Application of THK guide rails in woodworking engraving machines

Publish Time：

2022-03-25

Guides are used for linear reciprocating motion. They have a higher rated load and can withstand a certain amount of torque, enabling high-precision linear motion under high loads. The field of ball linear guides has been steadily developing. With improvements in load capacity, service life, and simplified manufacturing, near-zero-friction linear guides are increasingly used in a wider range of applications.

Since the advent of square and linear guides in the 1970s, a key question for design engineers has been: should round or square guides be chosen? Although various inherent grinding requirements in design resulted in the initial cost of square guides being several times that of round guides, new manufacturing technologies and economies of scale have enabled square guides to compete fiercely with round guides in a wider range of applications. Entering the machine tool field, we can see the use of square guides in many applications where only round guides could be used before.

However, sales of round linear bearings continue to increase year by year. Due to some inherent unique characteristics and advantageous properties suitable for specific applications, ball bushing guides remain popular. A significant reason is that they are round, and square pins sometimes cannot fit into round holes. To apply the correct type of linear guide to a specific application, design engineers consider the advantages and performance of each guide.

The design requirements are considered first, taking into account important factors such as load, precision, stiffness, smoothness, and geometric dimensions. Normally, these requirements are mutually restrictive. Square guide products can well meet the requirements of high-rigidity, high-load applications. For example, a 25mm square guide can handle loads up to 20 kN, and can achieve high precision of 3-10 μm when the bearing guide runs parallel to the guide. The ball tracks in this type of guide product are ground to ensure a precise fit between the guide and the balls; that is, the raceway on which the balls run in the ball guide is only slightly larger than the diameter of the balls themselves. This results in a larger contact area between the ball and the raceway than in round guide components under load, because the ball and inner race (shaft) are convex surfaces in round guides.

Therefore, because the balls flatten under load, the stiffness of square guide bearings increases up to five times under load. So square guides are a better choice, but the high manufacturing cost leads to a much higher total price for machines with square guides. Therefore, when purchasing an engraving machine, it is necessary to carefully balance cost and performance.

THK guide rail

THK guide rail slider SHS25LR3UUC1+1600LP-I in stock, large inventory available

Precautions for purchasing THK guide rails

THK guide rail slider SHS25LR3UUC1+1600LP-I in stock, large inventory available

Precautions for purchasing THK guide rails

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