Posted to News on 23rd Nov 2006, 17:25
Ten years of THK's Caged Ball linear motion technology
THK is currently celebrating ten years of production for its innovative Caged Ball linear motion (LM) technology. The first of THK's Caged Ball LM guides rolled off the production line in the last quarter of 1996, offering significantly lower levels of friction, heat and noise, together with greatly improved positional accuracy and repeatability.
THK has been manufacturing linear motion guides since 1971 and the subsequent introduction of the first Caged Ball products, the SSR series, followed an intensive period of research and development, during which the company experimented with numerous prototype methods for improving the performance, functionality and operating life of linear guides. At the time of its launch, Caged Ball technology represented a major breakthrough for automation, positioning and handling systems, bringing a new level of innovation to the market.
THK's patented Caged Ball system works by enclosing high-precision steel balls within a separator cage, with controlled-density grease pockets around the circumference of each ball. This effectively prevents contact between the balls when in operation, leading to significant improvements in both overall performance and operating life, as well as quieter, cleaner, smoother and higher-precision movement, with a far longer service life than traditional ball raceways.
In the last decade, Caged Ball technology has enabled linear motion systems to be used in a wide and ever-growing range of applications, including miniature pick-and-place systems in semiconductor manufacturing, position control devices in medical equipment and handling mechanisms in factory automation.
Cutting costs, improving performance
Today the construction of THK's Caged Ball linear guides continues to offer OEMs and end users a number of important benefits, helping to reduce machine operating costs while improving levels of performance with positional accuracy and repeatability to within sub-micron accuracies, rapid acceleration rates, velocities of up to 5m/sec and typical operating life in excess of 50,0000km of travel.
Since the technology was first introduced, the use of THK's Caged Ball products has grown steadily, reaching the point where, according to THK, they currently account for over 50 per cent of all precision linear guides sold worldwide. Just as importantly, THK is continuing to innovate, creating ever smaller, faster and lighter linear motion guides that look set to serve the needs of industry for the next decade and beyond.
