Pardon the blatant reference to my companies website - but this page has charts of the efficiencies. I would go with a ground ballscrew myself to keep the motion as smooth as possible to increase the efficiency.
If you think about it - most people test the smoothness of a ballscrew driven...
Bearing manufactures list Static Load Rating and Dynamic Load Rating. They are used for completely separate things.
You always use Static Load Rating to determine the factor of safety for an application. Find the worst case loading condition and use that for Factor of Safety calculations...
You will want to watch your deflections. Most linear bearings have plastic end caps that will be damaged if the rail deflects too much.
We generally don't recommend using the rail itself as a structural memeber because of this. I have seen some applications that work ok with a free mounted...
I work for a linear bearing manufacturer. Can you better explain what you are looking for? It sounds like you are trying calculate the deflection for a linear rail that is not mounted to a structure - in which case you use standard beam deflection equations and get the moment of inertia for...
