Question New ball screws are loud as hell - what to do?

I know that the circulating ball bearing elements and the movement of these around the screw and through the nut can be noisy, but what I now had to experience is insanely loud, louder than my winches! Also my "problem" is the speed due to the long travel distance of the surge and sway tables and the wooden parts which are transferring the sound.

Did you gather any similar experiences and which steps did you take to solve the noise? Thank you.

PS: also it is a grinding noise

I don't think there's much that can be done about it. See this article about the cause of ball screw noise. https://www.machinedesign.com/motion-control/researchers-uncover-source-ball-screw-noise

.... is what I fear.

Thank you for your reply, almost a little bit better due to vibration dampers, but still (too) loud. While I was totally convinced about the technical aspect of the ball screw system I did not waste time to do some research about the noise.
On the other hand it is such a step forward, extremely precise, strong and easy to build. At least also pretty cheap, one ball screw 1200mm is only $ 68.40 shipping included! I was not sure if I should buy 20 mm instead 16 mm diameter, but 16 mm is still very robust and stable. Could be an argument if the screws should hold more weight (big 4 or 6 DOFs).

Hi Pit, maybe you could look at these, guaranteed to remove the noise.

https://www.igus.eu/info/lead-screw-units-trapezoidal-lead-screw-nut

Regards Jerry

Hi Jerry, you made my day - in deed this plastic nut could be the solution.

You will always get some noise out of ball screws, but you can try investigating the minimisation of any acoustic coupling to other parts of your rig - it can all turn into one big speaker if you are not careful. I can only slightly hear my actuators if they are completing a long fast movement - most of the time nothing, with the Rift headphones on.

Have you tried grease?

yes but it reduces only a bit the noise. AFAIK there a hundreds of thousands possibilities how the balls can be lubed...never mind. I will assemble all parts and later I will order plastic nuts from igus.

Make sure its actual grease not just like WD-40 or those spray on squeak stoppers (completely different stuff) and pack it in. Awful noise though, if you can reduce the pressure on it at all it might help (use a spring somewhere to take some weight) otherwise I would just get some really good headphones. I'm expecting my own sim to sound like a jet engine when everything is running.

I got this custom antibacklash Delrin nut and 120cm of trapezoidal screw about a year ago, I never used it because of the difference in efficiency against the ballnut that I already had in order at that time, but I think I will try it some day.
@Pit please if you get a quote from Igus, share with us.

Guys good news, igus was making contact with me, they will have a look at my rig or I will pick one of my "powertrains" and will visit them, we will see.

If all you want is quiet mechanism, why not trying roller screw?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roller_screw





And a actual actuator demo using roller screw:

This may be one reason, "Due to its complexity the roller screw is a relatively expensive actuator (as much as an order of magnitude more expensive than ball screws), but may be suitable for high-precision, high-speed, heavy-load, long-life and heavy-use applications."

The author of that sentence at least must not think lower noise is enough to justify its higher cost since that isn't mentioned.

This is true, but they are not so much more expensive, perhaps 3-4 times more than ball screw.
https://carolinamotioncontrols.com/...MI1v6xm6j_3QIVA25-Ch0GUABxEAkYCCABEgJfUPD_BwE

If someone could get hold on the roller mechanism only, its going to worth it, no backlash (zero!!) and no noise!! (instead of the rattling noise of balls when they get crushed from overload).

Hi Pit, yes Igus have been really good, I contacted them (Igus.eu) NOT expecting a reply. long story short: they called me and arranged samples for me to try out, how good is that!

Hope you have the same service!

Jerry

Yes, and if their threaded plastic nuts are a worthy alternative to the steel variants by offering a good quality price ratio we will add this to the FAQ.

Thank you Thanos for the input, looks very promising. On the other hand i am also looking for something to buy on good terms, and the roller screw system is a complete other design, while with the threaded nuts from igur I have to replace the nut only. So let's check out the plastic parts before going further.

That doesn't sound any worse than what I have heard on the CNC machines that I have built.
Quality of the ballscrew has a fair bit to do with the noise, but to me most of the noise is just being resonated through the frame, and it seems to have a lot of flexing of the screw when it comes to a stop as it is a pretty long screw.
Cheap Chinese screws are always going to be noisier than premium brand name stuff, but I don't know what you are using, but regardless they are meant to be a sealed unit
Add to that you have a long screw that is slightly whipping, something a beefier diameter would eliminate but in your application would just be over-kill.

have you considered using 2 ball screw side by side to spread the load ?

Could help a bit, first I'll try igur before experimenting on this.