Chain and sprockets VS. belt and pulleys?

I've never seen a printer with chains and sprockets. They mostly use belts and pulleys. Is this a cost thing, or do chains have any performance issues like wear or backlash?

Chains are noisy and heavy. Chains are also stiffer than belts, which would seem like a good thing, but steppers really like to have a little compliance in the drive train to damp out vibrations. The problem with vibration is that it can actually reduce the amount of torque you can get out of your stepper motor.

Take a look at synchromesh cables and plastic sprockets. Lightweight and relative inexpensive. Great tension strength and the ability to change directional routing without consequence. I'm using them on my current build and I've designed them into my upcoming Scara arm project.

I googled synchromesh, found a gearbox. sdp-si.com
A video on youtube of a pcb plotter using fishing line, directly on the shaft of some nema's. I may have to try that sometime, instead add a rubber lined pulley for grip

Synchromesh cables

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/2015 01:47AM by o_lampe.

Back in 2008 or so Vik Olliver got a reprap working with beaded ball chain (the stuff that goes on light switch pull chains). Link here: beaded belt drive success.

SDP-SI carries synchromesh cables and pulleys in various pitch and pulley tooth count. I had 3DHubs print custom 15 tooth pulleys for my current project using this Thingiverse file synchromesh pulley but the pitch diameter didn't fit the cable when it arrived. The quality of the prints were also poor. I downloaded the CAD from from SDP-SI and created my own custom .stl file (different hub lengths and bore dia.) and had them printed on a Stratasys machine and they worked perfectly. For durability sake however I've decided to go with the SDP-SI pulleys (15 tooth/5 mm I.D. bore) and have custom adapters machined for the different stepper motor shaft sizes I'm using 6.35 mm and 8 mm.