Chapter 3

 Exact alignment of the guided parts

 Availability of means to compensate wear
 Minimum friction (No stick slip at low speed)
 Ease of assembly and economy of manufacture
 Allow freedom from restraint
 Prevention of chip and dirt accumulation
 Effective lubrication must be possible.
 High stiffness, should not deform under load.
Based upon the nature of friction between
bearing surface:

 Guideways with sliding friction: slideways

 Guideways with rolling friction: anti-friction
slideways
1. The type of load and direction
2. Effective lubrication
3. How far chip and dirt accumulation is a
problem
4. Type & position of transmitting element
5. Wear characteristics and adjustment
6. Manufacturing economy
a. Flat
b. Vee or Prism
c. Dovetail
d. Cylindrical
 Advantage
◦ Simple to manufacture
◦ Self adjusting in case of wear
◦ Saddle is well supported
 Disadvantages
◦ Tendency to accumulate dirt and chips
◦ Need adjustment for clearance
◦ Poor in lubricant retention
 Use
◦ High supporting force on long slideway
◦ Bigger machine tool with high force
 Two types: Symmetrical and Unsymmetrical
 Symmetrical if load is evenly distributed
 Usually combined with flat slideway for better
guidance and load bearing
 Symmetrical Vee
◦ Employed when the load on the slideway is
vertical, which is rare.
 Unsymmetrical Vee
◦ More commonly used in machine tool
◦ Longer face should be placed perpendicular to the
direction of the resultant force.
 Advantages
◦ Self adjusting capability
◦ Surrounded vee prevents dirt accumulation
◦ Easy traverse and accurate guiding
 Disadvantages
◦ Cannot retain lubricant
◦ Surrounded type weakens the saddle
◦ Wears rapidly
 Use
◦ Medium and small lathe
◦ Planer machine
 Advantages
◦ Require small space
◦ Simple clearance adjustment
◦ Can stand vertical upward force
 Disadvantage
◦ Relatively costly to manufacture
◦ Poor retention of lubricant
 Use
◦ Cross slides in lathe
◦ Milling machine tables
◦ Saddles and knees
 Theoretically fully constrained slideway
 Easy to manufacture
 Disadvantages
◦ Low rigidity
◦ Clearance is difficult to adjust
 Use
◦ Column drilling machine
◦ Over-arm of milling machine
◦ Tailstock sleeve
Selection of Materials depends on:
 wear resistance
 strength, specially bearing and bending strength,
 damping capacity
 heat capacity (It should not build up much heat.),
 environmentally neutral (It must stand hostile
environment like new coolant, lubricant etc.)
 the cost of production
• Gray cast iron is the most commonly used material
for slideways.
• Nickel and chromium is added to increase the wear
resistance and the bending strength
• The surface hardness can be increased by flame or
induction hardening.
• Hardness attained is 40-52 RC for ordinary gray cost
iron and 45-55 RC in nodular cast iron.
• Hardness upto 60-62 RC can be attained by Hardened
steel
Laminated plastics strips backed by cost iron or steel
pieces can be used.

Advantages :
• Uniform pressure
• Less seizure (uniform motion)
• Reduced friction
• Reduction of wear
• Easy to fabricate
• Lower cost
Disadvantages:
 lower strength and hardness, usually designed
for pressure l0 kg/cm2
 tendency to-swell when they absorb oil.
 poor thermal conductivity, resulting in thermal
distortion.
 low speed range, v< 40m/min for satisfactory
running.
Wear is caused by factors such as:
 the properties of the material of the mating parts
 the surface roughness of the mating parts
 the pressure on the slideways
 the sliding velocity
 the total working life
 the dirt and chip accumulation on the slideways.
 Life and smooth functioning of slideways depends on
clearance between sliding surface
 Too small clearance – give rise to excessive frictional
force
 Too large clearance – adversely affect the uniformity
of travel
 Initial clearance alters in the course of slideway
operation due to its wear
 Necessary to provide devices for periodic
adjustments of clearances in the slideway
 Flat slideways
◦ Flat strip (adjusted by laterally arranged screws)
 Flat slideways
◦ Taper strip
 Vee slideways
 Dovetail Slideways
◦ Flat strip
 Dovetail Slideways
◦ Taper strip
 Dovetail Slideways
◦ Wedge Strip
High rigidity can be attained by
removing clearance.
12-25 micrometer is maintained for
high quality surface.
 Any shape of slideways can be hydro-statically
lubricated.
 High load capacity and high rigidity are independent
of the sliding velocity.
 There is no stick slip, because there is no metal to
metal contact.
 Little wear of the sliding elements and thus longer
life.
 Oil forces dust and chips out of the bearing area.
 Oil leakage also facilitates heat dissipation.
 High machining precision.
 Good damping property.
Compressed air is passed through a filter and a pressure
regulating valve. It then enters the pocket at a pressure of
3-4 kg/cm2
• The aperture
diameter varies
from 0.2 to 0.5 mm
• humidity in air is to
be reduced to a
minimum value to
avoid corrosion
ADVANTAGES:
• low friction, coefficient of friction is approximately
0.001 for ground steel slideways and 0.0025 for
scrapped cast iron slideways.
• Less stick slip effect.
• highly accurate movement.
• Uniform slow motion is possible
• less wear and considerably long service life
• operation without external lubrication.
DRAWBACKS :
• The cost of a such slideway system is high, because it
is highly finished and hardened.
• Because the contact is at a point or along a line, the
waviness of the surface impairs accuracy of motion.
• The rolling elements (balls, rollers etc.) lags behind the
sliding member (Fig.3.28). Hence recirculation of the
rolling elements is a must, if the travelling distance is
long
 The motion of tool or job in NC machine
tool faces the problem of friction and
backlash.
 To eliminate and compensate these
problem, ball-nut screw assembly is
used.
 The balls roll in the helical channel of the
thread from.