Bearings – Linear bearing – Plain bearings
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-10
2001-11-06
Footland, Lenard A. (Department: 3682)
Bearings
Linear bearing
Plain bearings
C384S044000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06312158
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a roller guide apparatus particularly as an aseismatic apparatus for buildings or like structures for guiding a rolling motion thereof.
A rolling guide apparatus utilizing a rolling motion of rolling member has been known as an aseismatic apparatus in prior art. That is, buildings or like structures are supported to be movable with respect to base portions thereof through rolling guide apparatus so as to make it difficult to transfer vibration or the like of the base portion to the building, and in order to support a building having heavy weight or large size, there have been utilized rollers, as rolling members, which have load capacity larger than that of balls.
However, because the roller, which is different from the ball, has no automatic aligning ability, when a degree of parallelization (parallelism) of a track rail and a movable block constituting the guide apparatus is not good, there is a fear that an overload is generated to both bilateral end portions of the roller and, hence, the roller and the track surface are damaged. Even if the roller and the track surface are not damaged, these members are liable to be worn and the durability thereof will be deteriorated. The parallelism of the track rail and the movable block is generally based on performance of mounting surfaces of structures or members to which the track rail and the movable block are mounted. However, with the structure of the building, it is impossible to require for a base portion, as the mounting surface or a mounting portion of a building, to have a high mounting performance as is required for a machine tool or the like.
Incidentally, the rolling guide apparatus as the aseismatic apparatus generally has two types of structure, one utilizing a linear track rail and the other one utilizing a curved track rail in which the track rail is vertically bent so as to follow a locus of a curvilinear motion caused at a time when the building is bent downward. In the former one structure utilizing the linear track rail, kinetic energy of the building which is moved linearly along the linear track rail is absorbed by a damper means, and on the other hand, in the latter one structure utilizing the curved track rail, oscillation energy of the building is converted through the curvilinear motion to potential energy which is then absorbed.
FIG. 17
shows a conventional rolling guide apparatus as an aseismatic apparatus utilizing the curved track rail. The rolling (roller) guide apparatus
501
comprises: a first track rail
504
having a circular track surface and secured on a base (foundation)
502
; a first movable block
503
supported to be movable by the first track rail
504
through a roller, not shown; a second movable block
506
operatively coupled on the first movable block
503
; a second track rail
505
secured to a building structure
500
so as to be supported by the second movable block
506
through a roller, not shown, to be relatively movable in a direction normal to the first track rail
504
; and a inclination absorbing mechanism
507
coupling the first and second movable blocks
503
and
506
so as to absorb the inclination therebetween. As the inclination absorbing mechanism
507
, a universal joint or an elastic member has been utilized for absorbing the inclination through elastic deformation thereof.
Such inclination absorbing mechanism is disposed for the following reason.
The building structure
500
is supported by the base
502
through a plurality of rolling (roller) guide apparatus
501
and performs the circular curvilinear motion along the surfaces of the track rails
504
and
505
while maintaining its horizontal attitude. Now, supposing that the first movable block
503
is moved from the lowermost position of the first track rail
504
towards the longitudinal direction thereof, an inclination in the longitudinal direction of the upper surface of the first movable block
503
varies and the second track rail
505
secured to the building structure
500
, however, maintains its horizontal attitude. If such condition be maintained, an excessive stress is applied between the second movable block
506
and the second track rail
505
, and in such case, these members will be damaged or the first movable block
503
will not move. For these reasons, in the conventional art, the inclination absorbing mechanism
507
is provided between the first and second movable blocks
503
and
506
to obviate such defects.
However, in the case where the elastic member, universal joint or other inclination absorber is utilized for such inclination absorbing mechanism
507
, the maximum load to be born (supported) depends on the elastic member, and accordingly, it is difficult to adequately utilize the high load bearing (supporting) ability of the guide apparatus using the roller or roller means.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to substantially eliminate defects or drawbacks encountered in the prior art mentioned above and to provide a roller (rolling) guide apparatus utilizing rollers having a rigidity higher than that of balls and having an automatic aligning performance.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a roller guide apparatus having biaxial guide structure using a curved track rail capable of absorbing an inclination of the apparatus.
These and other objects can be achieved according to the present invention by providing a roller guide apparatus comprising:
a track rail comprising a rail body extending in a longitudinal direction thereof and having a section in a width direction thereof in shape of a circular arc protruding downward in an installed state and a base portion supporting a lower surface of a central portion of the rail body in the width direction thereof, the rail body having an upper surface and lower surfaces extended in the width direction from the base portion, the upper and lower surfaces of the rail body having concentric circular arc shapes;
a movable block body comprising a block body arranged so as to straddle the rail body and having a lower surface, in an assembled state, opposing to the upper surface of the rail body, a pair of bilateral leg portions extending downward from bilateral end portions of the block body with the track rail being interposed therebetween, a pair of support piece portions extending towards the track rail so as to oppose to the extended portions of the rail body;
at least one barrel roller row composed of a number of barrel rollers arranged between the block body of the movable block and the upper surface of the rail body of the track rail to be rollable along the longitudinal direction thereof, and
hourglass roller rows, each composed of a number of hourglass rollers, arranged between the lower surfaces of the extended portions of the rail body and the support piece portions of the movable block to be rollable along the longitudinal direction of the rail body.
According to the structure mentioned above, since the barrel rollers and hourglass rollers are used, a linear guide apparatus having a rigidity higher than that of the apparatus using balls can be provided.
Furthermore, since the rail body has a circular section in the width direction thereof, the barrel rollers and the hourglass rollers are slid along the circular shapes of the upper and lower surfaces of the rail body thereby to allow the movable block to perform a circular motion. Accordingly, even if a mounting error exists between the movable block and the track rail, for example, an error in parallelism between objective member mounting surfaces of the movable block and the track rail, the movable block performs a circular motion along the rail body of the track rail thereby to absorb such mounting error. In this circular motion of the movable block, the contacting conditions of the barrel rollers and hourglass rollers to the rail body do not vary. Thus, according to the present invention, there is provided a roller guide apparatus having a high rigidity and improved aut
Teramachi Hiroshi
Teramachi Mima
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Footland Lenard A.
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