Design of backlash-free straight-curved guide devices

摘要

This article presents a method for designing a planar guide device that can guide sliders to move along a straight-curved rail and can eliminate the backlash between the slider and the rail throughout the whole range of the slider travel. The guide device has many sliders and each slider has three rollers that can separately roll on both sides of the rail. The straight-curved rail is composed of straight sections, connection sections, and circular-arc sections. For each slider, the three normal lines through the contact points between the rollers and the rail must always intersect at a common point, which is an instant center. Using this as a basis, the side profiles of the straight-curved rail can be determined. To avoid infinite jerk of the slider motion, the pitch curve of the connection section should consist of a transition curve, which is interposed between the straight line and the circular arc.