Avoiding Linear Guide Assembly Challenges

TL;DR: High-precision linear guides in packaging equipment often introduce unnecessary challenges and costs. Medium-precision roller guides offer a cost-effective and reliable alternative, reducing assembly complexity and contamination risks.

Does your company need high-precision linear bearing guides to get the job done? Precision linear guides often add challenges to the packing process. These tools have higher accuracy than typically needed in most packaging machines. In fact, most processes simply require reliable, repeatable linear motion.

Common Challenges of Implementing Precision Linear Guideways

Frequently, linear guide assembly will require machined plates to align the guides for flatness and parallelism. The additional fabrication, machining, and assembly involved increases time and labor costs.

Additionally, if the rails are not properly installed, the precision bearings will experience constant load from binding. This will prematurely wear the bearings. Additional wear can lead to more frequent replacement.

Builders can solve the problem by paying more for larger profiled bearings, but this will also increase the size and weight of the assembly. That translates to higher costs for power transmission and motion control components during and after linear bearing installation.

Contamination Risks of Linear Motion Rolling Guides

In addition to machining and installation considerations, machine builders must also pay attention to contamination risks. Primary and secondary Packaging and Logistics machinery often present such risks for linear bearings.

In secondary Packaging and Packaging and Logistics, for instance, dust from corrugated materials can easily collect on the rail. It can consequently collect inside the bearing block. This leads to premature wear on the bearing. In the worst-case scenarios, such contamination will completely jam the bearing, resulting in a costly shutdown.

Roller Guides Deliver the Right Precision

The solution to linear packing challenges may be roller guides. Using roller guides in medium-accuracy applications can eliminate the added machining, fabrication, and assembly efforts typically associated with recirculating ball guides. Consider Rollon’s Compact Rail solution.

Compact Rail from Rollon features:

Large rolling elements
Rail profiles that allow some play
An easy preload adjustment that enables equal loading of all elements

Not only is it a more compliant guide than a profiled rail, it can even compensate for misalignment. It accomplishes this by mitigating uneven load points that may otherwise promote wear and pitting.

Compact Rail linear bearings provide numerous benefits for Packaging and Logistics applications. These include:

The rails comply to assemble directly to weldments. The result is a reduction in fabrication and assembly costs.
Sealed bearings keep dust away from the balls. This protects the bearings from contamination. Roller assemblies can also be configured with scrapers. These prevent larger particulates from getting trapped in the sliders.
Compact Rail bearings are particularly useful in secondary Packaging and Packaging and Logistics. The containers are already sealed, and the primary contaminant in the environment is dust.
Stainless steel linear rails and roller bearings can withstand washdown applications.

Medium-precision bearing guides do not saddle builders with excessive machining and assembly requirements. Bearing guides will deliver sufficient accuracy and precision. Plus, they’ll keep assembly time and costs in line with your goals.