Silent chain transmission mechanism

A silent chain transmission mechanism comprising a silent chain and a sprocket, the silent chain being composed of interleaved link rows connected to one another by connecting pins, each link row being composed of plural, toothed, link plates arranged in side-by-side, parallel, relationship, said link rows having outside meshing surfaces, said silent chain being in meshing relationship with said sprocket, and the outside meshing surfaces of link rows along a portion of said chain being in seated relationship with teeth on said sprocket;

• in which, each link plate has a pair of pin-receiving holes for receiving connecting pins, a pair of teeth having straight, converging, outer flanks, a maximum length w, measured in the direction of the length of the chain, and a height h equal to the distance from a pitch line intersecting the centers of said pin-receiving holes to a point at which imaginary extension lines aligned with said outer flanks intersect;
• in which, each link row has a length W equal to the length of a laterally projected envelope of the lengths w of the plates composing said link row, and a height H equal to a laterally projected envelope of the heights h of the plates composing said link row;
• in which the link plates of each of said link rows are gathered at random and differ from one another in their outside dimensions such that the lengths w of the link plates of each link row differ from one another, and the heights h of the link plates of each link row also differ from one another;
• in which the teeth of said sprocket are shaped to mesh in seated relationship with link plates having a design reference length Ws, and a design reference height Hs;
• and
• in which the length W and the height H of each link row respectively match said design reference length Ws and design reference height Hs of the sprocket teeth for proper meshing of said chain with said sprocket.