Wear strips with oil grooves, made to your drawing. The long, narrow bearing strips that carry a slide or lifter along its travel — grooved so the interface still has grease in it at the end of the week, not just on the day it was serviced. Send a drawing, a dimensioned sketch, or the worn strip photographed next to a caliper, and we quote in writing, normally within one business day.

What the grooves are actually for

An ungrooved strip loses its film fast: every stroke wipes lubricant off the bearing face and pushes it to the ends, where it does nothing. Grooves give the grease somewhere to sit inside the contact zone and re-feed it on each pass. That is the whole mechanism, and it explains the design rules:

• The pattern must never break the bearing area at either end of travel. If a groove runs off the edge of the mating face at full stroke, the strip rocks into it and you get an edge-loaded contact — the exact thing the strip was fitted to prevent. Tell us the stroke and we check the pattern against it.
• Depth is normally 0.5–1 mm. Deeper does not hold more usable grease; it just removes bearing area and raises the contact pressure on what is left.
• Groove direction matters. Grooves running along the direction of travel channel grease out of the contact. Cross or diagonal patterns hold it. If your drawing shows longitudinal grooves and you are not sure why, ask us before we cut them.

Hardness against the mating face

A wear strip is a sacrificial part — it is fitted so that it wears instead of the plate behind it. That means the hardness has to be chosen relative to what it slides on. Two similarly hardened steel surfaces gall: they cold-weld at the contact points, tear, and then wear very fast. Either make the strip clearly harder than its mating face, or clearly softer (bronze alloy, graphite-plugged) so that it is the part you replace on schedule. The middle ground is where galling lives.

Tell us what it runs against, including that surface's material and hardness, and we will say plainly if the pair looks wrong.

What to send us

• Length, width and thickness
• Hole, counterbore, slot and centre-distance layout, and whether the heads sit flush or counterbored below the bearing face
• Oil-groove pattern, width and depth — or tell us the stroke and let us propose one
• Mounting method and which way the lubrication feeds
• Mating surface material and hardness
• Flatness, parallelism and surface finish where critical
• Material, hardness and any surface treatment; quantity and destination

Fastener heads standing proud of the bearing face is the most common self-inflicted failure on these parts — mark the counterbore depth if you have any doubt about it.

Documentation and confidentiality

Material certificates, hardness results and dimensional inspection reports are available; tell us what your quality system needs and the scope and any cost are confirmed in the quotation. Technical files are used to evaluate and fulfill your inquiry or order. They may be shared only with relevant manufacturing, inspection, logistics or service partners as needed. Send only files you are authorized to share. See our Privacy Policy. NDA on request from rfq@privleymold.com.