Experimental Evaluation of Chain Transmissions Lubricants Quality Using a New Method Based on Additional Inertia Moment Use

This paper proposes a new approach to the evaluation of the quality of lubricants for chain transmissions, which is based on the idea of the relationship between the chain efficiency pulldown and the use of inappropriate lubricants. To control the energy efficiency of chain drives, we applied a new method based on the use of rotary bodies with the known moments of inertia. This method allows investigating mechanical losses in a chain drive within a wide range of speed, load, and transient regimes of operation without the use of strain sensors. Experimental results indicated that the proposed method can be fully applied for the evaluation of the quality of lubricants in the course of operation of a chain transmission.