EUREKA PROJECT > 5370 E-CHAINS
PORTUGAL
E-CHAINS, more efficient chains improving tribological behaviour
To increase the lifetime of chain drives & raising the wear resistance of chains. New materials, including coatings and surface treatments, will be investigated for chain plates, bushings and pins. The possibility to use environmental friendly lubricants will also be studied.
Status > ANNOUNCED - 24-Jun-2010 Technological Area Market Area Start Date > 04-Jan-2010 Duration > 48 Months Participating countries > PORTUGAL, SPAIN | Main contactSRAMPORT, Transmissoes Mecanicas, Lda Eng. Pedro Santos > Responsible of Engineering Organisation type > Large company |
Project Description
Promoting the bike and motorcycle as a clean and efficient alternative to the personal automobile is a practical way for cities to reduce traffic congestion, combat climate change and contribute to an increase of the citizen's life quality. Currently, the chain drive is one of the components of the bicycle, the motorcycle and transmission systems, which requires more maintenance to achieve high efficiency. Besides the cleaning and lubrication care, the life of the chain is determined by the elongation and depends on the type of use and cleaning. In a bike for example, a chain can last only 1,000 km especially in cross-country use, or in extreme weather conditions, and from 3,000 to 5,000 km for well-maintained derailleur chains. Currently, especially in high quality bicycle, motorbike and transmission chains, a process of chromisation is used to increase the wear and corrosion resistance of the pins. The chromised layer, deposited employing cement having a ferrochrome base, includes a chromium-iron nitride rich layer at the surface and chromium-iron carbides underneath. The main drawbacks of this process are: - Low deposition rate; - Difficult to apply to large batch. The main objective of this project is to increase the lifetime of chain drives raising the wear resistance of chains. Expertise of the current solutions and characterisation by bench and field test will be used to deeply understand the failure mechanisms and to achieve an average performance of the current standard solutions. Bearing in mind the technological limitations, new materials, including coatings and surface treatments, will be checked for both internal plates and pins in the case of bicycle drives and bushings/pins for motorcycles and power transmission systems. The possibility to use environment-friendly lubricants for these applications will also be studied, especially for those cases in which the grease or the chain lubricant could be in contact with the environment, the person or the food (chains for machines related to food products). Many of the chains fail due to the limited corrosion resistance, especially when wear deterioration is combined to the corrosion process, a synergy between both processes can create the multiplication of deterioration processes. New solutions will be tested concerning wear, fatigue and corrosion resistance in order to verify the ability of the new prototypes for current solutions. Therefore, this project aims to study the wear resistance of chains in order to: - Contribute to the development of new chains for the open drives of bicycles and motorcycles, including new robust and efficient pin and plate solutions; - Develop reliable bench test procedures (corrosion, wear, pitting, etc.) and criteria to compare the performance of new prototypes contributing to reduce the costs and the development period for new solutions; - Improve the product quality of European companies to reach the highest standards in the market. Laboratory bench tests and field tests will be used to verify the performance of the new solutions.
Technological Development Envisaged
To be efficient and comfortable the bicycle driving system must allow the selection of the most appropriate gear ratio considering road climbing. Different gears and ranges of gears are appropriate for different people and styles of cycling. Currently the market is based especially on multi-speed bicycles which allow gear selection to suit the circumstances and the users' characteristics. Nevertheless, the low lateral stiffness, which is the key factor to enable the gearing, also increases the wear of a chain. Therefore, the improvement of the elongation resistance is an important requirement in the development of new chains. Abrasion wear in the pin / inner plate contact is the main mechanism allowing the chain elongation. Currently, especially in high quality bicycle chains, a process of chromisation is used to increase the wear and corrosion resistance of the pins. The main drawbacks of this process are a low deposition rate and the difficulty applying it to a large batch. Today the criterion to change the transmission in bicycle and motorcycle drives is the maximum allowable elongation. However, the effect of the wear of the chains and sprockets in the degradation of the efficiency has not yet been conveniently established. The effectiveness of the chains of the motorcycles should be optimised, especially concerning the o-rings sealing to minimise the dropping of the lubricant in the environment. The shot penning is an alternative surface treatment able to modify the residual stress distribution in order to increase the fatigue behaviour of the chain. Alternatively, it is possible to create small holes in the surface, texturing the surfaces by means of laser techniques. The small holes can retain lubricant, increasing the load carrying capacity of the surfaces, and is able to trap the particles in the pockets, and decrease the friction coefficient. This type of technique can be applied to the moulds and translate to the sheets by means of a stamping process. This technique can be a way of improving the sliding behaviour of the system, especially with the contact of o-rings. Given the above consideration, both companies need to develop tribological solutions allowing for reducing the friction and wear, caused particularly by the abrasion process.
