Ball screw

Claim 1

A ball screw comprising: struts provided with bearing members at their top ends and disposed at proper spacings; a screw shaft including supported parts rotatably supported on said bearing members of said struts, said screw shaft being chased, on its outer periphery, with helical ball rolling grooves a root diameter of which is substantially equal to an outside diameter of said bearing member; a nut formed, on its underside, with an opening through which said struts pass and an endless circulatory path consisting of a load region including load rolling grooves standing vis-a-vis with said helical rolling grooves and a non-load region for connecting both ends of said load region to permit communication with each other, said nut being greater in length in the axial direction of said load region than in the axial direction of said bearing member and moving on said screw shaft in accordance with rotations of said screw shaft, said nut including; a nut body having a through-hole for the passage of said screw shaft therethrough with an inner peripheral surface curvilinearly chased with said load rolling grooves therein standing vis-a-vis with said ball rolling grooves on said screw shaft, non-load rolling slots each defining one component of said non-load region for connecting said both ends of said load region and formed in positions corresponding to said load rolling grooves and defining one component of each said endless circulatory path in a direction orthogonal to said through-hole; a pair of lateral plates fastened, respectively, to opposite sides of said nut parallel to the axis of said through hole, said lateral side plates each having non-load roller grooves; a pair of lower plates each fastened, respectively, to said underside of said nut at opposite sides of said opening in said nut through which said struts pass, each of said lower plates having roller grooves therein, each aligned, at its opposite ends, with said roller grooves in said nut body and said lateral side plates, respectively; and a multiplicity of balls circulating within said endless circulatory path and undergoing loads between said load rolling grooves of said nut and said rolling grooves of said screw shaft.