Slide Guides & Guide Elements
Precise, low-wear solutions for linear motion and high-load applications
Smooth and precise motion sequences are crucial to the performance of machines and systems.
We manufacture slide guides, guide rails, and flat and prismatic guides precisely according to your drawings—tailored to the load, installation situation, and operating conditions.
Whether slide plates, slide rails, or spacer rails: Our custom-designed solutions ensure high dimensional accuracy, even load distribution, and durable, stable processes.
Technical Details & Specifications
Guiding and sliding elements
| Species | Slide plates, slide strips, slide sliders, sliding elements, slide guides, spacer strips, adhesive strips |
| Executions | Induction-hardened, through-hardened, case-hardened, tempered |
| Tolerances | Parallelism, perpendicularity, flatness, roughness |
| Wear resistance | Through hardening, inductive hardening, case hardening, tempering, natural hardness |
Guide rails
| Species | Flat guides, flat guides with holes, prismatic guides, guides with different sliding edges |
| Executions | Single-piece, up to 5,400 mm, induction-hardened Single-piece, up to 3,000 mm, through-hardened Single-piece, up to 2,000 mm, case-hardened Multi-piece, up to endless lengths, produced in sets¹ |
| Tolerances | Parallelism, perpendicularity, flatness, roughness |
| Wear resistance | Through hardening, inductive hardening, case hardening, without hardening |
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¹Guide rails manufactured with end faces ground to precise angles and thicknesses ground to specification allow for continuous assembly to any length.
Typical Applications & Areas of Use
Machinery & Plant Engineering
Precision guide elements for smooth linear motion and stable machine processes
Tooling and Metal Forming Technology
Precision guides for applications such as tool guides and automotive body presses
Robotics & Automation
Low-friction linear motion for repeatable processes in production lines
Plastics and Injection Molding Technology
Reliable Guide Elements for Injection Molding Machines and Molds
Steel, Rolling, and Heavy Industries
Wear-resistant components for reliable crushing and reduced downtime
Construction and Packaging Industries
Low-wear guidance systems for continuous and efficient production processes
Materials Tailored to Your Application
High-alloy steel
Cold work steel 1.2379 | AISI D2
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.2379 impresses with its toughness, wear resistance, low distortion and nitridability. Perfect for cutting and punching tools, shearing knives, trimming dies, cutting rollers and breakage-sensitive parts.
Air-hardening cold work tool steel 1.2363 | AISI A2
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.2363 offers high wear resistance, toughness, dimensional stability during heat treatment and good compressive strength. Ideal for cutting and punching tools, rollers, shear blades, thread rolling dies, embossing tools, calibration mandrels, measuring tools and plastic molds.
Cold work steel 1.2083 | AISI 420
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.2083 is a corrosion-resistant, easily machinable cold-work tool steel that is easy to harden and polish. Ideal for molds, pressing tools and applications in the plastics industry.
Cold work steel 1.2436 | AISI D6
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.2436 offers maximum hardness and wear resistance. Ideal for cutting and embossing tools, broaches, punches, pressing and bending tools, folding rails and knives.
Hot-work tool steel 1.2343 | AISI H 11
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.2343 has high toughness, hot wear resistance, excellent thermal conductivity and good air hardenability. They can be nitrided, polished and eroded. Ideal for die casting knives, extrusion knives, hot shear knives, cold shear knives, forging tools and other hot work tools.
Hot-work tool steel 1.2343 ESU | AISI H11 ESR
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.2343 ESU offers high toughness, hot wear resistance, excellent thermal conductivity and good air hardenability. They can be nitrided, polished and eroded. Ideal for die casting knives, extrusion knives, hot shear knives, cold shear knives, forging tools and other hot work tools.
Hardened and tempered steel 1.2085 | AISI 420 FM
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.2085 is a corrosion-resistant tool steel with improved machinability compared to 1.2316. Ideal for mold frames and tools for processing corrosive plastics.
Tool steel 1.3343 | AISI M2
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.3343 is a highly wear-resistant tool steel with high toughness, compressive strength and heat resistance. Ideal for cutting tools, milling cutters, drills, circular saw segments, metal saws, woodworking tools, dies, punches and plastic molds with high wear resistance.
Stainless steel 1.4112 | AISI 440B
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.4112 is a hardenable, easily machinable, polishable and corrosion-resistant stainless steel. Ideal for plastics processing, tools in the food industry, knives, cutlery, ball bearings and spray nozzles.
Low-alloy steel
Cold work steel 1.2767 | AISI 6F 7
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.2767 is a tough, hardenable tool steel with a high nickel content. It offers excellent polishability, photoetchability and erodibility. Ideal for mold inserts, plastic and injection molds, bending tools, pressure bars and shear blades.
