Shear Pin Calculation

**sunyahnil** · 5th January 2008, 2:10

Dear Sirs,
I wanted to know how to calculate shear pin diameter for a chain conveyor.

**designer** · 5th January 2008, 21:43

As a design engineer you will be able to follow the principles below :

The shear pin material will have a shear strength of q N/mm2.

The shear pin will have a neck diameter of d mm.

Thus the shear load L (N) will be the shear strength * the neck area.

The shear load will act a radius r mm, so the shear torque will be the the shear load * the radius.

Naturally, you will select a suitable material for the shear pin having tested its shear strength.

I don't think a design engineer needs any more guidance than this. Of course when applying these principles it may be necessary for you to establish an application factor to suit the chain conveyor you have designed, but that is down to you as the designer.

Lawrence K. Nordell · 14th January 2008, 6:15

Usually, the pin is supported from two sides and therefore the load is distributed onto the shaft at two locations. Don't forget to divide the total load by the number of shear zones.

**designer** · 14th January 2008, 9:08

Originally posted by nordell
Usually, the pin is supported from two sides and therefore the load is distributed onto the shaft at two locations. Don't forget to divide the total load by the number of shear zones.

?? This is my understanding of a shear pin.
http://www.howdon.co.uk/images/PDFs/0030505.PDF

Lawrence K. Nordell · 14th January 2008, 10:43

OK, which is "usually"? I offered for those of us that don't know "usually" from less than "usually".

Marco Aurelio Flores-Verdugo · 2nd February 2008, 4:41

Shear pins are simple but at least in my experience using shear pins in chain drives and similar equipment ,.

They can be dangerous and should be used as a last resource. To protect the instalation from further or greater damage .

Can you better use an electrical trip in your drive , or a torque limiting device , sumitomo can provide some really excelent devices that have worked for me in very large, very hot rotary and svrew dossifiers .

Even a smaller motor will work better , nothing breaks , nothing moves , nothing falls.

Marco

**designer** · 2nd February 2008, 12:18

I must beg to differ on the subject of electronic devices.
My experience is that mechanical shearing devices are the most effective at protecting the driven machine as they are fitted AT the machine drive shaft and not at some distance from it relying on some sensing device on the input power supply to the motor.

Marco Aurelio Flores-Verdugo · 2nd February 2008, 21:10

let me elaborate .

A cluster braking dossifier valve at the bottom of a reactor is designed to give a 6000lbs force at the end lip , the dossifier runs at 1 rpm , feed vary 45 to 200 ons per hr although it is volumetric the density of the product at 800ºc does not vary much , the original shaft design (designed by me) asked for a 7 Hp motor , a smart purchasing engeneer desided that as a 10 hp motor has the same price as a 7 hp , and they are readiliy available , thaT IT WAS A BETTER DEAL. so the dossifier was set with a 10 hp motor , then the reducer gear was installed with a large design factor because of the impacting nature of the load , so the reducer bought was a sumitomo with a 500% factor .

After this ,( and after severall un nice meetings) to protect the shaft we instaled shear pins .
Not once but several times in different instalations, as redundancy we installed a microphone in the discharge line , a pilot plant contraption that worked well there.

One day the pins sheared and nobody noticed until the reactor outlet temperature increased (then it was too late , the material inside the reactor had becomed a 1000 metric tons metheorite .

The microphone was silent and we(I was there) all tought how nice the plant felt that day (no noise is not an alarm)

It took us one week to clear the mess ( and $700,000 dls production loss ). we installed electronic backups, torque limiting devices , first only changed the fuse (it didn't work as when the fuse blew , somebody came with a larger fuse and we got the pins sheared aghain , finally the electronic system was installed and it has worked fine for 20 years. No need to extract and replace shear pins, in the New installations the shear pins were removed . They have not had problems , unfortunately I was unable to convince the organisation that a 7 hp motor would have been the solution. , they kept the 10 hp nevertheless.

In Fibrasin , a plant where i Briefly consulted , they followed the same track only that the shear pin was installed in a chain drive , they also increased the motor size , ( the problem was uneven feed at the starting point , not the motor) the pin sheared and the chain flew .

Please do be carefull where you install shear pins , yo might be saving the equipment but might be injuring someone else.

Marco

**designer** · 2nd February 2008, 21:31

Originally posted by sunyahnil
Dear Sirs,
I wanted to know how to calculate shear pin diameter for a chain conveyor.

I have no concept of "A cluster braking dossifier valve at the bottom of a reactor", in the original post he was asking about a CHAIN CONVEYOR about which I do have a little knowledge.

Marco Aurelio Flores-Verdugo · 2nd February 2008, 23:24

sorry got carried away

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Shear Pin Calculation

Lawrence K. Nordell

President and CEO

Conveyor Dynamics, Inc., USA [eDir]

Lawrence K. Nordell

President and CEO

Conveyor Dynamics, Inc., USA [eDir]

Marco Aurelio Flores-Verdugo

shear pins

Marco Aurelio Flores-Verdugo

electronic vs shear pins

Re: Shear Pin Calculation

Marco Aurelio Flores-Verdugo

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