#25 Chain and Sprockets

This winter Apollo went through a change from timing-belt drive to chain drive. The timing belts are nice, but they weren't up to the heavy lifting the rest of the robot can handle. The timing belts held up for a couple years, but we're looking for a longer working-life than that. These chains are rated for about a thousand pounds, so they shouldn't be an issue :-).

Apollo has 2 arm sprocket sizes, 83 tooth (pictured) and 53 tooth (pictured above). The more teeth, the slower the robot moves, but the more weight it can carry. Speed really isn't an issue with Apollo, even the slowest version moves at about a meter a second.

In other news, we're working on an all metal Apollo version. You'll get a peek of it in this spring's blog.