Patent ID: 8708850

Claim:
A link plate for a transmission chain composed of a plurality of link plates flexibly connected to one another, each of said link plates having first and second parallel, opposite, side faces and a guide-contacting edge surface extending from said first side face to said second side face, and being positioned in relation to all other parts of said each of said link plates so that said guide-contacting edge surface is capable of direct sliding contact with a chain guide, wherein said guide-contacting edge surface is composed of a plurality of guide-engaging surface portions in alternating relationship with a plurality of grooves along the direction of chain travel, each of said surface portions having a convex profile when viewed in a direction perpendicular to said first and second side faces, each of said grooves extending from said first side face to said second side face and separating one of said surface portions from another of said surface portions, each of said surface portions being situated between two of said grooves and meeting one of said two grooves at a first end point and meeting the other of said two grooves at a second end point spaced from said first end point, and said surface portions lying in, and conforming to, an imaginary continuous surface having a continuously convex curved profile when viewed in a direction perpendicular to said opposite side faces, whereby each of said surface portions can come into sliding contact with a surface of a chain guide.