Patent ID: 7117575

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a link plate for a roller chain, comprising the steps of: intermittently forwarding a band of sheet steel along a path past a plurality of dies arranged in succession along the direction in which said band of sheet steel is forwarded, wherein at least one of said dies is a rough punching die, and at least one other one of said dies is a shaving die, said rough punching die and said shaving die being positioned symmetrically in relation to, and on opposite sides of, an intermediate position along said direction; punching said band of steel sheet by said rough punching die, thereby punching out a portion of said band to form an edge of a link plate; and shaving said edge of said link plate by said shaving die; wherein said band of steel sheet deviates laterally relative to a straight line extending along said direction and past the rough punching and shaving dies, said line being laterally displaced from both said rough punching die and said shaving die in the same direction, and the lateral deviation of said band of sheet steel from said straight line reaches a maximum or minimum at a fixed location along said path substantially coinciding with said intermediate position; whereby, in said shaving step, said shaving die is closely aligned with said edge of a link plate formed by said rough punching die.