Nippon Seiko Kabushiki Kaisha

Nsk Corporation

Nippon Seiko K.k.

Nobuyuki Osawa

Toru Tsukada

Shiroji Yabe

Kenjiro Shiki

Shinichi Kasuga

Shizuo Kashiwagi

Yoshinori Mizumura

Toshiaki Yamaguchi

Masayuki Katahira

Mizuho Ninomiya

Shinichi Kasai

Masaki Matsuoka

Sotoji Nakagawa

Three rows of ball rolling grooves A to C are formed in each side of a guide rail , while being vertically arrayed. Three rows of ball rolling grooves A to C are also formed on the inner surface of each of the legs of a slider . The ball rolling grooves A to C are respectively disposed in opposition to the ball rolling grooves A to C to thereby form ball sliding passages A to C. In either of the upper or lower ball rolling passage A or C, each ball contacts, at four points, with the surfaces of the ball rolling groove A or C of the guide rail and the ball rolling groove A or C of the slider . In the remaining ball rolling passages, each ball contacts at two points with the surfaces of the ball rolling grooves. One of lines L and L , each of which connects two opposite contact points of those four ones in the upper or lower ball rolling passage is oriented in the same direction as of lines L and L connecting the contact points in the remaining ball rolling passages. With such a construction, the upper, medium and lower rows of ball trains receive all loads acting on the slider in share, whereby the linear guide assembly exhibits its maximum load capacity against the loads.

Linear guide assembly

Three rows of ball rolling grooves A to C are formed in each side of a guide rail while being vertically arrayed. Three rows of ball rolling grooves A to C are also formed on the inner surface of each of the legs of a slider The ball rolling grooves A to C are respectively disposed in opposition to the ball rolling grooves A to C to thereby form ball sliding passages A to C. In either of the upper or lower ball rolling passage A or C, each ball contacts, at four points, with the surfaces of the ball rolling groove A or C of the guide rail and the ball rolling groove A or C of the slider In the remaining ball rolling passages, each ball contacts at two points with the surfaces of the ball rolling grooves. One of lines L and L each of which connects two opposite contact points of those four ones in the upper or lower ball rolling passage is oriented in the same direction as of lines L and L connecting the contact points in the remaining ball rolling passages. With such a construction, the upper, medium and lower rows of ball trains receive all loads acting on the slider in share, whereby the linear guide assembly exhibits its maximum load capacity against the loads.

Three rows of ball rolling grooves,A to,C are formed in each side of a guide rail,, while being vertically arrayed. Three rows of ball rolling grooves,A to,C are also formed on the inner surface of each of the legs of a slider,. The ball rolling grooves,A to,C are respectively disposed in opposition to the ball rolling grooves,A to,C to thereby form ball sliding passages,A to,C. In either of the upper or lower ball rolling passage,A or,C, each ball contacts, at four points, with the surfaces of the ball rolling groove,A or,C of the guide rail,and the ball rolling groove,A or,C of the slider,. In the remaining ball rolling passages, each ball contacts at two points with the surfaces of the ball rolling grooves. One of lines L,and L,, each of which connects two opposite contact points of those four ones in the upper or lower ball rolling passage is oriented in the same direction as of lines L,and L,connecting the contact points in the remaining ball rolling passages. With such a construction, the upper, medium and lower rows of ball trains receive all loads acting on the slider in share, whereby the linear guide assembly exhibits its maximum load capacity against the loads.

Three rows of ball rolling grooves 23A to 23C are formed in each side of a guide rail 21, while being vertically arrayed. Three rows of ball rolling grooves 25A to 25C are also formed on the inner surface of each of the legs of a slider 22. The ball rolling grooves 25A to 25C are respectively disposed in opposition to the ball rolling grooves 23A to 23C to thereby form ball sliding passages 26A to 26C. In either of the upper or lower ball rolling passage 26A or 26C, each ball contacts, at four points, with the surfaces of the ball rolling groove 23A or 23C of the guide rail 21 and the ball rolling groove 25A or 25C of the slider 22. In the remaining ball rolling passages, each ball contacts at two points with the surfaces of the ball rolling grooves. One of lines L1 and L4, each of which connects two opposite contact points of those four ones in the upper or lower ball rolling passage is oriented in the same direction as of lines L2 and L3 connecting the contact points in the remaining ball rolling passages. With such a construction, the upper, medium and lower rows of ball trains receive all loads acting on the slider in share, whereby the linear guide assembly exhibits its maximum load capacity against the loads.

In a linear guide apparatus including a guide rail, a slider hanging over the guide rail to freely move with respect to the guide rail through the rolling movements of balls and a ball retainer mounted within the slider for holding the balls, the ball retainer is formed of plate-shaped metal and includes two ball holding parts respectively formed by bending the two side edge portions of a thin metal plate and two thin-plate shaped inner seal parts extending along and fixed integrally to the ball holding parts with the end portions thereof slidingly contactable with the upper surface of the guide rail. The ball retainer has not only a ball retainer function to be able to hold a large number of balls loaded into the ball rolling grooves formed in the slider but also an inner seal function to prevent foreign matter which have passed through side seals into the slider from entering into the ball rolling grooves.