Main contactSRAMPORT, Transmissoes Mecanicas, Lda Eng. Pedro Santos > Responsible of Engineering Organisation type > Large company |
Contribution to project
The organisation has 40 years of experience in the design and manufacturing of drive chains for the automotive industry and 2 wheels industry, mostly on bicycles. For this project SRAMPORT will apply all of our know-how and adequate resources on materials, coatings, testing, etc. in order to find a solution that could ultimately increase chain life and therefore reduce the end user maintenance costs.
Expertise
SRAMPORT has 40 years of experience in production and development of drive chains. All of the SRAM bicycle chain models available today were developed and manufactured in SRAMPORT. In-house technologies are stamping, heat treatment and assembling. SRAMPORT’s core business is mid and high end bicycle chains for road and mountain bike applications and mainly the After Market (AM) business that represents about 70% of Sales. For more information, please see the website www.sram.com
Main contact2000 Transmisiones Europa S.A. Mr. Juan Angel Velar Aranburu > General Manager/Industrial Manager Organisation type > SME |
Contribution to project
The organisation has wide knowledge in design and production of chains for motorbikes, motors, industrial machines, karts and automation. In the frame of this project, it has been proposed to reconsider the materials, surface treatments, surface geometry, design and lubricants to increase the durability of the chains and to reduce the maintenance cost of the users. CADENAS IRIS has designing capacity, a huge background in materials and application knowledge.
Expertise
CADENAS IRIS in collaboration with TEKNIKER will study mainly the possibility to change the geometry of the surface of the rollers in order to keep the lubricant. New designs, materials, treatments and surface geometries will be considered, and by means of tribological simulation tests the best combinations of materials will be selected to increase the lifetime of the chain. The application area from CADENAS IRIS is complementary with the partner SRAMPORT.
Main contactFCT-UC / FACULTADE DE CIENCIAS E TECNOLOGIA
UNIVERSIDADE DE COIMBRA DR. AMILCAR RAMALHO > Professor/Researcher Organisation type > University |
Contribution to project
A. Ramalho and the FCTUC team have a significant experience in the tribology field. Therefore the research experience of the FCTUC team on friction and wear is certainly an added value for doing the expertise of chains and participating in the experimental characterisation of the new materials. Furthermore the experimental facilities in the laboratories of the FCTUC will be helpful in the research program, namely: Scanning Electron Microscope, several friction and wear testers, hardness and tensile testers, and fatigue testers.
Expertise
The team of FCTUC involved in this project belongs the Group on Structural Integrity (GSI) from CEMUC - Centre of Mechanical Engineering of the UNIVERSITY OF COIMBRA and aims to promote the development of new knowledge, to engage in the dissemination of best design project methodologies and to encourage the exchange of knowledge in mechanical and structural components to bring economic, environmental and social benefits to society. The main competencies of GSI are: - Ability to apply hybrid experimental - numerical techniques to investigate the fatigue behaviour of mechanical and structural components under bi-axial in phase loading. - Expertise to investigate the friction and wear behaviour of bulk and composite materials by several techniques, namely: unidirectional sliding, reciprocating sliding, load-scanning. - Use of the neuronal networks and genetic algorithms to identify mechanical properties and to detect and quantify the damage in structures. - Expertise in the characterisation of physic, mechanic and tribological behaviour of biological systems and biomaterials, namely dental materials, prosthesis and human skin. - Utilisation of the Holographic Interferometry Techniques to detect damage in laminate composites. - Use of Ultrasound Techniques to detect damage in laminate composites.