Effects of wear on dynamic characteristics and stability of linear guides

Wear between elements significantly affects the dynamics of a linear guide. Several existing contact stiffness models were used to investigate the dynamic behaviors of linear guide systems. However, the wear of linear guides has been rarely investigated due to difficult prediction of contact load and wear mechanism. To solve this problem, an improved wear prediction method was developed in this study by considering the coupling effects of wear and rolling contact. To ensure the high quality and high precision of long-age service, a final contact stiffness and piecewise-nonlinear dynamic model were established to analyze the dynamic behaviors of a linear guide system. Moreover, the influencing factors in wear rates such as running distance and vertical load were evaluated. To analyze the effects of wear on the dynamics of the system, basic properties such as frequency response, Lyapunov exponents, time histories, phase plane diagram and Poincare mapping were analyzed using numerical simulations.