Thermal expansion analysis of and experiment on a high speed vertical motion ball-screw

A high-speed transmission table is widely used in industry with an increased demand. The preloaded ball-screw device is a major component in a transmission system. To bear the applied load, the preload and inertial forces, a four-cycle ball-screw is necessary. The kinematic behaviour and friction of the ball and raceway are more complex than the double-cycle ball-screw. A new calculation concept is used to simplify the complex calculation. Contact and friction were found at each cycle, and they varied with operating conditions such as the applied axial load and the rotational speed. The study is helpful in realizing the contact and friction behaviour in a preloaded, four-cycle ball-screw. The calculated results are well confirmed with the surface strain, and the temperature of the experiments was obtained from the vertical motion of a high-speed ball-screw system. The thermal expansion behaviour of a nut is found to be similar to its linear thermal expansion function