Rotek Replaced Series 5000 Cross Roller Heavy Duty Slewing Rings

To accomplish this universal load carrying capability, the Series 5000 slewing ring is manufactured with V-groove raceways that provide two roller paths in each ring. The rollers have a length slightly less than the diameter and are positioned between the rings in such a manner that adjacent rollers are at right angles to each other and contact opposing sets of raceways. By alternating rollers in this manner, one-half of the rollers transmit load in one direction and the other half transmit load in the other direction. The rolling elements are normally separated by individual spacers which occupy a minimum amount of space, permitting the use of nearly a full compliment of rollers.

The static thrust and moment capacity of a cross roller slewing ring is generally less than that of a comparable size four-point contact ball slew-ing ring, but has considerably higher radial load capacity. The Series 5000 cross roller slewing ring, however, offers the advantages of greater stiffness and a lower spring rate compared to a four-point contact ball slewing ring. These advan-tages make the cross roller slewing ring prefera-ble in situations where deflection under load must be minimized, as in some machine tool applica-tions. The greater resistance to deflection offered by the cross roller slewing ring requires that it be mounted to a mating surface that is properly engineered to accommodate its greater stiffness. When properly mounted, the cross roller slewing ring has a higher theoretical dynamic capacity per unit size than the single-row ball slewing ring.