Cold work steel 1.2842 | AISI 02
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.2842 impresses with its outstanding dimensional stability, high edge retention and excellent wear resistance.
This cold work tool steel is ideal for jigs and fixtures, gauges, templates, rulers, punching tools, measuring tools, precision parts and guide rails.
Heat treatable steel 1.7225 | AISI 4140
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.7225 offers high strength and toughness in the quenched and tempered condition and can be induction hardened. Ideal for mechanical engineering, machine parts, axles, connecting rods, crankshafts, gear shafts, gear wheels and base plates.
Tempered plastic mold steel 1.2311 | AISI P 20
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.2311 can be easily polished, nitrided, chromium-plated and grained. Ideal for the production of plastic molds and mold frames for plastic and die casting molds.
Tempered plastic mold steel 1.2312 | AISI P 20+S
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.2312 offers excellent machinability and nitriding properties. Ideal for plastic molds and mold frames for plastic and die casting molds. Not suitable for etching, polishing, hard chrome plating or graining.
case hardening steel 1.7131 | AISI 5115
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.1731is a tough case hardening steel with good machinability in the soft annealed condition and excellent case hardenability. It is ideal for parts subject to wear such as gears, shafts, bolts, bushes, guides and fittings.
case hardening steel 1.2162 | AISI 5120
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.2162 is easy to machine, easy to polish and can be nitrided after heat treatment. It offers high toughness in the core and surface hardness. Ideal for tools in plastics processing, pinions, gear wheels, gear racks, machine parts and guides.
Material TOOLOX® 33
PRÄZI flat steel tolerances according to DIN 59350, tempered to 950-1125 N/mm2
Material TOOLOX® 44
PRÄZI flat steel tolerances according to DIN 59350, hardened to 45 HRC, ground on all sides without decarburization with Ra max. 4 µm.
Unalloyed steel
Unalloyed tool steel 1.1730 | AISI SAE 1045
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.1730 is an easily machinable shell hardener with a hard surface and tough core. Ideal for build-up plates and strips for plastic molds, blow and foam molds, hand tools and agricultural tools.
Unalloyed structural steel 1.0570 / 1.0577 | AISI A 106
PRÄZI Flachstahl® 1.0570 / 1.0577 is a construction material with very good weldability. Ideal for mechanical engineering, intermediate layers and base plates in stamping and mold making.
Do you have a specific request or drawing?
Send us your requirements or drawings—we’ll review your project and develop a custom solution for your slide guides and guide elements. Alternatively, we’d be happy to consult with you in person regarding feasibility, material selection, and design.
Your expert in industrial machine knives
Please send us your documents. We will assess the technical feasibility and prepare a customized quote for you.
Your expert in industrial machine knives
Please send us your documents. We will assess the technical feasibility and prepare a customized quote for you.
FAQ
Here you will find answers to frequently asked questions.
What types of slide guides and guide elements do you manufacture for the industrial sector?
We manufacture a wide range of custom-designed guide elements that are essential for precise linear motion and the safe support of heavy loads in professional machine and plant engineering. Our portfolio includes, among other things, complex flat guides, high-precision prismatic guides, as well as specialized slide plates, slide blocks, and sliding elements. Each of these components is manufactured precisely according to the kinematic requirements and load profiles of your machine to ensure optimal friction reduction and precise load distribution.
What materials do you use to manufacture heavy-duty sliding plates and prism guides?
Since slide guides in machine tools and automation systems are subjected to constant friction and enormous compressive forces, the choice of material is the decisive factor in determining their service life. For our guide elements, we primarily use high-alloy tool steels, stainless steels, and extremely wear-resistant grades such as Hardox. Using our in-house, professional heat treatment process, we harden the components in a targeted manner: This creates a surface with maximum wear protection against mechanical abrasion, while the core of the component remains tough and fracture-resistant.
What manufacturing tolerances do you achieve for custom-made flat and prismatic guides?
Absolute dimensional accuracy and perfect surface finishes are essential for backlash-free and smooth linear motion. Thanks to our extensive in-house manufacturing capabilities—which include state-of-the-art CNC milling centers as well as high-precision surface and profile grinding machines—we machine your guide rails and prismatic guides to extremely tight tolerances. We achieve complex geometries, exact parallelism, and high-precision fits in the micrometer range to ensure the smooth operation and precision of your machinery over the long term.
Can worn-out slide rails and spacer rails be replaced for existing systems?
Yes, the precise reproduction of replacement and wear parts subjected to high loads is one of our strengths. If wear occurs on slide rails, spacer bars, or solid slide plates in your production facilities and original parts are difficult or no longer available, we will manufacture new ones in accordance with your drawings. Often, as part of this reproduction process and in consultation with your design engineers, we can even optimize the material grade or hardening compared to the original component to significantly extend your future maintenance intervals.