Patent Application
20110170809
The present invention relates generally to a linear motor, and more particularly to an automatic lubrication structure of slide mechanism.
To speak more specifically, ball bodies or rollers are held between the sliders 5 and the slide rails 4 to reduce frictional force so as to stabilize and smoothen the relative sliding motion of the sliders 5 along the slide rails 4. However, considerably great frictional force still exists between the ball bodies and the faces in contact with the ball bodies. Therefore, it is still necessary to lubricate the guide members.
In normal use environment, such mechanism is able to achieve a certain lubricating effect. However, in a vacuum operation environment, the lubricating oil will have very high viscosity so that the capillary effect will be unapparent. Therefore, the guide members can be hardly lubricated with such self-lubricating mechanism in the vacuum operation environment. However, most of the production equipments for the current high-precision semiconductor products or plane displays require vacuum environment.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide an automatic lubrication structure of slide mechanism, which can provide lubrication effect without using any additional power source.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide the above automatic lubrication structure of the slide mechanism, which can be adaptively used in a vacuumed environment to lubrication effect for an operating apparatus.
To achieve the above and other objects, the automatic lubrication structure of the slide mechanism of the present invention includes: a guide section having a linearly extending guide rail; a slide section slidably disposed on the guide rail, the slide section being drivable by an external to linearly reciprocally move along the guide rail between a forward position and a backward position; at least one rolling section rollably positioned between the slide section and the guide rail; and a lubricating section for providing a lubricant or the like between the guide rail and the slide section to lubricate contact faces between the rolling section, the guide rail and the slide section. The automatic lubrication structure is characterized in that the lubricating section has a hollow oil reservoir fixedly disposed on the guide section. The oil reservoir is formed with an internal cavity for containing the lubricant or the like therein. The lubricating section further has at least one oil-filling hole being formed on the guide section and at least one communication passage in communication with the oil-filling hole and the internal cavity of the oil reservoir. The lubricating section further has a push member. A first end of the push member extends into the internal cavity of the oil reservoir. A second end of the push member is positioned outside the oil reservoir and directed to the slide section.
The slide section is drivable by the external force to move into contact with the second end of the push member, whereby the first end of the push member is synchronously moved within the cavity to narrow a space thereof for containing the lubricant or the like. The lubricant or the like is extruded out of the cavity to go through the communication passage to the oil-filling hole and spill out to lubricate contact faces between the rolling section, the guide rail and the slide section.
The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawings, wherein:
Please refer to
The guide section 20 has a substantially rectangular horizontal substrate 21 with a certain thickness and an elongated strip-like guide rail 22. A bottom face of the guide rail 22 is attached to and fixedly disposed on an upper face 211 of the substrate 21. The guide rail 22 linearly extends in a direction parallel to a length of the rectangular substrate 21. Two opposite lateral sides of the guide rail 22 are respectively formed with lengthwise extending guide channels 221 with a certain depth.
The slide section 30 has a slide block 31 with a substantially U-shaped cross section. The guide rail 22 is inlaid in a bottom recess of the slide block 31, whereby the slide block 31 can be guided by the guide rail 22 to linearly reciprocally move along the guide rail 22 between a forward position and a backward position. This technique pertains to prior art and thus will not be further described hereinafter.
Each of the rolling sections (not shown) is composed of multiple balls or rollers. The rolling sections are rollably sandwiched and located respectively between inner opposite walls of the bottom recess of the U-shaped slide block 31 and the guide channels 221 of the guide rail 22. By means of the rolling sections, the slide section 30 can stably linearly move relative to the guide section 20 with a very low friction coefficient. This also pertains to prior art.
The lubricating section 40 has a hollow oil reservoir 41 with an internal cavity. The oil reservoir 41 is fixedly disposed on the upper face of the substrate 21 at a lengthwise end thereof in adjacency to one end of the guide rail 22. Multiple pairs of oil-filling holes 42 are respectively formed on the opposite lateral sides of the guide rail 22 in communication with the guide channels 221. A communication passage 43 extends from the internal cavity of the oil reservoir 41 to the oil-filling holes 42 to communicate the internal cavity therewith. The lubricating section 40 further has a push member 44. A first end of the push member 44 is slidably disposed in the internal cavity of the oil reservoir 41. A second end of the push member 44 is positioned outside the oil reservoir 41 and directed to an end face 311 of the slide block 31.
To speak more specifically, the oil reservoir 41 has a main body 411 formed with a cylindrical internal cavity 412 for containing therein a lubricant or the like. The cylindrical cavity 412 has an axis parallel to the length of the guide rail 23. A slide hole 413 and an outlet 414 are respectively formed on two opposite walls of the main body 411 at two axial ends of the cavity 412 in communication with the cavity 412. The axes of the slide hole 413 and the outlet 414 are parallel to the length of the guide rail 23.
The push member 44 has a disc-shaped piston body 441 coaxially received in the cavity 412 and axially movable within the cavity 412. The piston body 441 partitions the cavity 412 into two spaces. The push member 44 further has an elongated rod-like push body 442 coaxially fitted through the slide hole 413. A first end of the push body 442 is perpendicularly fixedly connected with one face of the piston body 441, while a second end of the push body 442 is positioned outside the main body 411 and directed to the end face 311 of the slide block 31.
The communication passage 43 extends from the outlet 414 through the main body 411 and the substrate 21 into the guide rail 22 to communicate with the oil-filling holes 42 on two lateral sides of the guide rail 22.
According to the above arrangement, the original power of the linear motor for controlling the motion of the slide section also serves as the power for operating the automatic lubrication structure 10 of the present invention. Therefore, it is unnecessary to use any additional power source for operating the lubrication structure as in the conventional device. When lubrication of the slide mechanism is needed, by means of the original power of the linear motor, the slide section 30 is driven to move to the backward position where the end face 311 of the slide block 31 abuts against the second end of the push body 442 to controllably push the push body 443 inward by a certain distance. At this time, the piston body 441 is synchronously moved within the cavity 412 to narrow the space for containing the lubricant or the like. Accordingly, the lubricant or the like is extruded out of the outlet 414 to go through the communication passage 43 to the oil-filling holes 42. The lubricant or the like then spills out of the oil-filling holes 42 to lubricate the contact faces between the rolling sections, the guide rail and the slide section.
In comparison with the conventional device, the automatic lubrication structure 10 of the slide mechanism of the present invention is operable by the original power of the linear motor without any additional power source. Therefore, the automatic lubrication structure 10 can be used at lower cost. Moreover, the automatic lubrication structure 10 can be used as a component of a linear motor operated in a vacuumed environment such as a vacuumed chamber to achieve reliable lubrication effect.
It should be noted that the above embodiment is only used to illustrate the present invention, not intended to limit the scope thereof. Many modifications of the above embodiment can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. The following are two examples of the modifications:
