Let's say I have a sluce gate in a dam. That's the gate that goes up and down to either let water through or block water off. That gate has to ride up and down, held in place by channels on the edge, to either block or let water through. There is pressure against the gate due to water. It's also a really wet, dirty environment. Is there a heavy duty low friction item that can allow this gate to slide up and down easily? Initially, I had the idea of putting 2 inch pins on the edges of the plate - two on each side, and have those pins ride in a greased slot. But I'm not sure this would work. What sort of system or bearing should I be looking at to prevent the gate from getting stuck or jamming? I want gravity to be able to pull the gate down if it's in the up position. This does apply to heavy equipment, as I'm trying to design something for my Deere 310 backhoe. The sluice gate was the easiest way to describe what I need. Thanks
You may consider low friction slides made from uhmw plastic https://www.mcmaster.com/plastics/ water, dirt and grease do not play well together
In a lot of cases, steel on steel is going to be the easiest way to do things. unless this gate has to go up and down continuously. Plastic can work, wood can work.
Most all canal gates are either cast on steel, steel on steel or stainless. I have done some UHMW in large control gates tho.
How often would you be moving it? Are you looking for water tight or just slowing things down to a trickle? How big it it going to be?
What exactly are you trying to do to the backhoe? An attachment or are you trying to make new extendahoe glides yourself?
Worked at a power station with ‘Weir gates’ as these are called, friction is minimal to pressure on gate with drive stud thread torque offset as is why are used as a valve, you want a metal to metal seal for efficacy to retain liquid.
Constantly up and down. Moving all the time.
And not water tight.
Is there a pin and bushing like on a backhoe arm that works up and down (sliding linearly) as opposed to around?
Attachment.
I suppose you could put sealed ball bearings on the end of stub shafts to ride in a rail I assume this would be way heavier duty than a garage door track but a similar concept maybe
So like a wood splitter, or extenda hoe backhoe, or straight down European style stabilizers, or extending crane arms. Most of those will have plastic pads for bearings, sometimes aluminum blocks. There are linear ball bearings, but that's a bad idea for an excavator attachment, ball bearings don't function well with dirt. Ball or roller bearing rollers in a track that is out of the dust could work, but out of the dust is pretty hard to achieve in the field.
Use UHMW material that is used on the gates for grain trailers. Has the slot already cut, Western Grain Trailers.
Is that plastic??
UMHW nylon/plastic- One piece measures 1"x 1" with a slot 5/8" deep x 1/4" wide X 48" long would accept a 3/16" thick plate. This stuff is tuff and takes years to wear out. Grain is like sand paper and these pieces last a long time. Contact Western Trailer/Boise ID.
Thanks.
We've used UHMW in just about every terrible rough service place you can think of lol, makes great guides for roller chain too, that's how we do big chain conveyors.