What is sharp top chain?
At its core, sustainable forestry and wood processing has a modern sawmill where logs are cut into timber. The journey from log to timber is a high-tech process designed to optimise the yield from every log carried by a sharp top chain that enters the mill.
These sawmills are highly automated and efficient, full of laser measurement, computers and enormous saw blades. At each stage where the logs are cut, sharp top chain – chains with teeth, are used to move the timber through the process at speed. Sharp top chain is used on many machines like butt reducers, canters and optimisers.
Most of the sharp top chain is dimensionally based on standard roller chain with the addition of tooth plates arranged in a mix the within inner and outer links. With a variety of tooth profiles depending on the application, the teeth have a precise sharpness to give a grip wall causing the least amount of damage to the timber. But it is not simply a case of taking a standard chain and adding attachments. The chain we supply has been especially created for the industry, the materials having been carefully selected and heat treated to ensure the chain is strong, ductile and able to withstand intense impact and shock loads.
A particular issue with sharp top chain is sawdust and wood chip becoming compacted or trapped between the chain components and sprockets. To combat this our chains are built with particular tolerances to cope with this. We also supply special anti-clog chain sprockets with a groove at the base of the tooth. Quite simply, it allows any debris build-up to fall away leaving the driving flank of the sprocket clean to drive the chain.
Not all chains in common use in Europe are based on European standard roller chains. There are some regional variations of sharp top chain in central European machinery manufacturers. Linck and Mohringer of Germany use very similar chains while Nordic region companies like ARIVislanda, Kockum, EWD, Söderhamn Eriksson and Bruks have different chains operating in the same applications.