JP2005291247A - Manufacturing method of linear guide slider, and its slider - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a manufacturing method of a linear guide slider capable of restricting costs and improving strength of structure, and to provide a slider manufactured by the same. <P>SOLUTION: In regard to the linear guide slider provided with a rolling groove and a re-flow hole, the slider is manufacture by metal injection molding. A wing-shape groove is provided over the re-flow hole in parallel with the re-flow hole. Metal powder to be used for metal injection molding in this manufacturing method of the linear guide slider comprises two kinds of powders having different nominal size. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

The present invention relates to a slider manufacturing method of a linear guide that guides the moving direction of a motion mechanism of an apparatus or the like, and a slider manufactured by the method.

  Currently, linear guides that guide the movement direction of motion mechanisms such as devices are used as important parts from precision machinery to the automation industry, semiconductor industry, medical equipment, and aerospace industry. The main function is rolling. Rolling balls and rollers facilitates movement by lowering its frictional resistance when moving the structure of the machine, which helps save energy and reduces friction to avoid wear and temperature rise. It also serves the purpose of increasing the precision and life of the structure, and the speed of movement, making it an indispensable transmission structure for machines. In general, linear guides are classified into two types: those called “ball slide type linear guides” using rolling balls and those called “roller slide type linear guides” using rollers, as described above. In either case, the carrier and the reflow function are provided to the slider. Therefore, the rolling ball and the roller must be combined, so that the structure is complicated and the processing process is complicated, and the cost is inevitably high. .

Then, as a specific example of a conventionally known linear guide, a ball slide type linear guide (see Patent Document 1: USP 6042269 or Patent Document 2: USP 6085420) is known as shown in FIG. The slider 31 of the linear guide 30 is provided with a sliding groove 315, and the slider 31 is fitted on the rail 34 when the sliding groove 315 drills the rail 34.
As a carrier of the rolling ball 351, a rolling groove 311 must be provided on the slider 31, and the rolling groove 311 is a groove on which the ball 351 rolls, that is, a portion that receives a load. The surface of the groove 311 needs to have excellent hardness (usually HRC58 or higher). In addition to achieving excellent wear resistance of the material, the material in the vicinity of the rolling groove 311 needs to have a considerable yield strength, and it is important to avoid damage due to fatigue of the material. Further, in order to achieve the purpose of rolling and circulating infinitely by moving the rolling ball 351 in the opposite direction, a reflow hole 312 is provided on the slider 31, and the reflow hole 312 is a perforation, and one side of the slider 31 is provided. The surface of the reflow hole 312 must be larger than the rolling ball 351 so that the rolling ball 351 can pass therethrough.

However, the reflow hole 312 is difficult to process, and as shown in FIG. 1, first, the slider 31 is provided with several circular holes 317, and then the plastic having the reflow hole 312 and the airfoil groove 313 is provided. The part 316 is inserted into the perforation 317. The reflow hole 312 must allow the rolling ball 351 and the holding chain 35 to pass through. Therefore, the reflow hole 312 must be provided with airfoil grooves 313 on both sides of a circular cross section, The upper and lower convex edges 352 and 353 of the holding chain 35 are passed through the airfoil groove 313.
However, the manufacturing process is complicated, and the strength of the plastic is not as much as that of steel, and the structural strength of the slider 31 is low. Therefore, the bolt holes 314 are formed on both end surfaces of the slider 31. However, the bolt hole 314 is provided in the lid (not shown) on the extreme end surface of the slider 31. The processing of the bolt hole 314 is not difficult, but it can be said that the processing is not easy considering that the bolt hole 314 and the reflow hole 312 need to be precisely aligned.

Further, in the known roller slide type, as shown in FIG. 2 (see Patent Document 3: USP6109789, Patent Document 4: USP6390678), the slider 21 of the roller slide type linear guide 20 is provided with a sliding groove 215, The sliding groove 215 is formed in the rail 24, and the slider 21 is fitted on the rail 24.
Since the slider 21 needs to have a function of receiving the roller 251, a rolling groove 211 is similarly provided on the slider 21, that is, the rolling groove 211 is a rail on which the roller 251 rolls. It is also a carrier that receives the load of the structure. In order to achieve the purpose of rolling and rolling infinitely by moving the roller 251 in the opposite direction, a reflow hole 212 is also provided on the slider 21, and the reflow hole 212 is perforated. The cross-section of the reflow hole 212 must be square to match the side profile of
It is relatively easy to process a hole having a circular cross section. However, there is a problem that it is relatively difficult and costly to process a square hole. In the current manufacturing method, first, several circular perforations 217 are formed, and then a plastic portion 216 having a square reflow hole 212 and an airfoil groove 213 is inserted into the perforations 217. The reflow hole 212 must have a size that allows the roller 251 and the holding chain 25 to pass through at the same time, and a corresponding relief groove 218 is provided on the rolling groove 211 of the slider 21 so that the convex edge 252 of the holding chain 25 is formed. Must pass through. According to this manufacturing method, not only is the process complicated, but the strength of the plastic does not reach the strength of the steel material, and the structural strength of the slider 21 is lowered. The bolt hole 214 must also be machined on the end face, and the bolt hole 214 is easy to machine itself as described above. However, since the position accuracy is required, it is actually not easy to machine.
US Pat. No. 6,042,269 US Pat. No. 6,084,420 US Pat. No. 6,109,789 US Pat. No. 6,390,678

The known techniques as described above have many disadvantages in the manufacturing process. One of them is a cost problem, and in order to reduce the cost, it is necessary to focus on casting. However, in the conventional casting method, a mold is used. It is difficult to grasp the accuracy of the process and the process of changing the metal from a liquid to a solid, and the finished product after casting has to be subjected to a lot of processing and has a hole with a perfect circular cross section. It is difficult to provide, and post-casting modification is not effective, and the precision of size is increasing in the powder metallurgy manufacturing process, but the difficulty in deep hole press is high, and the brittleness and quality of the material are high. There are also problems such as high risk.
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-described drawbacks, and provides a slider manufacturing method for a linear guide according to the present invention and a slider manufactured by the method in order to increase the strength of the structure while suppressing cost.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention of claim 1 is directed to a linear guide slider provided with rolling grooves and reflow holes, wherein the slider is manufactured by metal injection molding. Is the method.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a linear guide slider manufactured by the linear guide slider manufacturing method according to the first aspect, wherein the linear guide slider is provided with a rolling groove and a reflow hole. The linear guide slider is characterized in that an airfoil groove parallel to the reflow hole is provided on the reflow hole.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the slider, the metal powder used in the metal injection molding includes two kinds of powders having different nominal sizes. It is a manufacturing method.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the linear guide according to the third aspect, wherein the two kinds of powders having different nominal sizes have a nominal diameter difference of about 3 to 6 times. This is a slider manufacturing method.
The invention of claim 5 is a method for manufacturing a slider for a linear guide, wherein a metal powder and a binder are mixed, and a slider template having a reflow hole is manufactured from the mixture of the metal powder and the binder by injection molding. By heating the slider template above the temperature at which the binder liquefies, the binder in the slider is removed, and the slider is sintered to recrystallize between the metal granules, thereby making the structure dense. A method of manufacturing a slider for a linear guide, characterized by including a process for enhancing

  That is, according to the present invention, in the linear guide slider manufacturing method, metal powder is formed into a linear guide by using an injection molding method. At the time of molding, the rolling groove and the reflow hole of the linear guide are directly formed, and the material around the slider is used. In order to provide excellent hardness and precision, and yield strength, two types of metal powders and binders with different granule sizes are mixed and stirred, and the binder mold is degreased when the slider template is completed by the injection molding described above. Is further refined by recrystallization between the powdered metals after sintering, and the proportion of the large metal powder and the small metal powder is 1: 0.225, and the small granule It is assumed that the best weight ratio of the metal powder is 1%, and that the metal powder having a small granule is manufactured by the gas atomization method and has a spherical appearance.

  According to the present invention, the linear guide slider adopts an injection molding method, and re-condenses before the metal is completely liquefied, so that the size can be easily controlled, and the rolling groove, reflow hole, airfoil groove, relief groove At the same time, the precision of bolt holes, etc. has been improved, the processing process has also been simplified, the cost has been reduced, and two types of metal powders with different granule sizes in terms of material hardness and yield strength are used. The effect of making it stronger is obtained.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described. In a slider on a ball slide type linear guide or a roller slide type linear guide, a reflow hole, a rolling groove, an airfoil groove, a relief groove are formed in the slider by using an injection molding technique. Strength is enhanced by forming a structure such as a groove and mixing and mixing two types of metal powders of different sizes, and filling the gap between the smaller metal powder balls with the larger metal powder balls. It is characterized by that.
The ball slide type linear guide or the roller slide type linear guide in the embodiment is applied to a slider. When applied to the ball slide type linear guide, it includes structures such as rolling grooves, circular reflow holes, airfoil grooves, bolt holes, etc., and when applied to the roller slide type linear guides, rolling grooves, square shapes are included. It has structures such as a reflow hole, a relief groove, and a bolt hole, and the manufacturing process thereof will be specifically described below.

First, a metal powder and a binder are mixed into a mixed granule, and the metal powder includes at least two kinds of metal powders having different particle sizes, and at least one of them is a spherical metal powder, It is assumed that another metal powder is filled with a metal powder.
The metal powder of the larger granule is 3 to 6 times larger than the diameter of the metal powder of the smaller granule, and the ratio of the size of the granule between the metal powders is optimally 1 to 0.225 in diameter ratio. The best weight of the metal powder is about 1% of the total weight (the cube of 0.225 = about 0.011). The small granular metal powder is manufactured by gas atomization method and has a spherical appearance, and the smaller the diameter of the spherical metal powder of the small granule, the higher the price, so the content of fine metal powder does not exceed 3% Better. Moreover, in the case of a large granular metal powder, the cost of the material is reduced by using an irregularly shaped metal powder produced by a water atomizing method. Since there is tolerance in the production of metal powder and there is a slight difference in the diameter of each granule in one metal powder, the nominal diameter is the typical diameter of one metal powder. The nominal size is a representative size of one metal powder.

Next, the metal powder and binder of the above-mentioned two uniformly mixed granules having different sizes are molded as a slider template by metal injection molding technology, and rolling grooves and reflow holes are simultaneously included on the slider. However, it may also include a structure such as a bolt hole, an airfoil groove, and a relief groove at the same time, and the reflow hole assumes a circular shape or a square shape.
Further, the slider template is heated to a temperature above which the binder vaporizes or liquefies, and after the binder in the slider template is removed, the slider template undergoes sintering, so that The structure is refined by recrystallization between metal granules.

As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the slider manufactured by the above-described process has structures such as sliding grooves 511 and 611 and reflow holes 512 and 612 on the sliders 51 and 61, but at the same time a bolt hole 514. , 614, airfoil grooves 513, 613, and relief grooves 618 may be provided. In the entire process, the metal powder condenses before it is completely liquefied, so that the size of the slider in the present invention is accurately controlled and at the same time the density is high, and the crystal structure of the slider is increased as shown in FIG.
That is, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the problem of inferior density is solved and a six-sided close-packed structure in the crystal lattice is achieved, but the three spheres 41, 42, and 43 in the figure are triangular. The other spheres 44 are provided above the centers of the three spheres 41, 42, 43. Although this structure is a close-packed structure of spheres of equal size, the calculation based on geometry has a density of only 74% of the sphere density, and during the metal injection molding process, the metal granules soften and deform at high temperatures and crystallize. However, the density is increased if the common powder contains granules of different sizes and small granules are filled in the gap between two large granules.
However, the known crystal structure is not yet ideal, and the use of small-sized metal granules is a commonly used method of increasing the density, and the principle is that small granules grow during the crystal growth process. However, if the change in the size of the sphere when the sphere is deformed is not taken into account, the density remains at 74%, and even if a powder with a small particle size is used, the density becomes 98%. The density of 98% or less is not yet sufficient for the structure of general machines.
However, the slider of the linear guide receives a load with concentrated rolling grooves in a point, so the strength against fatigue is low even if the density is low. The strength of the slider manufactured by the method was insufficient to withstand the point load such as rolling balls and rollers.

  Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 4, in the cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 3, the cross section cuts the spheres 42 and 44, and the cross sections of the spheres 41 and 43 are just in contact with each other. By mixing different downstream metal powders, the density at which small granular spherical metal powders are deposited is increased, and in the center of the four spheres 41, 42, 43, 44 in the present invention, the volume is small. One small sphere 45 in contact with the four spheres is filled (see FIG. 5), and in the calculation based on the geometry, the diameter of the small sphere 45 is about 0.225 times the diameter of the four spheres. The small sphere 45 is in contact with just four adjacent spheres 41, 42, 43, and 44, and the density in FIG. 5 is increased by 2.5% compared to the crystal structure shown in FIG. Material density after 98% To achieve the above.

  Although preferred embodiments have been disclosed in the present invention as described above, the present invention is by no means limited to the embodiments unless it impairs the features of the present invention, and anyone skilled in the art can understand the spirit and scope of the present invention. It goes without saying that various fluctuations and moist colors can be added within a range not departing from.

It is a three-dimensional exploded view of a conventionally known ball slide type linear guide. It is a three-dimensional exploded view of a conventionally known roller slide type linear guide. It is a figure which shows the hexagonal close-packed structure in the crystal lattice of material. It is sectional drawing by AA of FIG. It is crystal lattice explanatory drawing of the slider of this invention. It is a figure which shows one Example of the ball slide type linear guide manufactured by the technique of this invention. It is a figure which shows another Example of the roller slide type linear guide manufactured by the technique of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

20 Roller slide type linear guide 21 Slider 211 Rolling groove 212 Reflow hole 213 Airfoil groove 214 Bolt hole 215 Sliding groove 216 Plastic part 217 Through hole 218 Escape groove 24 Rail 25 Holding chain 251 Roller 252 Convex edge 30 Linear guide 31 Slider 311 Rolling Groove 312 Reflow hole 313 Airfoil groove 314 Bolt hole 315 Sliding groove 316 Plastic part 317 Perforation 34 Rail 35 Holding chain 351 Rolling ball 352 Upper convex edge 353 Lower convex edge 41, 42, 43, 44, 45 Crystal ball 51, 61 Slider 511,611 Rolling groove 512,612 Reflow hole 513,613 Airfoil groove 514,614 Bolt hole
618 escape groove

Claims (5)

  A linear guide slider having a rolling groove and a reflow hole, wherein the slider is manufactured by metal injection molding.   A linear guide slider provided with a rolling groove and a reflow hole, wherein the slider is manufactured by metal injection molding, and an airfoil groove parallel to the reflow hole is provided on the reflow hole. Slider.   2. The method for manufacturing a slider of a linear guide according to claim 1, wherein the metal powder used for the metal injection molding includes two kinds of powders having different nominal sizes.   4. The method for manufacturing a slider of a linear guide according to claim 3, wherein the two kinds of powders having different nominal sizes have a nominal diameter difference of about 3 to 6 times. In the linear guide slider manufacturing method, metal powder and binder are mixed,
A slider template having a reflow hole is produced from the mixture of the metal powder and the binder by injection molding,
The binder in the slider is removed by heating the slider template to a temperature above which the binder liquefies,
A method for manufacturing a slider for a linear guide, comprising a process of increasing the density of the structure by sintering the slider and recrystallizing between the metal granules.

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