Recirculation System and Attributes of Ball Screws

One of the several component seen throughout factory automation applications are ball screws.Assembly uses the rotary motion of the screw to actuate the nut in a linear direction, the same concept seen with a bolt and nut. Recirculating steel balls along the screw groove within the nut will achieve a smooth linear motion of a ball screw. The motion characteristics of the ball screw may differ to steel ball recirculation method.

 Main Types of Recirculation:

Steel balls are recirculated by the end caps mounted within each end. Ball recirculation tunnels are constructed within the nut’s inner wall. Good with high speed operations.

Deflectors are embedded on the nut outer tube to return the balls over the screw shaft per each lead. Suitable for compact designs.

Return tubes are mounted outside of the nut. The ease of assembly makes this suitable for mass production, however the overall size is relatively large compared to other methods.

Uses guide plates or deflectors instead of the return tubes, and is good for making the design compact.

                         END CAP                                             DEFLECTOR                                         RETURN TUBE