THK Manufacturing pioneers LM Guide technology
Moving parts of machines can be divided into rotary motion, linear motion, or a combination of both. With the development of bearings about 110 years ago, rolling contact became the standard method for implementing rotary motion. This brought about a major technological revolution. Rolling contact not only reduced the energy loss of motion, but also reduced friction to a minimum, thereby greatly improving the efficiency of machines. However, the application of rolling contact to linear motion was still far from being realized, although it was known that the successful development of a similar method for linear motion would be ten times more valuable.
Although the problem of combining rolling contact with linear motion was previously considered extremely difficult, THK solved this problem with its unique technological capabilities and in 1972, the company became the first in the world to develop and market Linear Motion (LM) Guides. Our linear motion systems enable rapid improvements in precision, speed, and labor savings for advanced mechatronic equipment. With THK’s LM Guides, machine tools and industrial robots can perform operations requiring extremely high precision, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment can achieve micro-level precision. More recently, the system has been used in liquid crystal production lines, railway cars, support vehicles, medical equipment, skyscrapers and residential buildings, and recreational vehicles. The application of LM Guidance technology has truly broken all previous boundaries.
