Positioning apparatus

A frictional reciprocating drive mechanism which comprises:

• a main shaft;
• a plurality of rollers held in a rolling contact with an outer periphery of the main shaft and inclined at a predetermined angle relative to the main shaft;
• a slide body movable together with the rollers that are moved as a result of rotation of the main shaft;
• a source of rotation for rotating the main shaft;
• a reduction gear unit for transmitting the rotation of the source of rotation from a drive-side shaft to a friction wheel to thereby transmit the rotation of the source of rotation at a reduced speed to the main shaft;
• a displacement permitting support means for displaceably supporting the drive-side shaft so as to displace in a direction towards and away from the friction wheel;
• and
• a pressure applying means for resiliently urging the drive-side shaft towards the friction wheel;
• wherein said pressure applying means comprises a pressing member and a resilient member, said rollers being rotatably mounted on an outer of a respective roller spindle through a circumferential row of rolling elements, said roller spindles being sandwiched from an axial direction between a fixed support and a pressing member both provided on the slide body, said fixed support and said pressing member including a spindle retaining means for regulating positions of opposite ends of the roller spindles with respect to the axial direction, said pressing member being displaceable relative to the slide body in directions axially of and transverse to the main shaft;
• and
• wherein each of the roller spindles for each of the rollers has its opposite ends shaped spherically and wherein said spindle retaining means comprises a pair of retaining plates disposed in the vicinity of the fixed support and the pressing member, respectively, each of said retaining plates being operable to regulate the roller spindles of the plural rollers at respective inner peripheral corner areas thereof.

A frictional reciprocating drive mechanism which comprises:

• a main shaft;
• a pluality of roller held in a rolling contact with an outer periphery of the main shaft and inclined at a predetermined angle relative to the main shaft;
• a slide body movable together with the rollers that are moved as a result of rotation of the main shaft;
• a source of rotation for rotating the main shaft;
• a reduction gear unit for transmitting the rotation of the source of rotation from a drive-side shaft to a friction wheel to thereby transmit the rotation of the source of rotation at a reduced speed to the main shaft;
• and
• a solid lubricant held in contact with an outer peripheral face of the friction wheel;
• wherein said rollers being rotatably mounted on an outer periphery of a respective roller spindle through a circumferential row of rolling elements, said spindles roller spindles being sandwiched from an axial direction between a fixed support and a pressing member both provided on the slide body, said fixed support and said pressing member including a spindles retaining means for regulating positions of opposite ends of the roller spindles with respect to the axial direction, said pressing member being displaceable relative to the slide boby in directions axially of and transverse to the main shaft;
• and
• wherein each of the roller spindles for each of the rollers has its opposite ends shaped spherically and wherein said spindle retaining means comprises a pair of retaining plates disposed in the vicinity of the fixed support and the pressing member, respectively, each of said retaining plates being operable to regulate the roller spindles of the plural rollers at respective inner peripheral corner areas thereof.