Nippon Thompson Co., Ltd.

Tatsuo Mottate

Toshiaki Geka

Takashi Yatsu

A linear motion guide unit includes a pair of guide members each formed with a guide groove and provided to be relatively movable parallel with a longitudinal axis of the unit. A plurality of rolling members are provided in rolling contact with the guide grooves of the guide members. A retainer assembly, including a retainer plate formed with a plurality of windows and at least one grooved wheel mounted at one end of the retainer plate, is disposed in a space defined between the guide grooves. A wire is passed around the grooved wheel and fixedly attached to the guide members. The total length of the retainer assembly is shorter than either of the guide members.

Linear motion guide unit having a synchronized retainer

A linear motion rolling contact guide unit generally includes a rail, a slider and a plurality of rolling members interposed between the rail and the slider. The rail is elongated in shape and generally U-shaped in cross section. The rail is provided with at least one slot for releasing a stress which may be produced when the rail is subjected to heat treatment during its manufacture.

Stress relieved linear motion guide unit

A small-sized linear motion guide assembly includes a bed having a U-shaped cross section, a sliding table having a U-shaped cross section and a plurality of rolling members interposed between the bed and the sliding table to thereby provide a relative motion between the bed and the sliding table. A drive pulley is provided at one end of the bed and an idle pulley is provided at the other end with an endless timing belt extended between the drive and idle pulleys. The drive pulley is operatively coupled to a stepping motor so that when the motor is driven, the sliding table is caused to move relative to the bed.

Drive unit incorporated linear motion guide assembly

There is provided a thin finite linear motion rolling guide unit having an apparatus for preventing a positional deviation of a holder. The guide unit comprises a U-shaped bed member, an inverse U-shaped table member, and a M-shaped holder sandwiched between the bed member and the table member. Holding holes are formed horizontally in a line at regular intervals in a pair of outside opposite walls so as to rotatably hold the balls between the opposite track grooves formed on the bed member and the table member. Circular holes are formed in the central portions in the lognitudinal direction of the inside opposite walls of the holder. A pin is pressure inserted and fixed into the holes. A single type inside belt and a double-single type outside belt are wrapped to the central portion of the pin by a half rotation in the opposite directions so that the outside belt comes into contact with outer edges of the inside belt. Both belts are extended horizontally in the opposite directions along the upper and lower surfaces of flat plate-shaped coupling portions. Upper and lower sides of both belts are coupled and fixed to coupling portions on the tables and bed sides, repectively. Thus, the motion of the holder can be restricted to 1/2 of the rolling guide unit. In place of the belts, wire ropes can be also wrapped around a pulley with double V-shaped guide grooves attached to a rotary shaft.

Thin finite linear motion rolling guide unit with apparatus for

The present invention provides a finite linear motion rolling guide unit comprising: a track member; and a link mechanism for holding ball rolling members which is arranged between vertically depending track portions of a sliding member which rides over the track member through the ball rolling members so as to be finitely linearly slidable. The link mechanism is simply constructed by two or more link arm members. In the relative reciprocating motion at any speed of the track member and the sliding member, a deviation movement thereof from the normal position of the ball linear moving members is prevented and, at the same time, the smooth and stable linear motion rolling guiding operation of the balls is assured.

Finite linear motion rolling guide unit

A thin-walled rectilinear motion rolling guide unit comprising a bed member, a table member slidably movable relative to said bed member in the longitudinal direction, and a ball retainer interposed between said two members. According to the present invention, a rack and pinion mechanism is provided between said table member and ball retainer, with the use of a different teeth-meshing ratio between the table member and the ball retainer such that the speed in rectilinear motion of the former is greater than that of the latter such as a value of 2:1 for example, so that by decreasing the relative velocity of the ball retainer with the table member, the displacement of the former with the latter in operation can be prevented under any stress applied vertically onto the unit, insuring a high precision operation with less sliding resistance.

Thin-walled reciprocating rectilinear motion rolling guide unit equipped

A linear motion rolling contact bearing assembly includes a rail having a U-shaped transverse cross section and a pair of guide grooves defined on the opposite side walls of the rail and a slider which is received in the U-shaped rail to travel along the rail. The slider is preferably provided with a pair of endless circulation paths located side-by-side each of which is provided with a plurality of rolling members. A part of each of the endless circulation paths is defined as a load path section which is located opposite to the corresponding one of the pair of guide grooves and where the plurality of rolling members are partly exposed to come into engagement with the pair of guide grooves of the rail to provide a rolling contact between the slider and the rail. The slider is also provided with a feed-in port for each of the pair of endless circulation paths, and thus the rolling members may be fed into the endless circulation paths through the feed-in ports. The feed-in port is pluggable by a plugging member and thus the rolling member are prevented from escaping from the endless circulation path undesirably.

