Hello everyone, welcome back to Motion Monday! Normally when we want motion in SOLIDWORKS, we start bringing out the heavy machinery — motors, forces, contacts, gravity, friction… basically the entire physics department. And before you know it, what started as “let’s just see how this mechanism moves” turns into a full-blown simulation setup with sliders, graphs, and enough settings to make you question your life choices. But sometimes you don’t actually need all of that. Sometimes you just want the mechanism to move… without turning the assembly into a mini research paper. So instead of running a full motion study this time, I used Mate Controllers — which is basically the engineering equivalent of telling your assembly: “Alright… you start here. Now go there.” |
For this experiment, I built a ball screw assembly,
- A ball screw is a high-efficiency mechanical actuator that translates rotational motion into precise linear motion using recirculating ball bearings between a threaded shaft and a nut.
By utilizing rolling ball bearings instead of sliding friction (as found in lead screws), they achieve high mechanical efficiency, often exceeding 90%.
These devices are known for their high precision, high load capacity, and durability, making them ideal for robotics, CNC machinery, and automation.
The system usually consists of a screw shaft, a nut with a return mechanism, and balls, providing minimal friction and low backlash for repeatable positioning.
To demonstrate this, I used two path mates:
one controlling the nut moving along the screw, and another controlling the balls moving along their recirculation path.
Both of these mates were then controlled using a Mate Controller with two positions.
In the first position, both the nut and balls start at 0% along their paths.
In the second position, the nut moves to 75% along the screw while the balls complete a full loop at 100%, showing how the nut advances while the balls keep circulating inside the mechanism.
Which means the balls are basically doing endless laps inside the nut while the system operates.
It’s a simple setup, but it’s a neat way to visualize how the different motions inside a ball screw mechanism work together — without setting up a full motion simulation.
If you'd like to try the motion yourself — or technically the Mate Controller controlling the motion — you can download the SOLIDWORKS file below.
| 3DPLAY Model | SOLIDWORKS STEP file |
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Next week things might get a little chemical… but don’t worry, we’ll still keep our hands on the mechanisms, not the test tubes. Thank you for reading😁 , See you next week.
