floating nut for acme screw drive

[duk748]

hello - i am designing an acme screw drive in the traditional way - acme nut threaded into a plate that is attached to a carriage mounted on linear bearings for guiding -
acme screw is driven by electric motor w/ coupling & bearing blocks on each end as part of the complete screw assembly (nook standard assembly) - the linear blocks are registered on the carriage & the rail floats - my theory is that if the rail is left loose & you run the carriage back & forth on the rail until the screw is running smoothly then tighten the rail down the screw should not bind - i have heard of a "floating" nut design for screw drives but am not familiar with it - any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated - thank you

 

[SwinnyGG]

The manufacturer of your linear bearings and rails will have a procedure for rail alignment. Depending on the loads your system will experience, and the precision required, rail alignment may be extremely critical to the life of whatever it is you're designing.

Your first step should be to talk to the rail manufacturer and follow their procedure and design conventions.

 

[moon161]

What jgkri said, and also what the OP described sounds bass ackwards. IME the rails are bedded, positioned and aligned before the moving equipment is mounted to them because they define the motion.