Patent ID: 7736060

Claim:
A linear guide apparatus comprising: a guide rail having a rail-side rolling-element raceway groove extending in an axial direction on an exterior surface thereof; a slider main body which has a slider-side rolling-element raceway groove opposing the rail-side rolling-element raceway groove, which straddles the guide rail so as to be relatively movable, and which has a linear rolling-element return passage; end caps which are joined to respective axial end faces of the slider main body and formed which a circular-arc direction-change passage for bringing the rolling-element return passage into mutual communication with a linear load raceway formed from the rail-side rolling-element raceway groove and the slider-side rolling-element raceway groove; a plurality of rolling elements which are rollably inserted into a rolling-element raceway formed from the load raceway, the rolling-element return passage, and the direction-change passage; and a separator which has ends, aligns the rolling elements into a line at predetermined intervals, and moves through the inside of the rolling-element raceway in conjunction with movement of the plurality of rolling elements, wherein the separator has a plurality of spacer sections interposed among adjacent rolling elements, and a belt-shaped connection section which connects the adjacent spacer sections and is formed to exhibit flexibility which enables flexion along the rolling-element raceway; a connection section guide groove into which the connection section movably fits and which is continuous along the rolling-element raceway is formed in the rolling-element raceway; the connection section guide groove has a linear load guide section formed in the slider-side rolling-element raceway groove, a linear return guide section formed in the rolling-element return passage, and a circular-arc curved guide section formed in the direction-change passage; among the connection sections, at least connection sections close to the respective longitudinal ends of the separator are taken as curved connection sections which are curved along the curved direction of the curved guide section under no load; and a relational expression of R 1 ≧R 2 stands on condition that a curvature radius of the curved connection section is taken as R 1 and that a curvature radius of the curved guide section is taken as R 2 .