A linear motion guide unit includes a guide rail and a slider. A carriage of the slider has a central portion located above the guide rail, and wing portions which extend downward from widthwise opposite ends of the central portion. Shoulder portions of the carriage located in inner boundary regions between the central portion and the wing portions of the carriage have first inclined surface so that the shoulder portions have padding portions. Corner portions of the guide rail located between an upper surface and longitudinal sides of the guide rail have second inclined surfaces which face the first inclined surfaces of the carriage and extend in the longitudinal direction parallel to the first inclined surfaces. The first inclined surfaces have an inclination angle substantially the same as an inclination angle of the nose surfaces of threaded holes formed in the carriage for attachment of a counterpart member.

A roller guide wheel contains a single set of spherical bearings and is constructed with a precision outer race machined into the guide wheel interior and an inner race formed by the surfaces of two conically-tapered set screws that affix the roller guide wheel within a housing made part of a stage slider. The roller guide wheel, which contacts a rail on one side of the stage body and exhibits a non-nutating axis of rotation, serves as way for the translating slider. The way on the opposing side of the slider is a set of v-groove contacts that make sliding contact with a rail on the corresponding side of the stage body. A flexure is machined into the slider permitting preload of the slider contacts points with the rails. The stage geometry permits a large slider through-hole and the use of alternative way mechanisms with the roller guide wheel.

A rolling bearing includes an inner ring having an outer surface, an outer ring having an inner surface, a plurality of rolling elements rotatably disposed between the inner ring and the outer ring, and a retainer for retaining the rolling elements. The retainer is made of a resin material and is positioned with respect to the inner surface of the outer ring or the outer surface of the inner ring. The retainer includes a pair of annular portions axially arranged in parallel and a columnar portion coupling the annular portions. Then, the rolling bearing satisfies the following expression: .[.AI=LH.sup.3/dm≥0.025.]. .Iadd.LH.sup.3/dm.sup.2≥0.025 mm.sup.2 .Iaddend.in which H is a radial length of a section of the annular portion, L is an axial length of the same, and dm is PCD of the rolling element.

A bearing includes a plurality of rolling elements (26) spaced around a three-hundred and sixty degree circumferential extent of the bearing. An odd, non-singular number of high-points are positioned as near to evenly as possible about the circumferential extent of the bearing, the high-points defined by locations at which rolling elements with the largest diameters are positioned. An odd, non-singular number of low-points are positioned as near to evenly as possible about the circumferential extent of the bearing, the low-points defined by locations at which rolling elements having the smallest diameters are positioned. The odd, non-singular number of high-points is the same as the odd, non-singular number of low-points, and each low-point is positioned as near to evenly as possible between two adjacent high-points.

A workpiece support for a thermal processing system is provided. The workpiece support includes a rotor configured to support a workpiece. The workpiece support further includes a gas supply. The gas supply can include a plurality of bearing pads. Each of the bearing pads can be positioned closer to a periphery of the rotor than a center of the rotor. Each of the bearing define one or more passages configured to direct gas onto the rotor to control a position of the rotor along a first axis and a second axis that is substantially perpendicular to the first axis. Furthermore, one or more of the bearing pads define at least one additional passage configured to direct gas onto the rotor to control rotation of the rotor about the first axis.

A bearing component composed of a chromium-molybdenum-vanadium alloyed tool steel is produced by a process that includes: (i) performing a first preheating within a temperature range of 600-650° C., (ii) performing a second preheating within a temperature range of 850-900° C., (iii) austenitizing in vacuum at 1000-1180° C. for 20-40 min, (iv) gas quenching at a minimum of 4-5 bar overpressure, and (v) tempering by performing either a double temper at 520-560° C. for 1.5-2.5 hours in each temper, or a triple temper at 520-560° C. for 0.5-1.5 hours in each temper. The steel alloy may be composed (in mass percent) of 1.32-1.45 C, 0.32-0.50 Si, 0.26-0.48 Mn, 4.0-4.85 Cr, 3.35-3.55 Mo, 3.55-3.85 V, 0-0.13 W, 0-0.20 Ni, 0-0.15 Cu, 0-0.8 Co, 0-0.03 P, and 0-0.03 S, the balance being iron and unavoidable impurities. Mo may be replaced with W or vice versa in a replacement ratio Mo:W of 1:2.

A tapered roller bearing (1) is provided including an inner ring (2) having an inner ring raceway (3), an outer ring (4) having an outer ring raceway (5), and tapered rollers (6) rolling on the raceways (3, 5). This tapered roller bearing (1) is characterized in that the nominal contact angle (a) thereof is between 20°-30°, and the tapered rollers (6) have a ratio of rolling element length (L) to rolling element diameter (Dw) of 1.0-1.2.

A method for monitoring a hydrostatic bearing that is in operation is provided. Frequency domain analysis, time domain analysis and principal components analysis are performed on an operation signal that results from the operation of the hydrostatic bearing, so as to build a Gaussian mixture model. Then, based on a difference between the Gaussian mixture model and a predetermined reference model, an operation state of the hydrostatic bearing can be determined in real time.

A compressed fluid supply system comprises: a pressure adjustment unit for adjusting the pressure of a compressed fluid supplied from a fluid supply source to support members supporting a movable member so that the movable member can be driven through the use of the compressed fluid; a drive force acquisition unit for acquiring a drive force of a motor for driving the movable member; and a pressure control unit for adjusting the pressure of the compressed fluid supplied to the support members by controlling the pressure adjustment unit on the basis of the drive force of the motor.

The present disclosure provides a flexible workpiece pedestal capable of tilting a workpiece support surface. The workpiece pedestal further includes a heater mounted on the workpiece support surface. The heater includes a plurality of heating sources such as heating coils. The plurality of heating sources in the heater allows heating the workpiece at different temperatures for different zones of the workpiece. For example, the workpiece can have a central zone heated by a first heating coil, a first outer ring zone that is outside of the central zone heated by a second heating coil, a second outer ring zone that is outside of the first outer ring zone heated by a third heating coil. By using the tunable heating feature and the tilting feature of the workpiece pedestal, the present disclosure can reduce or eliminate the shadowing effect problem of the related workpiece pedestal in the art.