Types of linear guide

Currently, more and more innovative technologies have appeared in people’s lives. There is no doubt that different types of innovative technologies have changed people's lives to a great extent. In this report, we will focus on a linear guide, which belongs to innovative technologies.

However, some people still know the function of it. Therefore, the types of the linear guide will be clearly described in this paper. Meanwhile, we will have an overview of it.

• What's a linear guide?

• What's the function of a linear guide？

• How many types does a linear guide have?

• What advantages are linear guides have?

What's a linear guide?

A linear guide is a slider and guide system that helps support the movement of the application.

Linear guides are primarily comprised of carriages and guideways, with carriages mainly used for sliding friction guides.

Usually, a Linear Guideway system has two parts: linear carriages and linear guideways. The linear slider moves along the positioning plane of the linear guide. The linear block moves forwards and backward along the linear guideway. The linear carriage is attached to the carriage by mounting to a moving assembly to facilitate the movement of the specified component.

What's the function of a linear guide？

The function of the linear guide movement is to support and guide the moving parts to make reciprocating linear movements in a given direction.

The working principle of the linear guide rail is very simple. It can be considered as a rolling guide, which is made of steel balls in an infinite rolling cycle between the slider and the guide rail.

How many types does a linear guide have?

There are two basic types of linear guides available in the industry, which are linear motion bearings with sliding contact and linear motion bearing rails with rolling elements. The main difference between the two is how the linear blocks move along the linear guideway.

Besides, if classified according to the nature of friction, the linear motion guideway can be divided into sliding friction guideway, rolling friction guideway, elastic friction guideway, fluid friction guideway, and other types. Linear bearings are mainly used in automatic machineries, such as bending machines, laser welding machines, and so on. It is worth noting that linear guides are mainly applied to mechanical structures with high precision requirements.

What advantages are linear guides have?

The linear guide is mainly applied in the mechanical structure with the high precision requirement. During this process, a rolling steel ball is used. Given that the rolling steel ball adapts to high-speed movement, the friction coefficient is low. Meanwhile, it has high sensitivity, which meets the work requirements of moving parts.

Linear guides have two of the most significant characteristics, the first is that they are interchangeable. Due to the strict control of manufacturing accuracy, the linear guide dimensions can be maintained within a certain level, and the carriage is designed with a retainer to prevent the steel ball from falling off, so some series are interchangeable.

Secondly, the linear guides are highly rigid in all directions. The use of four rows of circular grooves with a contact angle of 45 degrees with four rows of steel balls allows for an ideal two-point contact configuration of the balls. As a result, it can withstand loads from both the top and bottom and the left and right directions.