Low cost ball screw aids restoration

Home > Around the Industry > Low cost ball screw aids restoration

19th October 2009

Source: ABSSAC LIMITED

A quick turnaround by Abssac has aided the restoration of two pre WW11 machine tools being restored to their former glory in a local woollen mills maintenance workshop. Despite the customer being without the original dimensional drawings for the ball screws and the fact that they were very much damaged, meant that Abssac had to rely on its extensive ball screw knowledge to satisfy the customer.

First a careful measurement of the last remaining ball screw was undertaken. It was found that the ball screw was imperially sized, with a 1.00 inch diameter by 0.250 inch lead, Gothic arch ball screw format. Abssac was able to utilise a cold rolled formed ball screw format, which were cut to a length and then machined at the ends to allow them to fit a thrust bearing to the whole assembly.

The traditional square section nuts that were used by the old machines were replaced by adapted standard product range nuts and were chosen specifically for authenticity due to their single ball return design. The whole assembly was then low temperature black Chrome plated, which gave a corrosion resistant and exceptionally smooth and scratch resistant surface finish, hope fully giving the machine at least another 50 years of service.

Mr Phil Jones of Abssac says, “It is nice to get involved with these types of project were we are part of a restoration. Abssac has a huge range of linear products, so 9 times out of ten we can help with these more unusual requirements”

Like this Article? Register to receive updates here