How can backlash be overcome

E-commerce Login Order directly from Thomson online North America only Authorized Thomson Distributors can view and order from quotes online Global View the shopping cart and look up prior direct orders. How can I reduce or eliminate the backlash in a ball screw assembly? There are several ways to reduce or eliminate the backlash in a ball screw assembly: At the factory level we can select ball sizes to minimize the backlash.

Product Finder. Want More Details. Chat with Thomson. Need Help? Contact Us! This means no humming, vibrations or low friction. This chatters results in slight rotations in the nut causing it to loosen up. Travel accuracy measures pitch up and down , yawing side to side and rolling around axis. Quality of the guide rails is critical on linear motion and is influenced by alignment, surface texture and temperature. When critical speed is reached vibrations increase, accuracy drops and performance decreases.

Speed is determined by the alignment and friction. Each part of your machine is at a different temperature depending on what it is currently doing, this directly influences your accuracy in movement caused by deformation of the components.

Higher rigidity can produce higher friction and higher temperatures, these thermal differences in each component can cause changes in distances needed to travel and can cause inaccuracy. Compensating for thermal influences can help reduce backlash and should be considered in extreme temperature or extreme accuracy applications. Simply put; keep your environment at a steady temperature to avoid expansion or contraction.

Yet stiffness trades off for efficiency which impacts precision, any force or load applied to the motion can cause deflection. Molecules at higher temperatures have more energy, thus they can vibrate faster. Since the molecules vibrate faster, sound waves can travel more quickly.

The speed of sound in room temperature air is meters per second. Move an axis in one direction farther than the maximum possible backlash. Backlash is configured in the HiCON plugin. If you are unsure which style of anti-backlash nut is suitable for your application, contact one of our sales engineers for assistance.

We would be glad to put our expertise to work for you to help determine the best anti-backlash solution for your application. We hope that you've found this information about controlling backlash useful. To assist you in selecting an appropriate lead screw assembly for your next project, we have also assembled some expert tips in our Engineer's Guide to Lead Screw selection.

Additional Reading. Anti-Backlash Nuts. Lead Screws. However lead screw manufacturers have developed variations of these designs in an attempt to ensure that backlash reduction or elimination remains consistent throughout the life of the screw assembly, even as the screw and nut wear.

There have also been recent advancements in anti-backlash nut designs to minimize the added friction and increased drive torque that results from backlash compensation. The most basic method for reducing or eliminating lead screw backlash is to use a spring or other compliant element, such as a washer to axially force two nut halves against opposite flanks of the screw thread. This design is relatively simple, and the use of a spring ensures that backlash reduction is maintained over a certain amount of component wear.

A higher load can be addressed with a stronger spring, but a stronger spring causes more friction between the nut and the screw, which reduces efficiency and requires more drive torque to overcome.