Severely Reduced Maintenance for Linear Guides
Rollon Group’s Speedy Rail are self-aligning structural guides made of extruded aluminium profiles with deep hard anodizing treatment and steel bearings coated with plastic compound. This coating, combined with the lifelong lubrication of the wheels with high-tech grease, allows the almost total absence of maintenance of the guide/wheel system.
by Sebastiano Mainarda
The possibility of working for 80,000 km without the need for scheduled maintenance is perhaps the main strength of Rollon’s Speedy Rail self- aligning guides, integrated into the Group’s range of linear solutions following the acquisition of TMT in December 2016.
The Speedy Rail linear guides are an important tool for boosting the productivity of a company’s automation processes, reducing operating costs and eliminating downtime due to re-lubrication activities: the latter advantage is particularly important in the case of automated applications in several industrial sectors: from automotive to packaging, up to the processing of materials such as ceramics, marble, glass, wood and metals.
Zero lubrication and very low noise level
The Speedy Rail ones are self-aligning structural guides made of extruded aluminium profiles with deep hard anodizing treatment and steel bearings coated with plastic compound. This coating, combined with the lifetime lubrication of the wheels with high-tech grease, allows the almost total absence of maintenance of the guide/wheel system. The latter can work, as mentioned above, up to 80,000 km without any intervention.
Even in the most severe environments, featured by impurities, the Speedy Rail guides guarantee excellent results: the special plastic compound of the wheels makes it possible to work without protection even in the presence of welding chips and abrasive powders, such as those that can be found when processing ceramics or tempered glass. The benefits offered by a guide designed to work without lubrication are many and go well beyond the – albeit fundamental – reduction in operating costs and increased productivity.
Assembly and self-alignment speed
Strength and reliability go hand in hand with speed and ease of assembly: the guides are self-supporting and enclose in a single product both the structure and the sliding system. In order to mount them, limited points of support are enough, without the need for machined carpentry. Moreover, simple joining kits (using self-centering mechanisms with plates and dovetails) are sufficient for the guides to ensure unlimited strokes. Finally, in the case of parallel guides, the Speedy Rail track rollers and supports can balance even parallelism errors up to 8 mm. This flexibility turns into extremely fast installation, regardless of the sector: an advantage that can also generate considerable cost savings.
High load capacity
The Speedy Rail guides ensure high dynamics, with speeds up to 15 m/s and accelerations up to 10 m/s2. The product also offers a significant load capacity of more than 3,000 kg for gantry configurations with 4 sliders with 8 wheels.
These products can be used as linear guides or actuators, driven by belt or rack and pinion. They are available with V and cylindrical wheels, in five different sizes: 60, 90, 120, 180 and 250. In addition to the loose components – guides, wheels and supports – with which customers can build their own system, there is also a wide range of linear modules, both belt and rack, which, if necessary, can be customized.