Externally installable ball return crossover systems for ball nut and screw assemblies and methods of constructing and installing them
US5937700A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 29, 1998 |
| Grant date | Aug 17, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 29, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY10T74/19767
- WIPO fieldMechanical elements
- WIPO sectorMechanical engineering
Abstract
A ball nut and screw system has a ball nut with adjacent helical groove turns providing a helical raceway with a screw for load bearing balls received in the raceway. The nut has an opening extending from its exterior to its interior to permit balls to be fed into the raceway. A compressible snap-in crossover, sized for compressed insertion into the opening, provides an axially diagonal, ball return passage in its underface for channeling balls from one portion of one of the adjacent turns over an intervening land surface on the screw to a portion of another turn to recirculate them. The crossover has opposed portions with nut groove entering projections thereon shaped to be snapped into the turns to define unoccupied turn portions on opposite sides of ball-occupied turn portions when the projections clear the opening upon insertion. For some purposes, wedging retainers can be received in the crossover once it is installed.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.