Design of Crowning to Reduce Ball Passage Vibrations of a Rolling Guide

This paper deals with a design of the crowning to reduce the ball passage vibrations of a rolling guide with the crowning length Lc (1.2s≤Lc 1.7s, where s is the distance between the adjacent balls in the load zone). First, a fundamental condition to reduce the ball passage vibrations was provided. Second, a design method of the crowning by applying an approximate curve (an assumed functional formula) to the control points (satisfying the fundamental condition or being the intersection of straight and crowning areas of a raceway) was presented. Third, the design procedure was explained by giving an example. In the example, the power function crowning was nearest the control points. In addition, the calculated amplitude for the power function crowning was lower than those for the circular arc crowning and the crowning of the commercial rolling guide. Finally, the validity of the presented design method through experiments was confirmed.