
CICSA
chain type
30x120 LH-CS
30x120 LH-C
34x136 LH-CS
36x126 3HS
38x144 LH-C

Height
(m)
60
45
55
40
45

Capacity
(t/h)
600
500
550
900
500

Material

Power (kW)

clinker
clinker
clinker
raw materials
raw materials

160
75
90
135
120

Table 1: examples of typical large capacity, high speed elevator specifications.

One of the main issues in toothed wheel elevators, when compared to smooth wheel machines, is that the chain lifetime is
usually limited by the progressive action of wear and tear that influences the capacity of the toothed wheel-chain system to
gear correctly. Generally, when the chain pitch grows beyond 2.5-3% of its original size due to wear and tear - after operating
several ten-thousand hours- some irregularities in gearing and some vibrations begin to appear. This is also the consequence
of another process occurring at the same time, the wearing of the teeth surfaces. Due to these effects the chain pitch becomes

remarkably longer than the pitch of the toothed wheel; this means that the chain equipment is close to its usual life end. As a
matter of fact, in order to avoid operating with too heavy vibrations and to keep a safe functioning of the machine, the chain
needs to be replaced. How can chain life be extended any further? Based on CICSA long practical experience, a good choice is
to adopt these two solutions:

a wise preliminary chain selection, focusing where possible since the early project of the machine - on using C or CS
type chains. As shown in Fig. 3, they can offer a significant gain in the hardness profile compared to conventional and
most competitive chains. This turns out by itself in an advantage in terms of longer service life.

after the chain has reached around 2.5-3% pitch extension adequate oversized teeth should be installed. As wear and
tear grow higher, replacing the original teeth with special, oversized ones is the suitable way to rebuild an
appropriate primitive circumference for the new oversized pitch that the chain has reached. The new teeth will allow
operating for several additional thousand hours, keeping low vibrations and a safe operation, and taking advantage of
the deep chain hardening profile which was selected.

Fig. 2: A toothed wheel for CICSA round link chain in preparation before delivery.

The result is a win-win situation where both actions cooperate to extend the chain life.

Nominal hardness profiles of chain equipment

850
800
750

Hardness (HV)

700

class C / CS
depth range

650

Effective case
hardening depth
Eht - DC1/550
ISO 2639

(CICSA LH type)

600
550
conventional
products depth
range

500
450

CS

400
350
0

8
10
Depth [x d %]

12

14

16

18

Fig. 3: Hardness profiles of most advanced chain qualities for toothed wheel bucket elevators (CICSA LH type).

Let us make an example, considering chain mm 34 with a 136 mm pitch on a wheel with 15 teeth, where the original
primitive diameter is 1301 mm. After some time, when wear and tear have increased the chain pitch by 2.5%, it will be 139.4
mm long. This could be verified by the user through a simple average measurement of the chain pitch along the chain. The
teeth will be worn as well, and we assume that their side surface (on which the chain leans) will be 3-4 mm lower. In such a
condition, both facts put the chain-teeth matching in a critical position. In order to gear correctly with the worn chain the worn
teeth should be moved away 22-23 mm from the centre of the wheel. If new teeth are set up, it is enough for them to move
chain support surface 19 mm towards the exterior.

A few additional considerations can be added, since achieving a successful application of these procedures and maximising
user satisfaction and cost reduction require to take some necessary pre-requisites into account.
The first is about the machine itself, which should be designed to work as much in a symmetrical way as possible (for example
taking special care of the operational symmetry of the feeding equipment), so that wear and tear appearing with time will also
be symmetrically distributed on the chains.
The second is about the oversized teeth. They shall move the leaning surface of the chain towards the exterior as far as 20-25
mm in case of large diameter chains (e.g. 30-38 mm), otherwise the radial adjustment is insufficient for obtaining an
effective extension of the equipment lifetime. By this point of view, the use of new oversized teeth gives the maximum
possibility of radial adjustment and the best gearing with the chain, together with a secure tooth fixing. Furthermore, CICSA
teeth are symmetrical and reversible, so that the very same teeth with the following chain equipment can be used again, when
it will also reach the corresponding chain elongation.
The third is about chains, that have to be designed to withstand a long operating time starting from the installation of the new
teeth: it is then necessary to have not only high surface hardness (i.e. 820 HV30), but also great effective hardening depth (up
to 10% of the diameter for CS class products). This is not an insignificant point, since a number of manufacturers (at least as far
as chains meant for such application are concerned) so far have only offered high surface chain hardness treatment without
specific care for the selection of high hardening depths and for the possibility of a substantial extension of the equipment
lifetime by recovering relevant chain pitch variations.

Fig. 4: A 600 t/h bucket elevator with CICSA LH-C chains for hot (200C) raw material.

CICSA, on the other hand, has been successfully following the mentioned policy for years now, by assisting their customers
first in making the most suitable choices according to their needs and subsequently in checking the condition of their
machines.

Conclusions
The adoption of a suitable choice of the chain equipment may guarantee a substantial lifetime extension to heavy load roundlink-chain bucket elevators, which have demonstrated successful and cost-effective operation in a number of heavy-duty
applications. Special care has to be taken in the preliminary selection of the chain features - as well as of course in the correct
management of the machine- to optimize the machine operation while minimizing the maintenance duties even in the most
difficult applications.