Nippon Thompson Co., Ltd.

Hideki Kuwabara

Shigeki Kakei

Masatoshi Kondo

Toyohisa Ishihara

Toshiaki Geka

Masaharu Yoshida

Takaaki Tsuboi

Shunsuke Kikuchi

Tsuguyoshi Nara

Yoshihiro Yoshida

Tamotsu Iwata

Katsuaki Nakano

Ryouichi Satake

Akitomo Mine

Go Kamon

A curvilinear motion rolling guide unit is such that pipe members adapted to form return passages are disposed respectively at undercuts of wings of an arcuate casing, thereby reducing working costs. A slider has a casing and end caps fixed to respective opposite ends of the casing. Pipe members adapted to form return passages are disposed at the respective undercuts formed on the wings of the casing. Cover members have longitudinally extending grooves, respectively, for covering the pipe members. Fitting grooves formed at opposite ends of the grooves of the cover members are fitted to direction changing passages provided in the respective end caps, whereby the cover members are fixed to the end caps.

Curvilinear motion rolling guide unit

A slider is composed of four components except for rolling elements. A slider moving relatively to a guide rail is composed of a carriage having raceway grooves, a circulator to make a return passage and insert nuts to fit into through-holes in the circulator. Engaging parts of the carriage makes fit-engagement with holes in the circulator to make snap-fit between the carriage and the circulator to fasten them each other.

Linear motion guide unit

A linear motion guide unit makes application of lubricant around rolling elements at the turnaround passage to accomplish securely the maintenance-free lubrication over a prolonged period of time. A lubricant reservoir plate of porous compact is composed of a lubricant reservoir major body impregnated with lubricant and an applicator nose which is different in the molded density from the lubricant reservoir major body. The lubricant reservoir plate impregnated with lubricant is composed of the lubricant reservoir major body installed in a recess made in the end cap and the applicator nose extends through a slot of the turnaround passage to expose itself to the turnaround passage to make application of lubricant around the rolling elements.

Linear motion guide unit with lubricating member

A sleeve fits in a through-hole in a carriage to provide a return passage which makes sure of both the flexibility and the stiffness of the sleeve. The sleeve is constituted with fore and aft circular ends, a pair of columns and a pair of flexible columns lying lengthwise between the fore and aft circular ends to guide the roller, lengthwise slits lying between the flexible columns and the columns, and complementary ends made on the terminals of the fore and aft circular ends. The flexible columns have raised lands having curved outer surfaces, and recessions flanked by the raised lands and having rolling wall surfaces or the return passage. The raised lands and the recessions are arranged alternately in the lengthwise direction of the sleeve to give the sleeve the capability of elastic deformation.

A circular sleeve is disclosed which fits into a lengthwise bore in a slider to provide a return passage to make sure of smooth rolling in a slider downsized or compact in length. The sleeve is inserted with leaving circular clearances inside the lengthwise bore in the slider. The sleeve has a bridged beam portion and cantilevered beam portions all of which may undergo elastic deformation under urging or impact force caused by rollers while rolling through the return passage. The bridged beam portion is flanked by support beam portions forming the outside circular surface of the sleeve and the cantilevered beam portions are fastened at their inward ends to a middle support beam portion and freed at their outside ends to bend or warp.

The sliding mechanism including rolling elementsas a main element is protected against entry of foreign substances. First, second auxiliary lipsare formed in positions on inclined facesformed on lipsof end seals S facing and making contact with end faces of sealing members. Gapsotherwise formed between different levels of the end faces of the sealing membersand the inclined facesof the lips, are closed with the first, second auxiliary lips. Since the gapsare thus closed, foreign substances do not enter the sliding mechanism M through the gaps

In a slider of a linear motion guide unit, a carriage in the slider is cut away at undersides thereof to form concaves in which tubular members defining return passages therein are placed. This is in favor of reduced machining cost. The slider is composed of the carriage having an upper portion and side bulges, end caps secured on ends of the carriage, and tubular members installed closely outside the bulges of the carriage in the sliding direction. Sidewise underparts of the carriage is cut away to provide the concaves into which the tubular members fit with tube ends being kept in spigots which communicate with turnaround passages in the end caps.

A linear motion rolling guide unit, which has underside seals prevented from falling off a slider, comprises a slider having a pair of end caps secured at ends of a casing, and underside seals provided between the pair of end caps having engaging projections. Insertion holes are formed in the underside seals and engaged with the engaging projections to secure the underside seals to the slider. Fallout-inhibiting protrusions are provided at ends of each underside seal in the longitudinal direction. The slider has holding portions each having a hole or a recess into which each of the fallout-inhibiting protrusions is inserted when the underside seal is secured to the slider. A gap is maintained between the holding portion having the hole or the recess and the outer periphery of the fallout-inhibiting protrusion.

