WO2009003843A2

WO2009003843A2 - Curved guide rail

Info

Publication number: WO2009003843A2
Application number: PCT/EP2008/057763
Authority: WO
Inventors: Uwe Danneck; Jörg GUTH; Markus Knecht; Marco Schnur; Hans Simon; Klaus Schumacher
Original assignee: Schaeffler Kg
Priority date: 2007-06-30
Filing date: 2008-06-19
Publication date: 2009-01-08
Also published as: DE102007030506A1; WO2009003843A3

Abstract

The invention relates to a curved guide rail (2) for a guide carriage (1) which is mounted in a movable fashion by means of running rollers (3) on two guide shafts (5), having a plurality of mounting elements (6), which are arranged in series at intervals along the movement path, for the guide shafts (5), wherein the mounting elements (6) mount the guide shafts (5) and wherein the mounting elements (6) can be fixed by means of fastening elements to a basic body, wherein the one type of mounting elements are arranged as fixed mounts (7), and the other type of mounting elements, which are designed as floating mounts (8), are arranged between said fixed mounts (7), wherein the guide shafts (5) are arranged in a movable fashion in the floating mounts (8) and are fixed in the fixed mounts (7).

Description

Curved guide rail

The invention relates to a curved guide rail for a slidably mounted on rollers on two parallel guide shafts carriage.

Guide rails are used on track guides that are suitable for a variety of applications in handling technology, in machine guidance systems and in automation devices. The guide rails can have both rectilinear and curved courses. Round arched rails can be produced as hardened steel rails by hardening and grinding turned and drilled 360 ° bends, from which appropriate segments are then cut out if necessary.

It is also possible to produce round arch rails as composite rails, wherein an extruded aluminum section cut to length for the arch rail is bent on a bending device to the desired radius. Hardened and bent steel shafts are then inserted as guide shafts in lateral grooves of the aluminum profile and fastened there by rolling in. The steel shafts must be aligned exactly parallel, so that a perfect function of the carriage is guaranteed. The joint between a straight and an arcuate guide shaft each forms a transition region in which a sudden change in the track width can occur. This has the disadvantage that a chatter occurs in the carriage when driving over the joints with track width change.

A composite rail, which consists of a profile body made of flowable material with lateral grooves and inserted in these rails of non kaltfließbarem material is known from DE-OS 35 04 061.

Also, the DE-GM 89 12 165 shows a guide device for a carriage provided with guide rollers, wherein the rollers are made of guide rods Roll off steel held in lateral grooves of an extruded light metal rail body. The carriage may form a carousel or be translationally movable along the rail.

From DE-GM 92 06 530 a guide rail of the type mentioned is known. Instead of a light-metal rail body, a steel band and a round rod are proposed here as longitudinal guides, on the holding elements for guide shafts are attached at intervals one behind the other. Therefore, each retaining element requires a central longitudinal slot for receiving the steel strip or a central longitudinal bore for receiving the round rod. The guide shafts for the carriage are held in lateral grooves of each integral holding member. For their attachment and for securing the retaining element to a substrate or body serve two screws. Each retaining element has two holes for the screws, which extend on both sides of the longitudinal slot and the longitudinal bore. However, these one-piece holding elements, each having a rectangular cross-section and a rectangular longitudinal section, are not very suitable for arcuate guide shafts, because there the contact between the sheet and the holding element does not take place in the lateral groove in a planar manner, but only in a line or point shape.

From DE 196 15 465 A1, a curved guide rail was known, in which each bearing element is designed in two parts and consists of a lower part and an upper part, which adjoin one another along a parting line running through the lateral grooves. Such a guide rail can dispense along its straight or arcuate course both on an aluminum composite rail and on central longitudinal guide elements such as steel bands or rods. It consists only of the straight or arcuate guide or round steel shafts, which are aligned parallel to each other and are held by the clamping elements. The bearing elements for linear rail part sections can be used as prismatic clamping elements with a rectangular layout and those for arcuate rail part sections as circular clamping elements with kreisflächen- be executed shaped plan. In the case of the prismatic clamping elements and the circular clamping elements, the upper parts can be partially inserted into central bores of the lower parts and held there by the fastening element. The fastening elements may be screws which are inserted through the holes of the lower parts, screwed into threaded holes in the base body and inserted with their screw heads in stepped bores of the tops. The bearing elements can be arranged distributed as a circular clamping elements at equal intervals from each other on the arcuate rail track section. In the case of application-related space problems, non-equidistant distances of the clamping elements can be realized at any time.

A disadvantage of this guide rail that the carriage can run stiff while passing through the arranged along the curved guide rail clamping elements, because the waves are clamped in the grooves and the pressure of the rollers of the carriage do not yield. After passing through the bearings with the clamping elements, the carriage can be moved more easily along the guide rail, because the waves can yield the pressure of the car elastic.

Object of the present invention was to provide a curved guide rail according to the features of the preamble of claim 1, in which this disadvantage is eliminated.

