Steinmeyer Customizes Ball Screws

Steinmeyer's ground and rolled thread ball screws in custom styles are designed to match existing designs.

Shaft diameters range from 3-125 mm with a variety of available pitches. All custom ball screws can be configured with a choice of nut style including single, pitch shift and double nut executions. Single nuts can be provided either preloaded, using ball oversize or with some play.

According to Steinmeyer's press release, to produce the compact nut designed, the company uses internal ball recirculation instead of tubes. Ball deflectors, manufactured from brass, steel or plastic in a computer-controlled milling process provide smooth motion and less wear on balls than external tube systems. The balls follow a CAD-designed arc when crossing the screw's major diameter to enter the next thread groove and are held in close contact with the screw surface.

The low profile of the ball return inserts allows nuts to be designed with small body diameters. This enables the use of larger screw nominal diameters while maintaining the same nut outer diameter, compared with conventional tube return nuts and offers an advantage in system stiffness. Custom ball screws also include designs utilizing rotary ball nuts.