What Is a Crossed Roller Table?
A crossed roller table is a precision linear motion table that features rollers with retainers placed in alternating tolerances between a high-precision V-shaped groove on the underside of the table and its base. This design allows for precise linear motion supported by multiple rollers.
Crossed roller tables are commonly used in office automation equipment and IC processing machines due to their exceptional rigidity in various directions and high-precision linear guidance capabilities.
There are also cross-roller rings and cross-roller bearings, which incorporate circular grooves instead of straight V-shaped grooves and enable rotational motion. These components provide the same characteristics as crossed roller tables and are used for supporting tables or shafts.
Applications of Crossed Roller Tables
Crossed roller tables find widespread use in applications requiring high precision and rigidity in linear motion. They are prominently featured in office automation equipment, various measuring instruments, IC manufacturing equipment such as printed circuit board drilling machines, and medical equipment.
Crossed roller bearings serve a broad range of purposes, including joints and swivel components in industrial robots, joints of robot suits for nursing care, swivel tables in machining centers, precision rotary tables, measuring instruments, and IC manufacturing equipment. Their applications are expanding into cutting-edge fields like aeronautics and space exploration.
Features of Crossed Roller Tables
Crossed roller tables incorporate V-shaped polished guide grooves on the underside of the table, with rollers positioned between the base and the guide grooves using retainers that alternately contact both sides of the V-shaped guide grooves. This arrangement enables precise linear motion, and the use of two parallel guide grooves supports loads in multiple directions, enhancing rigidity.
These tables feature highly accurate rollers, guide grooves, and base components, with adjustable gaps using screws to apply pressure. Supported on two intersecting surfaces, they maintain high rigidity even when subjected to loads in vertical and horizontal directions, as well as bending moments in various directions.
Furthermore, versions made of stainless steel for V-shaped grooves, bases, rollers, and retainers offer extended service life and corrosion resistance. They can easily provide high-precision linear guidance by simple bolt-on mounting.
Rotatable cross-roller rings are known for their high rotational accuracy, preventing roller skew and mutual friction. This results in stable rotational torque, making them suitable for various applications.