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An Overview of the Low Profile Uni-Guide
An Overview of the Low Profile Uni-Guide

An Overview of the Low Profile Uni-Guide

PBC Linear offers a solution for low profile tasks and applications with the Low-Profile Uni-Guide (UGA). This is an economical expansion of the popular Uni-Guide family. It utilizes the same performance advantages of the larger design (self-lubricating, maintenance-free, easy assembly) into a compact, 24 mm profile for smooth, reliable and long-lasting linear motion. Low Profile Uni-Guide is ideal for applications in printing and scanning, food processing, and machine tooling.

The Uni-Guide family uses our proven Simplicity plain bearing technology, allowing the carriage to glide smoothly along the slide. Our patented Frelon® liner ensures safe travel over dirt, dust, grime and other particulates without damaging the rail or carriage. Uni-Guide is maintenance-free, self-lubricating, and requires no additional grease or oil. These advantages allow it to thrive in applications where contamination must be prevented, such as food processing, lab automation, and medical equipment.

Discover your ideal linear motion solution:

Comprised of a simple two-piece rail and carriage assembly, Uni-Guide products facilitate quick system integration without the mounting components and alignment necessitated by other linear slide products. These competitor products, such as re-circulating ball or polymer insert linear slides, use assemblies with multiple rails and components, and require painstaking alignment to ensure uniform parallelism across all assembled rails and carriages. The Uni-Guide family promotes ease of installation by machining two parallel rails in one profile. The one-piece carriage design also simplifies assembly by directly fitting onto the rail without fasteners, allowing the end user to save on cost and reduce tolerance stack-up.

To ensure precision tolerances are maintained, the rail and carriage of the UGA are machined by our patent pending SIMO® process. SIMO is a synchronized tooling system that mills all critical edges concurrently, creating consistently tight tolerances that hold within ±0.001’’ (0.025 mm) for assured high accuracy travel. SIMO also produces specially angled edges along the UGA rail to support clean wash-down without chemical pooling. The angled edges also prevent any contamination from accumulating in the assembly. This makes the UGA a perfect design selection for food processing tasks.

UGA is available with handbrakes for quick manual adjustment and positioning, extended carriages for enhanced load dispersion, and standard tap holes for mounting ease. These help to make it a versatile product that can be tailored to meet your needs.

Low profile linear slide clearances

The three versions of low profile linear slides available in the GST (Gliding Surface Technology) family can be easily separated into 3 classes based on the running clearance built into the carriage. Each assembly is only 24 mm high and has additional features that offer benefits for various applications. Understanding the running clearance is the best place to start the design evaluation.

3 Classes of Running Clearance in our low profile linear slides

STANDARD Running Clearance

  • Example Part #: UGA040C-0C1G00
  • Running clearance: .0015 to .0025”
  • This is the standard version of the UGA and is suitable for general applications and most automation requirements.

OPTIONAL Running Clearance

  • Example Part #: UGA040C-0P1G00
  • Running clearance: .0005 to .0015”
  • NOTE: PBC Linear can hold this precise tolerance on the UGA because of our proprietary SIMO® machining process.

COMMERCIAL Grade Running Clearance (DFG linear slide)

  • Example Part #: DFG10-40A-0500-1
  • Running clearance: .002 to .005”
  • The DFG modular guide is a design built up from cast and machined components with a loose slip-fit plastic insert bearing.

This is the lowest precision available in the low profile linear slides. Misalignment of bearing blocks, inconsistencies in the un-machined round-rail raceways, and the tolerance stack up of multiple parts can lead to increased co-efficient of friction, increased wear, and require a larger driving force. Each of these low profile linear slides has a variety of carriage lengths or widths available. In addition, optional anodizing and bearing materials offer additional benefits for wash-downs, etc.