WO1993009356A1

WO1993009356A1 - Arrangement for slider side steering

Info

Publication number: WO1993009356A1
Application number: PCT/SE1992/000748
Authority: WO
Inventors: Leif Gullblom
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1991-10-28
Filing date: 1992-10-28
Publication date: 1993-05-13
Anticipated expiration: 1994-04-28
Also published as: SE469529B; SE9103143D0; AU2925292A; SE9103143L

Abstract

The present invention relates to an arrangement for slider side steering in a linear power assembly comprising a slider (20) and a guide rail (30), said guide rail for example being arranged at a power cylinder or a rodless cylinder. The slider (20), which is journalled in the guide rail (30), is movable along the guide rail, the guide rail (30) being provided with concave semicircular side faces (31, 32) and flat upper surfaces (33, 34, 35). The slider essentially comprises a U-shaped member having two shanks and lies close to the upper flat surfaces (33, 34) of the guide rail via flat slide members (24) having a length corresponding to the length of the slider. Within the slider are arranged separate slide seats (22) having a recess with a semicircular bottom face. The slide seats (22) are provided either with a circular slide member (26) or vertically journalled rolls resting against the sides of the guide rail.

Description

ARRANGEMENT FOR SLIDER SIDE STEERING Technical ±ieiα ^:

The present invention relates to an improved arrangement for side steering of a slider for a linear power assembly, and more exactly a slider provided with rollers and/or slide rods at a guide rail showing semicircular side profiles to both obtain steering of the slider at the side and from above and with a negligible lateral free motion margin and a low friction against the guide rail.

Prior art

By the term linear power assemblies is meant assemblies which for the execution of linear motions are using e.g. power cylinders or rodless cylinders being driven hydraulically, pneumatically or electrically. Common to all these is that they generally exhibit a generally linearly movable slider running along some type of guide rail.

In connection to these linear power assemblies arranged with power cylinders or rodless cylinders and provided with a guide rail there is a desire to obtain a stable side steering without any appreciable lateral play between the guide rail and the movable slider on this rail and at the same time also obtain low friction between the slider and the guide rail to minimize the wear of the included parts and thereby obtain a reduced mainte¬ nance cost.

In SE 461746 is disclosed a steering for linear power assemblies to relieve the slider from crosswise forces, side forces and reduce wearing as well as biting. The design uses exchangeable steering mountings on each side of the guide rail, whereby at least one steering mounting is adjustable in position for lateral clearance/play trimming. The document demonstrates a type of steering mountings having V-shaped recesses corresponding to a V-shaped wedged forming of the side faces of the guide rail. To obtain a small lateral clearance the steering mountings must be fairly hard tightened, rendering in high friction and intense wearing of the steering mountings, which because of this must be readjusted or exchanged.

From EP 0 135 041 is known an arrangement where the force absorption is effected by a ball or roll steering, the force relieving being e fected by two opposite lying surfaces on each concave or convex ball or roll steering corresponding to the essentially V-shaped convex or concave profile of the guide rail. The design presents no simple possibility for adjustment of the collaring of these ball or roll steerings. Furthermore the design also suggests at each side of the cylinder optionally positioned guiding strips except for the guide rail, why the design not will be simple applicable for example to the interconnection of several cylinders.

In the German document DE-A1-3 802 703 is disclosed a rodless cylinder which also serves as a guide rail. Due to the slit of the cylinder it is difficult to maintain a strict lateral clear¬ ance/play. Therefore the slider has been particularly designed not to impose pressure from the side of the slider. Furthermore, along the entire length of the guide rail it is provided with particular slide elements onto which other elements within the slider are resting. Adjustment of the lateral clearance is made from one side only by means of a bolt and a slit in the slider body.

In US-A-4925320 is disclosed a feed beam for a rockdrill having squared section slide guides along the entire length of the beam and the carriage has a corresponding slide seats which are in direct sliding contact with the fixed slide guides. This design is merely applicable to fairly short feed beams or it will also suffer from the same drawback as the EP 0 245 656 discussed below.

EP 0245656 discloses a guide rail having along its total length fitted side guides and fitting pieces, whereby the relative distances between the side guides may be adjusted along the guide rail, which method implies higher cost and long adjustment time for long guide rails to really obtain an even distributed friction over the total length of the guide rail.

