The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 17, 1999
Filed:
Oct. 29, 1998
Mark P Brown, Florence, SC (US);
David A Sepesi, Whitmore Lake, MI (US);
William E Welling, Saginaw, MI (US);
James A Babinski, Saginaw, MI (US);
Thomson Saginaw Ball Screw Company, L.L.C., Saginaw, MI (US);
Abstract
A ball nut and screw system has a ball nut with adjacent helical groove turns providing a helical raceway with a screw for load bearing balls received in the raceway. The nut has an opening extending from its exterior to its interior to permit balls to be fed into the raceway. A compressible snap-in crossover, sized for compressed insertion into the opening, provides an axially diagonal, ball return passage in its underface for channeling balls from one portion of one of the adjacent turns over an intervening land surface on the screw to a portion of another turn to recirculate them. The crossover has opposed portions with nut groove entering projections thereon shaped to be snapped into the turns to define unoccupied turn portions on opposite sides of ball-occupied turn portions when the projections clear the opening upon insertion. For some purposes, wedging retainers can be received in the crossover once it is installed.