Steinmeyer Inc. announced an addition to its standard line of miniature precision screws ? the "world's smallest commercially available stainless steel ball screw." According to the company's press release, the new ultra miniature ball screws are available in stainless steel with diameters as small as 3 mm with choice of two pitches?-1 mm or 0.5 mm. Steinmeyer now offers a range of miniature screws in stainless steel from 16 mm diameter (with up to 30 mm pitch), down to 3 mm diameter. The products are manufactured especially for demanding applications in clean room, high vacuum or corrosive environments. The screws are equipped with one of four types of ball nuts, with or without preload. By using Steinmeyer's internal ball deflector returns instead of external tubes, the nuts offer smooth low noise operation. Several standard lengths are included in the production program, complete with finished ends. Screws are manufactured from a 400 series stainless steel, hardened and then precision ground to meet ISO tolerances from T0 to T5. All parts of the ball screw are manufactured from corrosion resistant stainless steel including the shaft, nut, ball deflectors and balls For application flexibility, the miniature screws are offered with a choice of four nut types: -Series 1112, a cylindrical single nut with convenient attaching thread, available with play or preloaded using over-sized balls. -Series 1214, a compact cylindrical single nut with fitting key, available with play or preloaded using over-sized balls. -Series 1412, a single nut with flange, available with play or preloaded using oversize balls -Series 1510, a spring preloaded double nut, that effectively compensates for torque variations due to inaccuracies in the ground thread. The result is extremely smooth motion with near constant idling torque ? a critical requirement in many scanning applications. Applications for stainless steel miniature ball screws include semiconductor production machines, medical devices including surgical robots and aerospace mechanisms.