Patent ID: 8057342

Claim:
A plate-link chain for a motor vehicle drive system, said chain comprising: a plurality of link plates hingedly connected with each other by rocker members, wherein the rocker members extend transversely to the longitudinal direction of the plate-link chain and are positioned in openings in the link plates, the chain including an outer surface that faces radially outwardly when the chain moves in a circular path about an axis of rotation and an inner surface that faces radially inwardly when the chain moves in a circular path about an axis of rotation, curved contact surfaces located on the rocker members and on the link plates and along which the rocker members and link plates are in contact with each other to transmit power, curved rolling surfaces located on the rocker members and along which pairs of the rocker members roll against each other to transmit power, wherein the rocker members are shaped asymmetrically in cross section in a height direction of the rocker members that is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the plate-link chain relative to a longitudinal plane that is parallel to the longitudinal direction of the chain when the chain is in a straight condition and that passes through a center region of the rocker member cross section, wherein the rocker members have a rocker member outer width region having an outer width dimension between the longitudinal plane and the chain outer surface that is larger than a rocker member inner width region having an inner width dimension between the longitudinal plane and the chain inner surface, wherein the contact surfaces between the rocker members and the link plate openings each have outer and inner contact surface regions relative to the longitudinal plane and in the height direction of the rocker members, wherein the curved rolling surfaces of the rocker members include at least two rocker-member-to-rocker-member contact regions, an outer contact region above the longitudinal plane and an inner contact region below the longitudinal plane, each rocker-member-to-rocker-member contact region considered relative to the longitudinal plane that passes through the rocker member center regions when the chain is in a straight condition, the outer and inner rocker-member-to-rocker-member contact regions having different curvatures in the outer and inner contact regions of their rolling surfaces, and wherein a ratio of the curvature of the inner contact region to the outer contact region lies in the range of from about 0.25 to about 0.9.