Furthermore from SE 463325 is known an arrangement for accurate adjustment of the lateral play between a carriage and a steering structural shape, the slider rail being integrated into one piece with a rodless cylinder. A similar design is also disclosed in US 4 852465, having guiding arms fixed to the cylinder itself, which design among other things except for its complexity does not allow simple flexible interconnection of cylinders. Other types of guide rails are also disclosed e.g. in DE 3 629 368 and US 4 944 608, respectively.

Description of the invention

Therefore there is an object according to the present invention to provide an arrangement for side steering of a slider on a guide rail, e.g. together with a power cylinder or a rodless cylinder in a linear power assembly, and which side steering by means of simple exchangeable slide rods offers a low friction and at the same having a steering of the slider which is very rigid and free of lateral play.

There is another object according to the present invention to provide a slider supplied with an exchangeable slide seat offering a simple possibility to, instead of slide rods, sideways use rolls to obtain a rigid steering which is free of lateral play and which is having very low friction.

Another additional object according to the present invention is to arrange a side steering within the slider by means of separate exchangeable slide seats being simply adjustable regarding the journalling pressure.

Furthermore the arrangement is also according to the invention providing a side steering having a low friction along an upper surface of the guide rail due to one or more flat slide rods between the slider and the guide rail except the side steering by slide rods or rolls along the side profiles of the guide rail.

Additionally another object according to the present invention is to provide a guide rail having semicircular side profiles for circular slide rods or rolls for interconnection with different existing power cylinders or rodless cylinders for the assembly of linear power assemblies having negligible lateral play and friction at the slider and a high load capability across the slider as well as from the side and from above.

The side steering of a slider of a linear power assembly according to the present invention additionally signifies a simple, flexible system being economical in manufacturing and being simple to use.

Description of the drawings

The invention will be described in a number of preferred em¬ bodiments by means of the attached.drawings where corresponding parts are being provided with the same reference numbers and in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a slider provided with a side steering having flat slide members and circular slide members according to the present invention and mounted to a cylinder.

Fig. 2 is a front end view of the side steering of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a slider provided at the top with flat slide members and a side steering using rolls according to the present invention and mounted to a cylinder.

Fig. 4 is a front end view of the side steering of Fig. 3,

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a slider provided at the top with flat slide members and a side steering having rolls according to the present invention but mounted to a linear power assembly intended for electrical driving by a belt or the like.

Preferred embodiments

In Fig. 1 is demonstrated in a perspective view a preferred embodiment of a portion of a linear power assembly comprising a slider having a side steering according to the present invention. The power assembly comprises a generally extended cylinder 1, which may be a power cylinder or a rodless cylinder or an arrangement for electrical driving e.g. by a belt. The cylinder 1 is provided with a slit 2 having a connection 4 between, for example, a piston running within the cylinder 1 and a slider 20, which is movable along a guide rail 30. The guide rail in turn is fixed to the cylinder 1 by an interconnection member 10. The guide rail 30 in the preferred embodiment is having a first side face 31 and a second side face 32 machined as concave semicircu¬ lar recesses, whereby the recesses do not fully correspond to half a circle. The guide rail 30 of the preferred embodiment furthermore upwards presents three distinct flat surface areas 33, 34 and 35, the surface area 35 presenting at even intervals a number of through holes 36 and being slightly recessed in relation to the surface areas 33, 34 which are having the same height. A lower opposite face of the guide rail 30 presents a central recess 37 having the through holes 36. Furthermore the two lower outer surfaces 38 and 39 are inclined from the edge somewhat in the direction toward the recess 37.

The slider consists of a body 21 essentially made as an upside- down U-shaped member, which is resting on top of the guide rail 30 having its shanks extending downward at each side of the concave recesses 31, 32 of the guide rail. In each shank is arranged a recess to house a slide seat 22, which in a first embodiment at one of its side faces presents a concave semicir¬ cular recess corresponding to the recesses 31, 32 at the side faces of the guide rail. The slide seat 22 here has the same length as the slider 20, the length of which may be a standard¬ ized length or a length fitted to a certain function of the linear power assembly.

