Motion guide device

Details Motion guide device Motion guide device

2001-12-13

2004-05-04

Joyce, William C. (Department: 3682)

Bearings

Linear bearing

Recirculating

C384S055000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06729760

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a motion guide device provided with a movable member having a body into which passage constituting members formed of resin material are assembled.
BACKGROUND ART
A motion guide device is provided with a track rail on which a rolling member rolling portion is formed and a movable block disposed to be movable along the track rail through a number of rolling members such as bolls or rollers. The movable block is formed with a loaded rolling member rolling portion corresponding to a rolling member rolling portion of the track rail, a rolling member escape passage formed in parallel to the loaded rolling member rolling portion with a predetermined space therefrom, and a pair of rolling member rolling direction changing passages each of which connects the loaded rolling member rolling portion and the rolling member escape passage to each other to thereby constitutes a rolling member circulation passage along which the rolling members circulate.
The applicant of the subject application has proposed a technology, such as Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. HEI 7-317762, in which support members (retainers) extending along both side edges of the rolling member rolling groove in a loaded area of the movable block, an escape passage constituting member constituting the escape passage of the rolling member, and inner periphery guide section constituting member constituting an inner periphery guide section of the rolling direction changing passage are integrally formed with a body of the movable block through a resin molding process.
However, in such movable block with which the resin portions or members are integrally formed, when the movable block body has a large size or scale, it is necessary to prepare a large-sized mold, which makes it difficult to manufacture such mold. Furthermore, the support members extending along both the side edges of the rolling member rolling groove have thin thickness and long length. Therefore, there may cause a case that resin may not sufficiently be supplied at the time of the molding, thus being also inconvenient.
In order to solve such problems or inconveniences mentioned above, the applicant of the subject application has also provided a motion guide device in which the support members, the escape passage constituting member and the inner periphery guide section constituting member, which are all formed of resin, were formed as separate units independent from the movable block body and then assembled with the movable block body to thereby make easy the molding process and constitute the movable block.
In such motion guide device, connecting portions of the support members, the escape passage constituting members and the inner periphery guide section constituting members are formed to be continuous so as to make smooth the circulation of the rolling members. That is, at least one of connecting portions of these members is integrally formed.
However, even in such structure, these support members, the escape passage constituting members and the inner periphery guide section constituting members have shapes different from each other and amounts (volumes) of resin shrinkage cavities thereof are also different from each other. Accordingly, in the case where the connecting portions of the support members, the escape passage constituting members and the inner periphery guide section constituting members are integrally formed, the thin and long support members and escape passage constituting members may be flexed and the inner periphery guide section constituting members may be opened, which constitutes a further problem. That is, since the rolling members circulate at high speed in the circulation passage constituted by such support members, escape passage constituting members and inner periphery guide section constituting members, such flexible structure of the support members and the escape passage constituting members and the opening (widening) of the inner periphery guide section constituting members will disturb the smooth circulation of the rolling members in the circulation passage.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been conceived in consideration of the above matters, and an object of the present invention is to provide a motion guide device which can be easily manufactured even having a large scale and, moreover, in which the long and thin support members and escape passage constituting members are not flexed and the inner periphery guide section constituting members are not opened (widened).
Hereunder, the present invention will be described. Further, it is to be noted that although reference numerals used in the accompanying drawings are added to respective members or portions by applying ( ) for the sake of easy understanding of the present invention, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments shown in the drawings.
The above object can be achieved according to the present invention by providing a motion guide device which comprises a track member (
1
) provided with rolling member rolling portions (
1
b
,
1
b
) and a movable member (
2
) disposed to be movable along the track member (
1
) through a number of rolling members (
3
- - - ) and in which the movable member (
2
) is provided with loaded rolling member rolling portions (
4
d
,
4
d
) corresponding to the rolling member rolling portions (
1
b
,
1
b
) of the track member (
1
), rolling member escape passages disposed in parallel to the loaded rolling member rolling portions (
4
d
,
4
d
) with a predetermined distance and a pair of direction changing passages connecting the loaded rolling member rolling portions (
4
d
,
4
d
) and the rolling member escape passages to thereby circulate the rolling members,
wherein support members (
11
,
12
,
13
) extending along both side edges of the loaded rolling member rolling portions (
4
d
,
4
d
), escape passage constituting members (
14
,
14
) constituting the rolling member escape passages and a pair of inner periphery guide section constituting members (
15
a
,
15
a
) constituting the inner peripheral portions of the direction changing passages are formed to be independent from a body (
4
) of the movable member and also independent from each other and are assembled to the body (
4
) of the movable member.
According to this invention, since the support members, the escape passage constituting members and the inner periphery guide section constituting members are formed independently from the body of the movable member and from each other, these members can be manufactured by preliminarily calculating amounts of respective shrinkage cavities of the support members, the escape passage constituting members and the inner periphery guide section constituting members. As a result, the long and thin support members and escape passage constituting members can be prevented from being flexed, and the inner periphery guide section constituting members can be also prevented from being opened.
In one preferred embodiment of this invention, the support members act to prevent the rolling members (
3
- - - ) from coming off from the loaded rolling member rolling portions (
4
d
,
4
d
) at a time when the movable member (
2
) is removed from the track member (
1
).
In another preferred embodiment of this invention, either one of the inner periphery guide section constituting members (
15
a
,
15
a
) and the body (
4
) of the movable member is formed with a positioning recess (
24
) for positioning the inner periphery guide section constituting members (
15
a
,
15
a
) with respect to the body (
4
) of the movable member and the other one thereof is formed with a movable member body positioning protrusion (
23
) to be engaged with the movable member body positioning recess (
24
); either one of the inner periphery guide section constituting members (
15
a
,
15
a
) and the escape passage constituting members (
14
,
14
) is formed with a positioning recess (
42
) for positioning the escape passage constituting members with respect to the inner periphery guide s

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