According to the invention this object has been achieved by the curved guide rail according to claim 1. The fact that floating bearings are arranged between fixed bearings, the guide carriage can be moved during its passage along the curved guide rail, without an increase in the resistance to displacement at the bearings for the movable bearings is significantly felt: because under the pressure of the guide carriage indicate the waves the trained as a floating bearing bearings sufficiently. This is possible, for example, in the case of further developments according to the invention in that the guide shafts are arranged in the grooves with sufficient play for dodging. are net. Only at the trained as a fixed bearing bearings, the guide shafts are fixed, that is, the guide shafts can be clamped, as it is also disclosed in DE 196 15 465 A1.

Preferably, only two fixed bearings are provided on the curved guide rail, one at the beginning and one at the end. Between these fixed bearings, a required number of movable bearings can be provided.

The fixed bearings used in the invention correspond to the invention disclosed in DE 196 15 465 A1 clamping elements.

Embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the drawings and will be described in more detail below. Show it:

1 shows a plan view of an arcuate guide rail,

Figure 2 shows a cross section through the guide rail with mounted

Carriage along M-Il,

Figure 3 shows a cross section through the guide rail with mounted

Carriage along Ml-Ml,

Figure 4 shows a section through a fixed bearing and

Figure 5 shows a section through a floating bearing.

FIG. 1 shows a curved running track according to the invention in plan view. A carriage 1 is mounted längsverschieblich on a curved guide rail 2. FIGS. 2 and 3 show cross sections through the guide rail 2 along the section lines M-II and M1-M1, as indicated in FIG. It can be seen from Figures 2 and 3, that the carriage 1 is provided with three profiled rollers 3, one of which is adjustable via a setting eccentric 4 that the carriage 1 free of play on the guide rail 2 runs.

The guide rail 2 has two parallel guide shafts 5, on which the rollers 3 roll. The guide shafts 5 are fixed via bearing elements 6 to a base body (not shown here). These bearing elements 6 receive the guide shafts 5, as will be explained in more detail below. In the illustration according to FIG. 1, the two bearing elements 6 are designed as a fixed bearing 7 at the beginning and at the end of the curved guide rail 2. The arranged between these fixed bearings 7 bearing elements 6 are designed as floating bearing 8.

FIG. 4 shows one of the movable bearings 8 in longitudinal section. Trained as a one-piece component floating bearing 8 has two grooves 9, the open sides are facing away from each other. In both grooves 9, the guide shafts 5 indicated here only by dashed lines are received with all-round play. This game is dimensioned so large that the guide shafts 5 can yield during the passage of the guide carriage 1 such that the carriage 1 can be passed without significant increase in a displacement resistance along these movable bearings 8.

The floating bearing 8 is provided with a central passage opening 10 for receiving here not further illustrated fastening screws. By means of these fastening screws, the floating bearing 8 can be fixed to the already mentioned component.

Figure 5 shows the fixed bearing 7, as described in detail in DE 196 15 465 A1. From its shape, it corresponds largely to the previously described floating bearing 8. However, the fixed bearing 7 is made in two parts and composed of an upper part 11 and a lower part 12. The upper part 11 and the lower part 12 together form the two grooves 13, in which the guide shafts 5 are arranged. As in the case of the fixed bearing 7, a central through-opening 14 for carrying out a fastening screw 15 is also provided here in order to secure the fixed bearing 7 to the already thought to fix part. In addition to the fixation of the fixed bearing 7, the fastening screw 15 here has the task of pressing the upper part 11 against the lower part 12, so that the grooves 13 arranged in the guide shafts 5 are firmly clamped.

The two fixed bearing 7 specify the distance between the two guide shafts to each other. The floating bearings 8 are designed such that the guide shafts 5 are indeed supported, but can still adapt to the carriage 1 in the raceway width. Manufacturing fluctuations can be compensated. A uniform running behavior between the two outer fixed bearings 7 is guaranteed.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

1 carriage

2 guide rail

3 roller

4 adjustment eccentric

5 guide shaft

6 bearing element

7 fixed storage

8 floating bearings

9 groove

10 passage opening

11 upper part

12 lower part

13 groove

14 passage opening

15 fixing screw

Claims

claims

1. curved guide rail (2) for a via rollers (3) on two guide shafts (5) slidably mounted guide carriage (1), with a plurality along the displacement path at intervals successively arranged bearing elements (6) for the guide shafts (5), wherein the bearing elements (6) store the guide shafts (5) and wherein the bearing elements (6) are fixable with fastening elements on a base body, characterized in that the one bearing elements as a fixed bearing (7) and between these fixed bearings (7) the other as a floating bearing (8) trained bearing elements are arranged, wherein the guide shaft (5) in the movable bearings (8) arranged movably and in the fixed bearings (7) are fixed.

2. Curved guide rail according to claim 1, wherein the guide shafts (5) in grooves (9, 13) of the movable bearing (8) are received with preferably all-sided game.

3. Curved guide rail according to claim 2, wherein the movable bearing (8) is formed as a one-piece component and provided with a passage opening (10) for the passage of the fastening element.

4. curved guide rail according to claim 1, wherein at both ends of the curved guide rail depending on a fixed bearing (7) and between these fixed bearings (7) a plurality of movable bearings (8) are arranged.