Linear motion guide unit
AssigneeNippon Thompson Co., Ltd.
InventorsMasatoshi Kondo, Hideki Kuwabara
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a slider of a linear motion guide unit, a carriage in the slider is cut away at undersides thereof to form concaves in which tubular members defining return passages therein are placed. This is in favor of reduced machining cost. The slider is composed of the carriage having an upper portion and side bulges, end caps secured on ends of the carriage, and tubular members installed closely outside the bulges of the carriage in the sliding direction. Sidewise underparts of the carriage is cut away to provide the concaves into which the tubular members fit with tube ends being kept in spigots which communicate with turnaround passages in the end caps.
Claims7
A linear motion guide unit, comprising:
- an elongated guide rail having only a first raceway groove extending lengthwise on each side of the guide rail;
- a slider that fits over or conforms to the elongated guide rail for movement in a sliding manner relative to the guide rail, and balls rolling through closed or looped circuits, each of said circuits composed of a load-carrying raceway defined between one of the first raceway grooves and a corresponding second raceway groove, a return passage extending in the slider direction in parallel with the load-carrying raceway and turnaround passages connecting the load-carrying passage with the return passage;
- wherein the slider includes a carriage having a first upper portion and first side bulges, one of said first side bulges lying on each widthwise opposite side of the first upper portion to extend downward alongside of the lengthwise sides of the guide rail, end caps secured on lengthwise opposite ends of the carriage, and a tubular member lying along an outside of each of said first side bulges in a sliding direction to provide the return passages;
- wherein the carriage is cut away between the first side bulges to form the raceway grooves and undercut at underparts of the first side bulges to provide concaves extending in the sliding direction;
- wherein the tubular members fit into the concaves to bring the return passages inside the tubular members into connection with the turnaround passages in the end caps;
- wherein the end caps each have a second upper portion equivalent to the first upper portion of the carriage and second side bulges equivalent to the first side bulges of the carriage, each of the second side bulges of the end caps having a spigot raised above the end caps at areas directly exposed to the concaves on the carriage to extend out of the turnaround passages to fit into tube ends of the tubular members to keep in place the tubular members and connect the turnaround passages with their associated return passages;
- wherein the concaves extending in the side bulges of the carriage in the sliding direction each are shaped to have a portion of a circular configuration in transverse section, which is adapted to make a fit over a portion of an outside circular surface of the tubular member;
- wherein the return passages inside the tubular members and the turnaround passages inside the spigots are identical with each other in diameter so as to connect the turnaround passages with the return passages;
- and wherein the tubular members are placed in the concaves more inwards than lengthwise sides of the carriage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.