SLIDE WAYS OF MACHINE

TOOLS

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SLIDE WAYS

Introduction
● The travels of cutting tool or the work mounted
on operative members (tables, spindles, etc.) are
guided along straight or a circular paths, using
devices known as slide or guide ways.
● Two types are widely used in machine tools:
Slide ways (sliding-friction ways) and
antifriction (rolling-friction) ways.
● The latter have intermediate rolling members
(balls or rollers).
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Principal Characteristics of Slide ways

The principal characteristics of ways are:

1. Accuracy of travel, which depends mainly
on the accuracy with which the ways are
machined.
2. Durability, which is characterized by the
capacity of the ways to retain the initial accuracy
of travel over a specified period of operation.
3. Rigidity, which is characterized by elastic
displacements due to contact in the ways under
the action of a normal load.
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 SLIDE WAYS
Requirements to be met by slide ways:
Give exact alignment to the guided parts in all positions
and under the effect of operational loads.
Possibility of wear adjustments
High Stiffness
Minimum friction and absence of stick-slip effect.
Prevention of chip and dirt accumulation and ease of
their removal
Possibility of effective lubrication.
Ease of assembly and economy in manufacturing.

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Slide Way Materials
The wear of slide ways depends on the materials used in
making the ways of the bed and of the traveling unit - table,
saddle, slide, etc.

Common material of slide ways are the following:

Grey cast iron is the most commonly used material for
slide ways.
⚪ It is employed when the slide way is made integral
with the bed and, correspondingly, with the traveling
unit.
⚪ The wear resistance of cast iron slide ways can be
increased by surface hardening performed with flame
or induction heating.
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Slide Way Materials
⚪ Such a heat treatment increases the hardness of the
ways: up to 4052RC for ordinary grey cast iron and up
to 45-55RC for nodular cast iron.

Steel slide ways in the form of strips are either

welded to a steel bed, or they are secured by
screws or bolts to a cast iron bed.
⚪ Steel slide ways are most often made of steel Alloy
steel containing 0.4% C and then induction hardened
to 52-58RC.

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Slide Way Materials
Plastics
Due to their anti-scoring and anti-corrosive properties,
plastics are promising materials for slide ways.
Laminated fabric strips are used in combination with
cast iron for the slide ways of heavy machine tools.
The drawbacks of laminated fabric ways are:
the low modulus of elasticity in comparison with that
of steel,
the tendency to swell when they absorb oil and the
low coefficient of thermal conductivity.

In connection with these drawbacks, it proves more

advantageous to employ slide ways with a thin
polymeric coating applied by spraying, gluing on a thin
film or some other method. 7
Slide Way Materials

Zinc alloy In certain cases pads of zinc alloy or of

bronze are used on the slide ways.
They possess good wear resistance, but are
expensive and sometimes involve the use of critical
materials.

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 Type of Slide Ways
Type of Slide Ways:
❑ Two broad classes are:
▪Open slide ways
▪Closed slide ways
❑ According to surfaces classified as:
▪Flat slide ways
▪Vee slide ways
▪Dove tail slide ways
▪Cylindrical slide ways
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 TYPES OF SLIDE WAYS
Slide ways may be:
⚪ Surrounding type or
⚪ Surrounded type
Open slide ways
⚪ Designed when the external load is
unidirectional
⚪ They are simple in design and economic
⚪ Diagram of an open slide way is shown in
Figure 1.

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Figure 1: Open Slide ways
P

Sliding Unit

Fixed Unit

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 Closed Slide ways

● Designed when the force acting is

fluctuating in magnitude and direction
● Offer higher accuracy of traverse than
open slide ways.
● But they are more complicated in design
and hence more costly.
● A diagram of closed slide way is shown in
Figure 2.
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 Figure 2.
Diagram of closed slide way

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 Flat Slide Ways
May be either vertically or horizontally located.
Advantages are:
⚪ Easy to manufacture
⚪ Easy to check the geometrical accuracy
⚪ Can carry heavy loads.
Disadvantages:
⚪ Require devices to adjust clearances.
⚪ Have the tendency to accumulate dirt and chips,
specially when they are horizontally oriented.
⚪ Lubrication of surrounded flat slide way is a problem.

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Figure 3. Flat Slide Ways.

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 Vee Slide Ways
● They are designed for heavy machine tools.
● Can locate guided parts in two directions.
Advantages:
✔ Self adjustment of clearance
✔ Surrounded Vee slide ways prevent dirt accumulation
✔ Higher accuracy of guided motion
Disadvantages:
✔ More difficult to manufacture hence costlier.
✔ Lubrication of surrounded slide way is a problem.

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 Vee Slide Ways
Chip accumulation is a problem with surrounding
slide ways.
● Schematic diagram of a pair of Vee Slide Ways
is shown in Figure 4 below.

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 Dove Tail Slide ways

● They can act as fully constrained slide ways.

● The transverse (vertical) movement is restricted
by providing a slope of 550 to the side surface.
● They are manufactured with shorter lengths than
flat slide ways.
● Are sensitive to vertical loads.
● Used in lathe, milling, shaper and other
machines.
● A schematic diagram of the slide ways is shown
in Figure 5.
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Figure 5 Dovetail Slide Way

Surrounded Slide Way

Surrounding Slide Way

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 Cylindrical Slide Ways

Advantages:
⚪ They are theoretically fully constrained slide
ways.
⚪ Easy to manufacture and hence cheaper.
Disadvantages:
⚪ They have low rigidity, since suspended at two
ends.
⚪ Difficult to adjust clearances in these slide
ways.
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Devices for Adjusting Clearances in
Slide Ways
● Optimum clearances in slide ways ensuring
accuracy of travel with minimum friction losses
are difficult to maintain in manufacture even if
the mating surfaces are fitted to each other.
● Moreover, the initially adjusted clearances are
altered in the course of wear of the sliding
surfaces.
● For this reason ways and guides are equipped
with devices for periodically adjusting the
clearances between the mating surfaces.

