Potential and Challenges of Combined Roller and Plain Bearings for Servo Presses

In order to provide higher accuracy and an increased life time for bearings in kinematic drives of servo-driven stroke controlled presses this article presents a combination of a roller and a plain bearing. With an example of the 3D-Servo-Press, the applied design is illustrated and the advantages are discussed. A technological solution is presented which enables a specific pretension for each individual bearing according to its tribological requirements. Using a developed matlab-programme the behaviour of a conventional plain bearing is opposed to the new bearing combination by its illustrated displacement paths of the shaft in the bearing shell under certain conditions of a common balancer system. The feasibility of this initial tension system is shown by means of a bearing prototype. Finally measurement results of a prototype will be shown which proof the manufacturability of the presented bearing combination.