Ball retainer with inner seal for linear guide apparatus

A linear guide apparatus provides a guide rail extending axially and including a first rolling element groove formed on a side surface; a slider fitted with the guide rail and including a sleeve portion and a second rolling element groove formed on an inner side surface of the sleeve portion, the second rolling element groove of the slider confronting the first rolling element groove of the guide rail; and an under seal attached to a lower portion of the sleeve portion of the slider and projected from the inner side surface of the sleeve portion to slidingly contact with a surface of the guide rail, the under seal including a first projection arranged at an outer edge portion of a width of the under seal, the width being orthogonal to an axial direction of the under seal, the first projection having resiliency for pressing an inner edge portion of the under seal onto the guide rail. The under seal can be attached to the slider correctly without making displacement to ensure a proper seal margin.

Under seal for linear guide apparatus

In a linear guide apparatus provided with a guide rail, a slider, an end cap, a plurality of balls and a ball retainer, the end cap includes a half-ring-shaped curved path in the inner surface and an outer peripheral groove, in the outer surface, which is curved in correspondence to the curved path, the outer peripheral groove having a side wall and protrusions which extend from the side wall so as to decrease the width of the outer peripheral groove, the ball retainer being secured to the slider with a locking part of the ball retainer which is engaged with the outer peripheral groove while being held between the protrusions. The ball retainer is so improved that it can be readily secured to the slider of the linear guide apparatus without interfering with other components, and readily so absorbs a dimensional difference relative to the slider that it prevents the rolling balls from falling away from the slider.

Ball retainers in a linear guide apparatus

In a miniature linear guide device providing: an axially extending guide rail U-shaped in section, the guide rail including a load ball rolling groove formed on an inner surface of a side wall of the guide rail, a slider body U-shaped in section which is fitted in the side wall of the guide rail, the slider body including a load ball rolling groove formed on an outer surface of a side wall of the slider body and confronted with the load ball rolling groove of the guide rail; a circulator fitted in the slider body and including a non-load ball circulating path; and a plurality of balls rolling between the load ball rolling grooves and the non-load ball circulating path, the guide rail includes a rail mounting portion formed by cutting a portion of a bottom of the guide rail and bending the portion outward in a width direction so as to be opened apart outward from the side wall. Further, the circulator includes a recess formed in a middle portion of a longitudinal end of the circulator for accommodating a head of a rail mounting screw fixing an end of the guide rail to a base. The rail fastening force can be increased with ease by increasing the size and number of rail mounting screws. The height of the linear guide device can be lowered.

Miniature linear guide device and profile of slider thereof

A rail-connecting jig for a linear guide provides: a jig body substantially U-shaped in section which is loosely mounted over guide rails, the jig body including a pair of right and left wings the inner side surfaces of which when the jig body is mounted on the guide rails, are confronted with two side surfaces of each guide rail in which rolling-element rolling grooves are formed; and at least two bar-shaped rollers which are engageable with the rolling-element rolling grooves of each guide rail. One of the two bar-shaped rollers is held on the inner side surface of one of the wings, while the other bar-shaped roller is arranged in the other wing of the jig body. A roller-pushing member is provided to move the other roller into and out of engagement with the guide rails. That is, a pair of guide rails can be aligned with each other by fitting the bar-shaped rollers in the rolling-element rolling grooves at the junction of the two guider rails. Thus, without use of an expensive measuring instrument, the guide rails can be accurately and efficiently connected to one another.

Rail-connecting jig for linear guide

A linear guide apparatus which can be applied to both straight rail and curved rail comprising a pair of upper and lower rolling grooves and for rolling members are formed in each side surfaces of a guide rail. A pair of upper and lower grooves for loaded rolling members, which respectively correspond to the rolling grooves, are formed in each inner surfaces of a slider which straddle the guide rail. One of the rolling grooves is a straight rolling groove which is formed to be parallel with the corresponding straight groove formed in the opposite inner surface of the slider. The other of the rolling grooves is a curved rolling groove in circular arc shape which has the same curvature as the corresponding curved rolling groove formed in the opposite inner surface of the slider.

Linear guide apparatus

A linear guide apparatus comprises: a slider body having ball rolling grooves opposed to ball rolling grooves of a guide rail which are extended axially in parallel to each other; end caps secured respectively to both ends of the slider body, each end cap having a ball retainer locking portion in a joining surface which is in contact with the slider body; and a ball retainer having engaging portions which are engaged with the ball retainer locking portion of the end caps, and both side walls each of which defines with an edge of one of the ball rolling grooves of the slider body an opening which is slightly smaller than a diameter of rolling balls. The engaging portions are movably engaged with the ball retainer engaging portions of the end caps so that the ball retainer is movably held on the slider body. Thus, the apparatus is excellent in operability in which the balls are not excessively pushed by the ball retainer.

A linear guide apparatus, capable of displaying a well-balanced performance both in the aspects of vibration damping capacity, rigidity, load capacity, shock resistance, and others, and of the follow-up sensitivity to minute and precise operations, is provided by arranging the apparatus with a combined structure of four-point contact and two-point contact ball rolling grooves. Of the upper and lower two ball rolling grooves, one row of the ball rolling grooves is of a four-point contact type and the other row of the ball rolling grooves is of a two-point contact type.

Structure of ball rolling grooves for a linear guide apparatus

A linear guide table system includes a pair of linear guide apparatuses connected in parallel to each other by a common table fixed to upper surfaces of sliders of the pair of linear guide apparatuses. Each slider of the pair of linear guide apparatus has an inverted L1-shaped cross section and has side walls. In each slider, one ball rolling groove is formed in a lower portion of an inner surface of one of the side walls, and one ball rolling grooves is formed in an upper portion of an inner surface of the other of the side walls thereby to form the ball rolling grooves asymmetrically with respect to a vertical plane containing a longitudinal axis.

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Gunma, Japan

Nobuyuki Osawa