In Fig. 2 is demonstrated a front end view of a slider according to the present invention. Fig. 2 at the same time shows a cross section of the guide rail 30 and through that a mounting hole and also at the same time an interconnection member 10 shown at a threaded through hole in this member. From Fig. 2 is additionally seen that the slider at its inner upper surface is provided with two longitudinal grooves 28 having straight edges and a flat bottom surface, each housing its own flat slide member 24 resting against the surface 33 respectively 34 of the guide rail. Furthermore there is in the preferred embodiment a recess 29 in the U-shaped structural shape opposite to the upper surface 35 of the guide rail, to among other things leave another space for the ends of the bolts affixing the guide rail to the interconnec¬ tion member 10 by means of the common through holes.

Within the essentially circular space ormed between a slide seat 22 and the concave recesses 31 or 32 of the guide rail a round slide member 26 is inserted presenting a good fit and having low friction. In a preferred embodiment the guide rail is about 14 mm thick and the concave recesses are made with a radius of 6 mm, why the slide members 26 preferably are made with a diameter of 12 mm and with the same length as the slider 20. A suitable material for such a round slide member 26 or a slide rod 24 is Robalon® S or Pomb®.

Normally the faces 21 of the slider are provided with adjustment means (not shown), preferably bolts having a locknut, by which the slide seats 22 simply may be pressed inward against the guide rail 30 and thereby the contact pressure of circular slide members 26 against the guide rail 30 is adjusted. Furthermore both ends of the slider are provided with affixed plate covers which each of them covers an end of the slider and consequently also the respective ends of the slide seats and about half the end surface of the circular slide members 26, all of the elements will be fixed positioned inside the slider 20.

In Figs. 3 and 4 is shown a second embodiment of the slider 20 according to the present invention. The arrangement is identical to the one demonstrated and explained in Figs. 1 and 2 with the exception that the slide seats of Figs. 1 and 2 are replaced by modified slide seats 40 preferably having a length equal to the length of the slider but having slightly deeper recesses, which each along the length of the slider houses at least two rolls 42. If the slider is long several slide seat in a raw may advantag¬ eously be used in the slider to for example get additional supporting rolls, the added length of the slide seats corre¬ sponding to the length of the slider. The rolls 42 are journalled in vertical shafts 44 fit into the slide seat and being held in place when the slide seat or cups is/are inserted into the fitting recess of the slider 20. When a slide seat 40 is removed from the slider the shafts 44 are being held by the friction present due to a precise fit between the shafts and their fastening holes in the slide seat. The rolls 42 have a peripheral profile exactly corresponding to the concave semicircular recesses 31 and 32, respectively, of the guide rail 30. Addition¬ ally the recess of the slide seat presents such a depth that the circumference of the roll comes free from the bottom surface of the recess.

Furthermore is also seen from Fig. 4 that the slider at its inner upper surface is provided with two longitudinal grooves 28 having straight edges and a flat bottom surface, each housing a flat slide member resting against the surface 33, respectively 34, of the guide rail. Additionally the sides 21 of the slider are preferably provided with adjustment means (not shown), preferably bolts having a locknut, by which the slide seats 40 simply may be pressed inward against the guide rail 30 and thereby the contact pressure of the rolls 42 against the guide rail 30 will be adjusted. Furthermore both ends of the slider 20 are provided with affixed plate covers, which each covers an end of the slider and consequently also the respective ends of the slide seats, whereby these elements will be fixed positioned inside the slider 20.

The rolls may be made either of metal or preferably of a material like, e.g. Pomb® to achieve a stable side steering offering a small lateral play having low wearing of the concave semicircular faces of the guide rail against which the rolls are lying close.

In Fig. 5 is shown in an additional embodiment of a linear power assembly intended for an electrical driving of the slider, e.g. by a belt. In this case the guide rail 50 is made thicker with a channel 52 for the belt and is provided above this channel with a self-closing seal 54. The slider in this case is driven by a centrally upward through the seal directed element corresponding to the connection 4 at the side of the cylinder shown i Fig. 1. The slider is as to the rest having the same design as in the previously shown embodiments and consequently may be provided with either slide members or a combination of slide members and rolls according to Figs. 3 and 4. Anyway the slider of Fig. 5 is shown with the grooves 28 without the flat slide members being inserted.

