Carriage Drift in Linear-Guideway Type Roller Bearings

This study deals with carriage drift (which is the differences of the carriage displacements or angular displacements at a certain position on a rail during a forward and return process) in linear-guideway type roller bearings. First, the displacements and angular displacements of the carriage of the “nonrecirculating” linear roller and ball bearings under a reciprocating operation were measured. The experimental results showed that carriage drift (in the horizontal, vertical, yaw, and pitch directions) occurred in the roller bearing and not in the ball bearing. Next, in relationship to roller skew, the generating mechanism of carriage drift in roller bearings was examined by a multibody analysis (MBA), then the generating mechanism of carriage drift was explained. Finally, to reduce carriage drift by restricting the roller skew, an antiskewing brace (ASB) was developed.