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Devices for Adjusting Clearances in
Slide Ways
● The most general solution of the problem
of adjusting clearances in ways is
illustrated in Fig. 130.
● The clearances between the contacting
horizontal surfaces, carrying the vertical
pressure V, are adjusted by flat gibs 1 and 2.
● The clearances between the vertical contacting
surfaces, carrying the horizontal pressure H1
or H2 and constituting the guiding surfaces, are
adjusted by taper gib 3.
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Fig. 130. Devices for Adjusting
Clearances in Slide Ways

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Devices for Adjusting Clearances in
Slide Ways
● If the saddle or slide encompasses the contour
of flat ways of the bed from three sides (Fig.
131), flat gibs 1 and 2, secured to the slide by
screws, are required.
● Flat gib 4, of constant thickness, is used here to
adjust the clearance in the vertical contacting
surfaces.
● In the course of its wear, this gib is adjusted
forward by several screws 3 (Fig. 131).
● A taper gib could be used here as well in place
of the flat gib.

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Fig. 131 Devices for Adjusting
Clearances in Slide Ways

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Devices for Adjusting Clearances in
Dovetail Slide Ways
● Various shapes of flat and taper gibs are employed in
machine tools.
● Some arrangement of flat jibs are shown in cross section
in Figs. 132, 133 and 134 and those with taper jibs
are shown in Figs 135, and 136.
● In clearance adjustment with a flat gib of constant
thickness, the gib should be arranged so that its
pressure is carried by the directly contacting faces of the
ways.
● This means that the gib should be on the side or way
opposite to the one to which the load is applied (as in the
case of load H in Fig. 131 for flat slide ways).
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Fig. 132. Parallel gibs for clearance
adjustment in dovetail ways

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Fig. 133. Methods of adjusting flat gibs

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Fig. 134. Gibs of trapezoidal cross section
for dovetail ways

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Adjusting clearances in dove tail way
using taper jibs
● If a taper gib is employed, it may be on either
side (as in the case of loads H1 and H2 in Fig.
135).
● Taper gibs usually have an inclination in the
range from 1 : 40 to 1 : 100.
● The longer the gib, the less it is tapered.
● To adjust the gib, facilities should be provided for
moving it in both directions.

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Figure 135 Adjusting clearances in
dove tail ways using taper jibs

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Adjusting clearances in dovetail ways

● The general shortcomings of adjustable taper gibs are:

⚪ they increase the number of joints between the
mating parts, that they themselves possess low
rigidity and, as a result, the rigidity of the unit in
respect to compressive forces is reduced.
● The effect of these shortcomings can be reduced to
some extent by correctly locating the gibs and by
providing means for clamping them tightly after making
adjustments (Fig. 136).

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Fig. 136. Regulating screws for taper
gibs
Taper Jib

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Hydrostatically Lubricated Slide ways

● Slide ways with provision for delivering oil

under pressure between the mating
surfaces, so as to produce an oil film over
the full contact area, are called
hydrostatically lubricated slide ways.
● From the pump (Fig. 139) oil is delivered
under pressure through flowcontrol valves
with a restrictor Ro into pockets made in
the ways.

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Fig. 137. Principle of hydrostatically
lubricated slide ways

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Hydrostatically lubricated slide ways
● From the pockets the oil escapes through the clearance
h between the slide way surfaces.
● In this clearance the oil pressure varies according to an
approximately linear function.
● The load-carrying capacity of hydrostatically lubricated
slide ways can be calculated using the equation
W = p1Fα (1)
Where
p1 = oil pressure in the pockets
F = area of the slide ways
α = factor taking into consideration the drop in oil
pressure in the clearance and is approximately
equal to 1/3 to ½.

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Hydrostatically lubricated slide ways
● Several pockets with independent oil delivery should be
provided along the length of the way as otherwise high
rigidity cannot be ensured.
● The rigidity j of hydrostatically lubricated slide ways is
directly proportional to the normal force P and inversely
proportional to the magnitude of the clearance h. It is
defined as the rate of change of load capacity (W) with
respect to the film thickness. Thus j is:
j = - (dW/dh) (2)

Where
● h is the clearance between mating surfaces (Fig. 139).

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● High rigidity of hydrostatic slide ways can be achieved by
reducing the clearance as far as possible and by
increasing the rate of lubricant flow.
● Clearance up to 12-25 μm can be maintained.
● Bearing losses can be compensated by various restrictor
design.
● A rigidity of 100 Kg/ μm or more can be attained in these
slide ways.

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Hydrostatically lubricated slide ways
● Any shape of slide way can be hydrostatically
lubricated.
● Thus, for instance, a combination of a Vee and a
flat way, used in grinding machines is often
hydrostatically lubricated (Fig. 141).

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Fig. 141 Hydrostatically lubricated slide
ways in a grinding machine

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Air lubricated slide ways
● Air lubricated slide ways have also been used
to some extent in machine tools.
● Here an air cushion is produced in the
clearance between the mating bearing surfaces.
● Air from the compressed air mains passes
through a filter and pressure regulating valve
and enters the pockets at a pressure of 3 or 4
kgf per sq cm through apertures of small
diameter (0.2 to 0.5 mm) as shown in Fig. 142.

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Fig. 142. Air lubricated slide ways

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