Abstract
It is not too much to say that the history of ball screw development began with its application to NC machine tools, and its later technological evolution progressed in tandemwith the steady increases in speed, stiffness and precision of NC machine tools. Today, ball screws are put to use in extensive fields ranging fromsemiconductor production equipment, injectionmoldingmachines, robots, automobiles, and aircraft, to general industrial machinery. In fact, the evolution of electric actuators and control technology has been remarkable in recent years. As the performance of actuators has progressively improved, demand for ball screws has escalated further and further. The author will try to introduce the main technological advances that have enabled performance enhancement and the current level of application.
