State the advantages and disadvantages of the chain drive over belt and rope drive?

Answer 1

Chains versus belts

Drive chains are similar to belt-mechanicalin many ways, and which device is used is subject to several design tradeoffs. Drive chains are most often made of metal, while belts are often rubber, plastic, or other substances. This makes drive chains heavier, so more of the work put into the system goes into moving a chain versus moving a belt. On the other hand, well-made chains are often stronger than belts. Also, drive belts can often slip (unless they have timing-belt) which means that the output side may not rotate at a precise speed, and some work gets lost to the friction-1of the belt against its rollers.

Teeth on toothed drive belts generally wear faster than links on chains, but wear on rubber or plastic belts and their teeth is often easier to observe; you can often tell a belt is wearing out and about to break more easily than a chain. Chains often last longer.

Chains are often narrower than belts, and this can make it easier to shift them to larger or smaller gears in order to vary the gear ratio. Multi-speed bicycles with bicycle-gearingmake use of this. Also, the more positive meshing of a chain can make it easier to build gears that can increase or shrink in diameter, again altering the gear ratio.

Both can be used to move objects by attaching pockets, buckets, or frames to them; chains are often used to move things vertically by holding them in frames, as in industrial toasters, while belts are good at moving things horizontally in the form of conveyor-belt. It is not unusual for the systems to be used in combination; for example the rollers that drive conveyor belts are themselves often driven by drive chains.