UHMW channel profiles are a very common sight at North American sawmills. The channel serves to reduce power requirements by making the chain slide easier. In addition, the soft channel reduces wear on the chain as it slides. This saves money immediately (in the lower power costs) and in the long-term with reduced chain wear. Customers are sometimes unsure what profiles are offered and ask for extruded profiles that do not exist. While custom channel can be machined, this is costly with poor availability and usually only available in black.
Redwood Plastics and Rubber’s extruded chain channel is available in “polygold” or yellow. While it is a reprocessed product, unlike the black reprocessed UHMW, the yellow is ‘clean’ meaning the regrind bits are not visible. They are stocked and sold by standard 10 foot lengths; however, 20 foot lengths are available on special order. The profiles are available for several chains, most notably 81x, H78, and C2060. The profiles are sold as simple U-channel; however, all of our profiles can be supplied with plug holes drilled and weld washer’s supplied and this service is provided at each and every Redwood Plastics and Rubber location. This service typically adds $10.00/length and 3-5 business days delivery.
Two important channel profiles of note are the C3 and C4. These are actually channel inserts, which mean they are extruded to fit into C3 and C4 steel channel respectively. They are not designed to be used separately without support.
For more information on Redwood Plastics and Rubber’s extruded UHMW chain channel profiles please click here to view a downloadable brochure.