The slider according to the present invention is very flexible in use by simply offering exchangeable slide seats. In an additional embodiment of a linear power assembly the guide rail at its side faces 31 and 32 is for example provided with along all of the guide rail running steel rods having a suitable diameter, e.g. 12 mm corresponding to the circular slide member of Figs. 1 and 2. Then for example a slide seat is inserted provided with ball quills being adjusted such that the balls are resting against the steel rod and thereby will be holding the slider in place. The slide seat and the ball quills will like before be held in place by the previously mentioned plate covers. Due to this method the slider according to the invention may also be used for such existing guide rails presenting steel rails along the side faces. Then the thickness of the flat slide members is adopted to the upper surface of an existing guide rail.

Claims

1. Arrangement for slider side steering in a linear power assembly comprising a guide rail (30), preferably affixed to a power cylinder or a rodless cylinder, and a slider (20) journal¬ led in said guide rail, the slider having separate slide seats and being movable along said guide rail and held by said guide rail, characterized in that said guide rail (30) is provided with a first concave semicircular side face (31) and a second concave semicircular side face (32) and presenting upward at least one flat upper face, that said slider (20), which essentially is constituted by an upside-down U-shaped member having two shanks, in each shank has a recess arranged to house at least one separate slide seat (22, 40), said slide seat (22, 40) being arranged with a recess housing devices (26, 42) for the journalling of said slider (20) in said concave semicircular side faces (31, 32) of said guide rail (30).

2. Arrangement for side steering according to claim 1, character¬ ized in that the recess in the slide seat (22) forms a concave semicircular profile facing and identical to said concave semicircular first and second side faces (31, 32) of said guide rail (30), and that in a space, created by in part said recess in said slide seat (22) and in part the opposing concave semicir¬ cular side face, is contained a circular slide member (26) of a material having glossy surfaces, and said circular slide member (26) having a precisely fitted diameter and being of the same length as said slider, both the respective edges of the semicir¬ cular profile being slightly cut such that the semicircular surfaces may fit tight around said circular slide member (26).

3. Arrangement for side steering according to claim 1, character¬ ized in that within the recess of each slide seat (40) is arranged at least two rolls (42) having a convex peripheral profile corre¬ sponding to said concave semicircular side faces (31, 32) of said guide rail (30) and resting against one or the other of said concave semicircular side faces of said guide rail, the rolls (42) within the slide seats (40) being carried by shafts (44) carried perpendicular to the upper surface of the U-shaped member and positioned such that, when the slide seats (40) are inserted into the U-shaped member, the rolls (42) will rest against the respective concave semicircular side surfaces (31, 32), whereby said rolls (42) at the same time will run free from a semicircu¬ lar concave bottom surface of the recesses of the slide seats (40).

4. Arrangement for side steering according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that the length of said slide seat or the total length of several slide seats corresponds/correspond to the length of said slider and thereby may be completely contained within said slider (20).

5. Arrangement for side steering according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that said upside-down U-shaped member in its inner upper surface is provided with at least one groove (28) having straight edges and a flat bottom surface parallel to the first and second concave semicircular side faces (31, 32) of said guide rail (30) to house a flat slide member (24) in the shape of a rod of a material presenting glossy surfaces and with a length correspond¬ ing to the length of said slider (20), thereby constituting an additional slide surface between the U-shaped member and said guide rail at the upper surface of said guide rail.

6. Arrangement for side steering according to claim 5, character¬ ized in that said U-shaped member forming the slider at each end is provided with an adapted covering U-shaped plate, which prefera¬ bly is fixed by screws onto said U-shaped member and thereby forming plates restraining within said slider (20) said flat slide member (24) or members and said slide seats (22, 40) having the respective circular slide member (26) or rolls (42) lying close to said first or second concave side face (31, 32) of said guide rail (30).

7. Arrangement for side steering according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that in the side faces of said slider, which faces are parallel to the first and second concave side faces (31, 32) of the guide rail, adjusting means are arranged to be able to adjust the lateral positions of the slide seats (22, 40) i relation to said guide rail (30).

8. Arrangement for side steering according to claim 1, character¬ ized in that said guide rail (30) in its bottom face, opposite to the face of the slider (20) adjacent to at least one flat slide member (24), is provided with parallel running recesses for attachment to a side face of a power cylinder or a rodless cylinder by means of an interconnection device.

9. Arrangement for side steering according to claim 1, character¬ ized in that said guide rail (30) in its bottom face, opposite to the face of the slider (20) adjacent to at least one flat slide member (24), is provided with one parallel recess (37) provided with a number of through holes preferably countersinked from above for the attachment to a power cylinder or a rodless cylinder by means of an interconnection device (10).