News

After-sales technical support saved the existing chain – the problem was solved by replacing the damaged chain links

Photo caption: Jani Äkäslompolo and other Lapua Chains specialists visited the customer’s site to inspect the damaged conveyor chain. 

Customer: Kolmen Kaverin Jäätelö Oy 
Story by: Jani Äkäslompolo, Technical Sales, Lapua Chains Oy and Ketjumaailma 

“We recently visited one of our customers to investigate a problem with a long conveyor, where the chain had broken as a result of external damage. After the customer had repaired the chain, the line began to experience chain jerking, unusual noise, timing problems and slack at the idler sprockets. At that point, the customer contacted our technical support team. 

We started investigating the case, but soon concluded that remote diagnostics alone would not be sufficient. To identify the problem, we needed to see the line operating in practice, so we visited the customer’s site. 

The production supervisor at the customer’s plant had noticed that the tensioner on the affected line moved approximately 2–3 mm at the same point during every cycle. Calculations made by the plant’s Production Manager also pointed to the same section of the chain and indicated a local difference in chain length. 

Based on our experience in maintenance and troubleshooting, we suspected a variation in the chain caused by different stages of elongation between the chain sections. This kind of difference can occur when a chain that has already been in service is repaired with new components. 

The original section of the chain had been in operation for one year, during which normal operational elongation had developed evenly along its length. The newly repaired section had not yet experienced this elongation and therefore had not fully settled to match the chain already in service.

 
The replaced chain section was running on a production-critical conveyor and temporarily affected the timing of the assembly line, which caused the problem. 

As a solution, we replaced the damaged chain links with links suitable for the original chain. After this, the disturbances on the line disappeared. 

It is not always necessary to replace an entire conveyor chain. In some cases, repairing only a small section can be enough. 

Situations like this demonstrate the importance of having technical support available even after the sale. When problems occur, fast diagnostics and close cooperation can help get production running again quickly. 

Thank you to our customer for the excellent cooperation!”