Double the life thanks to an innovative sprocket

Sewage treatment plants that process wastewater from homes, businesses, and factories are not something we think about in our daily lives, and yet they are indispensable to the functioning of modern society. These sewage treatment plants use sludge collectors comprised of chain mechanisms to process wastewater that has been collected in settling basins. Our latest innovation, Hinotch Chain, is a conveyor chain product that can be used by these sludge collectors. Sludge collectors can use a variety of chains, such as those made from cast metal, stainless steel, or plastic, but at sewage treatment plants, plastic notch chain is also in demand, and we have an assortment of products available.

The conventional plastic notch chain was once limited to the official products of the manufacturers that made sludge collectors. This is the first example ever by a chain manufacturer to commercialize a product. So, what is notch chain, anyway? As the word “notch” implies, a notch chain has notches or cavities on its interior, and sprocket wheels engage with these notches to transmit drive power. Furthermore, our Hinotch Chain has two distinguishing features: it makes for easy maintenance and delivers long life.

Structure of a sludge collector

Improved maintenance thanks to easy attachment mounting and removal

Maintenance efficiency has been improved by allowing the mounting and removal of attachments to which flights for gathering sludge are attached, instead of having them built into the chain. This makes it possible to freely mount flights at the necessary positions while the chain is still installed within the sludge collector, thereby minimizing the downtime of wastewater treatment equipment.

Innovated design extends life of sprocket wheels thanks to a large notch area and number of pins

Another innovative feature of Hinotch Chain is the DL Teeth on sprocket wheels. DL is an acronym for double life. This extended life for the cylindrical pins on the sprocket wheels that engage with the chain is made possible by its innovative arrangement. Specifically, while conventional sprocket wheels from other companies have eleven pins, our DL Teeth sprocket wheels have 21 pins. Since the pin interval is short, the large notch sections of Hinotch Chain span every other pin, so that they engage odd pin numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and so on. Consequently, no load, such as wear, is placed on even pin numbers 2, 4, 6, 8 and so on.

And since there are twenty-one pins, this odd number means that after one rotation of the sprocket wheel, the next rotation will engage the even-numbered pins. In short, while each rotation of conventional sprocket wheels with eleven pins places a load, such as wear, on all the pins, with DL Teeth, the load is spread out over two rotations, leading to double the normal life expectancy of the sprocket wheel.
We have submitted a patent application for this unique mechanism. Hinotch Chain has debuted along with the other high added-value products mentioned here.

Sprocket wheel for Hinotch Chain