u/TRX302

I have four shafts and sprockets I need to drive with a chain. The shafts are in a trapezoidal arrangement and the two sprockets on the short side would have only 45 degrees of wrap if the chain simply wraps around all four sprockets.

To get more wrap I could put an idler sprocket on the narrow side, pushing the chain down into the inside of the trapezoid.

The chain will be in an oil bath. Maximum chain speed would be around 2,000 feet per minute.

The thing is, I seem to remember from long ago that bending a roller chain "backwards" from its normal path will seriously increase wear and operating temperature will reducing its load factor. But I'm not finding anything about that online.

Am I imagining things, or is this a non-issue?