DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW LINEAR GUIDE SYSTEM WITH ELECTRICALLY CONTROLLABLE DAMPER USING LIQUID CRYSTALLINE POLYMER

Abstract

Rolling element linear guide systems are widely used in the industrial machines such as machine tools for the advantages of high-precision, high-rigidity and low-friction. However, the principal disadvantage of such systems is their inferior damping characteristics, which cause the degradation of working efficiency and quality in certain circumstances, especially where vibration is to be expected. To meet the demands of increasing speed together with higher precision, a rolling element linear guide system with electrically controllable additional damping element (ER damper) is developed in this study. Liquid crystalline polymer, a sort of homogeneous ER fluid, is used because this fluid is thought be suitable for industrial positioning systems for the characteristics of high out-put, nearly-linearity, no sedimentation and no particle-crushing. Some basic experiments were carried out and the good characteristics were ascertained.