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Redi-Rail Linear Guide Overview
Redi-Rail Linear Guide Overview

Redi-Rail Linear Guide Overview

Linear guides of the Redi-Rail line are powered by cam roller technology and feature innovative carriage sliders that glide along hardened steel gothic arch raceways inside lightweight aluminum linear rails. These guides are an exceptional alternative to profile rails for applications requiring high speeds, precision, and moderate load capacities.

The carriage sliders, equipped with sealed double-row bearing rollers, glide effortlessly over particles, ensuring protection against contamination and reliable performance.

Redi-Rail offers robust strength, straightforward installation, and superior corrosion resistance, positioning it as an ideal linear motion solution for diverse applications like automation, machine transfer, and material handling.

Discover your ideal linear motion solution:

Additional Resources on Redi-Rail Products:

This is one of several articles that explores the properties and features of Redi-Rail linear guides. In this article we offer a brief overview with focus on our new 4- and 5-wheel carriage options and their implications on cantilevered loads and cost. Redi-Rail linear guides consist of a slider or carriage riding along an extruded aluminum rail. Aluminum rails are integrated with hardened steel races for a strong, yet lightweight design. They are also end joinable for long length applications, ensuring a sturdy design with rigidity and precision. Running parallelism is held to ±.001’’ (.025mm) for the length of the guide rail.

Red-Rail sliders or carriages consist of durable anodized aluminum with three, four, or five gothic arch rollers that are offset and trapped between the round inner races of the linear rail. They are sealed against contamination and engineered with double-row bearing rollers that glide over particulates along the rail. Redi-Rail linear guides are available in commercial-grade inch, or in higher precision metric systems that are equipped with wipers and patented side pre-load adjustment (wipers optional on inch series).

Load Axis

Fd = Dynamic capacity (LC)
Fz = Axial capacity
Fy = Radial capacity
Mx, My, Mz = Moment capacities

Conversions

newton (N) • 0.2248 = lbs.
(lbf) meter • 0.0397 = inch
newton - meter (N-m) • 8.851 = in.-lbs.

4- and 5-wheel Carriages Benefit Cantilevered Loads and Costs

Previously, a cantilevered load might require a second carriage on the same rail, or even a second rail in parallel with the first to properly address the resulting forces (fig. 2).

These additional components add material cost, as well as increased man-hour costs for assembly and installation time. By substituting a four- or five-roller carriage, designers may now be able to save by implementing a single, longer carriage and shorter rail and still achieve the same result.

diagram showing different dimensions
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Cite This Page
Source: PBC Linear - “Redi-Rail Linear Guide Overview”
https://pbclinear.com/blogs/blog/redi-rail-linear-guide-overview
Last updated: September 2025