Effect of off-sized balls on contact stiffness and stress and analysis of the wear prediction model of linear rolling guideways

Abstract

The characteristics between the rolling balls and raceways are the key to study a linear rolling guideway (LRG). In this paper, the contact stresses of an LRG with off-sized balls incorporating the variation of the contact angle are given by the established LRG joint model. Moreover, the effect of the location, number, and the deviation degree of the off-sized balls on the stress distribution are studied. In addition, the contact stress distribution between the balls and raceway for different arrangement cases of the off-sized balls are analyzed. The random arrangement case can improve the stiffness and service life of the LRG. Based on the Archard wear theory, the wear prediction model of the LRG is established and the displacements and angular displacements of the slider caused by wear in reciprocating motion are obtained. The effectiveness of the contact stiffness and wear prediction model of the LRG is verified by simulations and analysis.