Linear motion rolling guide unit

A slider for a linear motion rolling guide unit can ensure a smooth rolling movement and a reliable lubricating capability and eliminate the need for accurate dimension control to reduce the manufacturing costs. A turning cornerin an end capis made up of a pair of arced pathsconnecting with a rolling path in the casing, and a straight pathproviding a connection between the arced pathsand extending in a direction approximately perpendicular to the rolling path. The lubricating member A mounted in the end caphas a lubricating faceexposed to the linear path, and maintains a relation of the lubricating faceintersecting the outer peripheral faces of the arced paths. A recessed areais formed between the outer peripheral face of each arced path and the lubricating facein a surplus length region extending outward from the intersection between the lubricating faceand the outer peripheral face of the arced path

Slider for linear motion rolling guide unit

A lubricating member is capable of being used in any type of linear motion rolling guide unit and of appropriately lubricating raceway faces over a long period. The lubricating member used in a linear motion rolling guide unit comprises a bodyimpregnated with a lubricant and being in contact with raceway faces of a rail to supply the lubricant to the raceway faces. The bodycomprises either a single or a plurality of embedding portionshaving either a recess or a hole. A saturation holding memberis embedded in the embedded portion. The saturation holding memberholds a larger amount of lubricant per unit volume than the bodyholds the amount of lubricant, and has a relationship ensuring that it has a force sucking the lubricant equal to or smaller than that the bodyhas.

Lubricating member for linear motion rolling guide unit and slider for linear motion rolling guide unit using the lubricating member

Lubrication points of lubricant around a rolling element are made in a turnaround passage to ensure proper and steady lubrication by the lubrication system simple in construction, with accompanying sustainable maintenance-free condition for lubrication. The end cap has a recess as large as permitted and a hole to communicate the recess with the turnaround passage. A porous compact is composed a thick block to fit into a deep cavity in the recess, a nose leading lubricant in the turnaround passage, and a conjunctive part between the thick block and the nose. The porous compact fits snugly into the recess in a fashion that the nose comes into rolling-touch at its tip with the rollers as they roll through the turnaround passage.

An end cap in the present linear motion guide unit is made up of an end cap major part and a spacer part, which, once assembled, define a turnaround passage between them to make sure of smooth running of the rolling elements. Especially, the turnaround passage in the end cap when viewed in the sliding direction of the slider is constituted with a curved route whose radius of curvature is constant, which extends from a center (Ok) of a load race to a center (Or) of a return passage, with making a detour to clear an upper edge of a track rail. A carriage of the slider has widthwise opposing return passages lying biased more sidewise inwards or center-ward than load races so as to make an interval or span (Pr) between the return passages less than a sidewise interval or span (Pk) between the load races. The curved route whose radius of curvature is constant, when viewed in the sliding direction of the slider, is arced over a semicircular range of 180 degrees.

An interlocking construction between an end cap and a retainer plate to support rollers in a load-carrying race is made to provide an endless circulating circuit with no gap to allow the rollers smoothly rolling through there with keeping adequate posture. The slider has a carriage, end caps, rollers rolling through a circulating circuit, a retainer plate extending along the load-carrying race to keep the rollers inside the load-carrying race, and a binding strip to fasten the retainer plate to the carriage. The retainer plate comes into connection with spigots extending out of the end caps. Lengthwise opposite ends of the retainer plate conform to ends of the spigots in a complementary relation to fit over the ends of the spigots in a sliding direction.

A slider for a linear motion rolling guide unit can ensure a smooth rolling movement and a reliable lubricating capability and eliminate the need for accurate dimension control to reduce the manufacturing costs. A lubricating member A has a lubricating faceexposed on an outer peripheral face of a turning cornerin an end cap. The rolling elementsare lubricated by making contact with the lubricating facewhile rolling through the turning corner. The lubricating face, exposed on the arced faceof the turning corner, and the outer peripheral face of the turning corner maintain the relation of crossing each other at two intersections. The lubricating faceis longer than the distance between the two intersections. Recessed areasare formed between the outer peripheral face of the turning cornerand the lubricating facein the surplus length regions.

A linear motion guide unit is disclosed in which a tubular composition to provide a return passage is high in mechanical stiffness and also makes certain of sustainable application of lubricant to rolling elements rolling through the return passage, thereby ensuring proper lubrication under maintenance-free operation. The tubular composition to make the return passage is composed of a tubular skeleton to guide the rollers, and a porous compact impregnated with lubricant. The tubular skeleton is made up of forward and aft ends, a lengthwise column and a flexible spine, which extend between the ends. The flexible spine includes lengthwise opposite relief portions and a flexible middle section, which fit into the porous compact with separating from the porous compact to make a clearance between them. The flexible spine deflects as the rollers roll through the return passage, permitting the rollers coming into touch with the porous compact to lubricate the rollers.

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Mino, Japan

Hideki Kuwabara