Street Address: Room 2201, 1249 Xikang Road, Putuo District
City: Shanghai
Province: Shanghai
Country/Region: China
Universal
Linear bearings are used primarily where something needs to be moved along a straight line with high accuracy. In other words, the object needs to only translate in one direction, and possibly move back to its starting position with high repeatability. The implications for robotic pick-and-place are obvious, as are uses for optical test fixturing and calibration. The robotic uses of linear bearings have opened up a huge market for the devices in recent years. There is a plethora of manufacturers of the devices, so much so that standardization is sometimes a problem. The three primary types of linear bearings are ball, crossed-roller, and slide bushing. Linear Ball Bearings, as their name implies, are linear bearings where the rolling contact is provided by hardened and ground balls. A linear ball slide is a compact form of linear bearing with a small form factor and a similarly short stroke. Maximum stroke can be a maximum of about one-third of the slide length, but the form factor justifies the stroke.