Effects of Ball Groupings on Ball Passage Vibrations of a Linear Guideway Type Ball Bearing: Pitching and Yawing Ball Passage Vibrations

The effects of ball groupings on the pitching and yawing ball passage vibrations of linear guideway type ball bearings (linear ball bearings) under low speed operation were studied. For this study, the test linear ball bearings (which can retain the ball grouping in operation) with three types of ball groupings were manufactured, and the pitching and yawing ball passage vibrations of each test linear ball bearing were measured using a laser autocollimator. Moreover, a calculation method of the ball passage vibrations for a linear ball bearing with an arbitrary ball grouping was presented. According to the presented method the ball passage vibrations for three types of ball groupings were calculated. The experimental and calculated results show that the occurrence of the pitching and yawing ball passage vibrations was affected by the ball groupings. For the occurrence, the waveforms, and the amplitude of the pitching and yawing ball passage vibrations for the ball groupings, the calculated results based on the presented method almost matched with the experimental results.