Involute sprockets for roller chain drives of vehicles

The involute profile of the tooth has become widespread in gear drives of vehicles, as well as in chain drives equipped with toothed chains. The advantages of an involute profile are caused by a possibility to use the most productive and precise methods of teeth shaping and apply only one cutting tool to receive the different number of teeth of a spur gear or sprocket. However, contemporary technical literature hardly contains the information about the use of sprockets with an involute tooth profile in roller chain drives. This article offers a theoretical approach on how to design of involute sprockets for the roller chain drives and determine the geometric parameters of involute sprockets. The article also describes a patented method of teeth shaping of involute sprockets with the use of a standard cutting tool which is applied to cut involute spur gears.