Lead Wear With Partial Nut Engagement

[dfukuba]

I'm currently developing an affordable linear slide for an outdoor application, and have been inspired by garage door openers. There is a model which uses a lead screw to drive the carriage up and down the track. What is more interesting is that the nut engaging with the lead screw does not completely surround the screw.

What they use is a plate that engages ~%20 of the diameter. The "nut" has the matching thread profile, but does not completely surround the diameter

Google Image Search:

http://garagedooropenerparts.com/assets/images/carriage.jpg

For this project we would love to use this method for engagement, but we need to provide a 10 year warranty, and want to ensure that it can last for as long as 25.

My first question is;
- if anyone knows of other applications of this type of engagement, that would give us more confidence in the design.
- How this might effect wear over time, compared to a traditional lead nut
-and What testing standards we would want to achieve for this method of motion.

I'm unfamiliar with how to predict wear, and what testing should be done on our design to verify our design intent.

Any advice would be very valuable to me on this subject.

Thanks!
--Danny

 

[MikeHalloran]

Please Red Flag all but one of your duplicate messages and ask that they be removed.
One discussion per topic is sufficient.


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA