If guide roller technology is the answer for the requirements and challenges of a particular application, there are several options for the equipment designer to choose from.  Modern Linear offers a variety of product options for selection, but all incorporate the benefits of guide roller technology.

Linear Motion designs built around the basic guide roller components (rollers, bushings and track), benefit from several characteristics:

• Designing with components results in the lowest part cost
• Most design flexibility
• Optimized machine design
• Most compact and discrete machine design

Components

Rollers: Available in 5 sizes for a wide range of load requirements.  Roller options include sealed or shielded, 52100 steel or 440 stainless steel.  Any roller is available with an optional, integral stud to further reduce component count and simplify design.  Studded rollers can also result in a more compact design, since the fastener is incorporated into the roller.

Bushings: This part is a companion to the roller and offers a way to adjust the position of the rollers to the track in the machine to optimize the fit and precision of the moving assembly.  Good design should include stationary as well as adjustable bushings in opposing positions.  In addition to facilitating slide adjustment, they act as a standoff between the roller and carriage plate. They are available in nickel plated steel or 303 stainless steel.  Low head options are also available to further reduce system size.

Track:  Track can offer a wide variety of options when it comes to design and integration into an automated machine.  Track can be located in any orientation on a machine frame.  It only needs a square edge to register against for straightness.  Track is sold drilled to ease assembly, but also offered un-drilled for custom mounting and can even be welded directly to the frame support.  It is available from stock in 1045 steel as well as 420 stainless steel.  Double edge track offers designers another option to reduce the size of the linear system in the overall machine footprint.  It can even be used as a structural member of the machine frame resulting in a more discrete linear design.

Track Clamp:  This part offers designers the ability to minimize the design and integration of track into a linear system.  It simplifies mounting by assuring parallelism of track sections and eliminates mounting holes and extra fasteners by fixing the track with setscrews.  Track Clamp is simply another option for designers to achieve the most effective linear system design for their automated machinery applications.