Linear motion rolling contact bearing assembly having a feed-in port

There is provided a thin linear motion rolling guide unit comprising: a rail made of a long member having a U-shaped cross section in which first track grooves are respectively formed on the inside surfaces of both side walls in the longitudinal direction of the long member; a table which is slidably combined with the rail and has a pair of track members, second track grooves being formed on the outside surfaces of the track members at the positions which face the first track grooves of the rail and endless circulating passages for balls being also formed by the track members; the balls which are inserted between the first track groove of the rail and the second track groove of the table which faces the rail; flat plate shaped upper and lower lids attached in the upper and lower portions of the table so as to sandwich the track members which are symmetrically arranged with respect to an axial direction of the table; the track members forming loop inside wall surfaces of the endless circulating passages for the rolling members which are formed in the table; and a circulator provided between the track members symmetrically arranged, the circulator forming outside wall surfaces of the endless circulating passages, wherein the circulator is combined with the upper and lower lids and fixed, thereby constructing an endless circulating passage complete loop for the balls.

Thin linear motion rolling guide unit

A linear motion rolling contact guide unit assembly includes a U-shaped guide rail which extends straight over a desired length and which is formed with a pair of guide grooves. The assembly also includes a slider unit which is mounted in the guide rail so as to be movable relative to the guide rail along a longitudinal axis of the rail. The slider unit is formed with a pair of endless circulation paths each of which includes a load path section, a return path section and a pair of connecting path sections which connect the corresponding ends of the load and return path sections. A plurality of rolling members are provided in each of the endless circulation paths. A window is formed in the side of the slider unit at the load path section and the rolling members are partly exposed at the load path section and partly received in the corresponding guide groove of the guide rail. The slider unit includes a top plate formed with at least a part of an upper half of each of the endless circulation paths and a split bottom plate formed with the rest of the endless circulation paths.

Linear motion guide unit assembly

A holding device of a rectilinear motion rolling guide unit comprises: a long rail; first track grooves formed on both side wall surfaces in the longitudinal direction of the rail; a saddle-shaped slide unit formed with an inner concave portion and slidably mounted on the rail; second track grooves formed on the surface of the inner concave portion at the positions opposite to the first track grooves; and balls inserted between the first and second track grooves, thereby enabling the slide unit to be slidably moved on the rail therealong through the rolling of the balls. A holding portion to hold the balls is formed at the edge surface on the bottom surface side of the inner concave portion of each second track groove so as to be projected to the side of the rail by exceeding a perpendicular passing through the center of the ball. A holding plate is formed at the edge surface of the second track groove on the opening side of the inner concave portion in the direction opposite to the holding portion at the position inside of the bisector passing through the center of the ball and dividing the first and second track grooves. The holding plate is fixed to the edge surface of the second track groove so as to be projected to the side of the rail by exceeding the bisector dividing the first and second track grooves. The balls are held by the holding plate and holding portion.

Holding device of rectilinear motion rolling guide unit

A sheet metal-type endless rectilinear motion rolling guide unit is provided, which unlike the prior art like unit, the structure is simple and compact, yet giving rise to high load resisting capacity and less slide resistance with markedly prolonged operation life. Such an advantage is derived from the employment of ball circulation passageforming spacer member to be assembled with the sliding table, which has a unique configuration and construction.

Sheet metal-type endless rectilinear motion rolling guide unit

A mounting structure for mounting a linear motion rolling contact bearing assembly using a bolt extending through a mounting hole provided in a guide rail and/or a slider member of the bearing assembly includes a mounting area which is defined by a slit, an outwardly projecting stepped section or a combination thereof so as to confine any deformation or error in size therein and prevent it from being transmitted to other sections when the bolt is tightened for fixedly mounting the bearing assembly to a supporting member.

Mounting structure of a linear motion rolling contact bearing assembly

A linear motion rolling contact bearing assembly including a rail, a slider and a plurality of rolling members interposed between the rail and the slider for providing a rolling contact therebetween is provided. The rail includes a bottom wall and a pair of side walls extending upward from the opposite sides of the bottom wall, so that the rail has a U-shaped cross section. The slider includes a frame which is comprised of a top wall and a pair of side walls depending from the opposite sides of the top wall, so that the frame has a U-shaped cross section. Each of the side walls is provided with a guide groove so that the rolling members are interposed between the rail and the slider as partly fitted in a pair of associated guide grooves. The rail is provided with a stopper at each end thereof, and the side walls of the frame extend sufficiently downward so that their bottom ends are engageable with the stopper when the slider has moved to an extreme end of the rail, so that the slider is prevented from slipping away from the rail.

Stopper mechanism of a linear motion rolling contact bearing assembly

There is a track groove of a ball bearing for a rectilinear motion comprising a track member, a slide member arranged to sandwich the track member and adapted to be rectilinearly slidable along the track member, track grooves formed in both side portions of the track member and of the slide members so as to face one another, and a number of balls rotatably inserted between the track grooves which face each other. The contact portion of the track groove with the ball is formed by two or more kinds of arcs having different radii. The ball comes into contact with a single arc under a light load and with a plurality of arcs under a heavy load. The radius of the arc near the contact center with the ball may be slightly larger than the radius of the ball and the other arcs may be larger than the central arc. Or, the large arc may be formed at a location near the contact center with the ball and the arcs smaller than this central arc may be formed at locations other than the contact center. The slide resistance of the bearing can be reduced with this simple constitution of the track groove consisting of a plurality of arcs.

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Mitaka, Japan

Tatsuo Mottate