3 Tips for Choosing a Linear Slide Table

3 Tips for Choosing a Linear Slide Table


Whether you want to design your own linear slide table system or buy one as a readymade, off-the-shelf assembly, there are a wide variety of linear products available on the market today. Materials like plastic or bronze leadscrew nuts, ball screws, as well as a variety of belt-driven ball bearing systems can make the choice difficult.Get more news about linear sliding table suppliers,you can vist our website!
1. Consider an off-the-shelf solution
You always have the option of buying any number of different components to piece together your own belt or leadscrew-driven assembly.

However, after you factor in the research, design, drawing, purchasing, QC, and assembly, you could have purchased a part from a catalog and designed several other aspects of your equipment - saving time and hidden costs. If this fits in with your design, buying something off-the-shelf, pre-assembled may be the best way to go.
2. Plastic versus metallic bearings
At igus®, we manufacture plastic bearings with the fundamental belief that they can help machinery last longer, at a lower cost and without maintenance. When using plastic bearings in linear applications, remember to use proper spacing between the bearings along the axis of travel.

The typical rule-of-thumb is to use what we call the “2-to-1 rule”, which means that the loads’ center of gravity, and the drive-force (if designing your own assembly), needs to be within 2 x the bearing distance or less. For example, if you have a bearing spacing of 10 inches (center to center in the axis of travel), any acting force on the bearings should be less than 20 inches away.
Choosing a lead screw, ball screw, or belt drive
Some companies offer ball-screw systems that are designed to carry heavy loads at high speeds and are typically designed for extremely precise positioning. At igus®, we offer a cost-saving alternative within our of lead screw and belt-driven systems. We primarily recommend these lead-screw tables for low-speed positioning and set-up applications. These applications typically have speeds less than 60 inches-per-minute of continuous motion which require no less than +/-0.004in. of linear positioning tolerance.