To get the longest working life out of a linear bearing, keep it clean and well lubricated. This commonsense advice may sound easy enough to follow, yet in the real world of round-the-clock, high-cycle manufacturing operations, bearings do get dirty and dry.
And when either of these conditions happens, linear bearings will wear prematurely. In the worst-case scenarios, contamination and inadequate lubrication can create metal-on-metal contact between the bearing’s rolling elements and raceway. This can cause excessive wear in the form of denting, pitting, or galling.
This warning about contaminants and the importance of lubrication will not come as news to anyone who has designed or worked around industrial machines. When using linear guides on medical, food, packaging, semiconductor, or other sensitive equipment, machine builders often take extraordinary measures to keep the contaminants out and the oil in. They may add expensive bellows to cover the guides, or they may opt for a pricey automatic greasing system.
Unlike recirculating ball linear guides, Rollon’s Compact Rail system utilizes large rolling elements that can pass over any debris that fall into the rail.
Yet in their zeal to keep linear motion systems running smoothly, machine builders can overlook less expensive design solutions to contamination and lubrication issues.
Combating contamination
Contamination comes in many forms, some more aggressive than others. Metal chips from machining operations, for example, qualify as one of the biggest offenders from a wear perspective. Silicon dust produced during semiconductor manufacturing can also be tough on linear bearing surfaces. Modern manufacturing processes can throw off a long list of other abrasive, wear-inducing contaminants.
I always think about the test plan and design FMEA and wonder was it succesfully executed. There is more to a design than just the design. Someone in quality shoudl have to validate the design. And if the design passes the the quality tests it was not only design that failed but quality.
Thanks for a great basic article on an important if often overlooked subject. I've been curious about the details of how linear bearings work, and why they sometimes stop working. Lubrication was obvious, but I didn't realize how important contamination is, although that seems obvious in 20-20 hindsight. This article has given me a much better understanding of bearing functioning and needed maintenance.
Yes, you are correct that material hardness plays a very key part of linear bearing life and it is easy to forget that some manufacturers do not harden their raceways or bearing blocks. They try to offer a very low cost solution, but will neglect to inform the customer of this very important oversight in their product design and manufacture.
Hopefully it is clear in my article that we are hoping our customers take the proper planning and care in their choice of linear guide and understand before they start some of the pitfalls and errors which can be made. We much prefer to assist in the front end of the design cycle to prevent errors, rather than come in after the design is assembled and built to correct a problem whcih could have been avoided during the design phase. We feel that this approach offers everyone a better result. A bad design makes my company look bad, even through the product may have performed correctly, it was just asked to do something it wasn't designed to do.
Rick, good article. While bearings may not be glamorous, they are often an essential component of complex machinery. Another aspect of bearing longevity is hardness. When an inappropriate material is used, say to lower cost, the bearings will wear out quickly. This necessitates an expensive replacement operation.
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