If your machine currently runs components from another maker and you are looking at our catalogue, this guide shows you which designations genuinely carry over between brands — and which do not. In some families the naming itself is industry-wide. In others the honest answer is that every maker names its own range, and a model-number match either does not exist or means less than it looks like it does.
We have split the difference deliberately: this site states where a code is shared and where it is a house code, and nothing in between. Where a designation is shared, the mounting geometry usually follows — but you still verify it. Where it is a house code, we match by drawing instead of pretending a chart can do it.
Read this before replacing anything
Even where dimensions are shared, interchangeability refers to mounting dimensions only — rail width, overall height, block footprint, bolt-hole pattern. It never means you can mix a carriage from one brand onto a rail from another: raceway geometry differs between makers, so always replace rail and carriage together as a matched set. Confirm against the current dimension drawing before ordering.
Why the families differ so much
It comes down to how standardised each product is. Guide footprints are copied widely enough that the mounting geometry acts like a standard — but block length, preload and grade do not follow. Support units and round bushings grew out of the earliest Japanese linear-motion conventions, and their designations spread across the whole industry. Ball screws carry their performance inside the thread, preload and end machining, which every maker does differently. Actuators are systems, not components, so there is nothing to copy. The five pages below apply this logic family by family.
Each page covers one product family: what its designations actually mean between makers, and the seven-point check to run before you substitute anything.
Where the HG, EG, RG and MGN footprint families are genuinely shared between makers — and the seven checks that decide whether a substitute guide really fits.
HIWIN · PMI · TBI MOTION · ABBA · CPC · THK · NSK · IKO · NB · SBC Guide 2Why SFU, DFU, SFE and SFK have no honest model-number equivalent, and how to specify a replacement by shaft, nut flange, grade and end machining.
HIWIN · PMI · TBI MOTION · THK · NSK · IKO · NB · SBC Guide 3LM, LMF, LMK and LMH are shared codes; SCS, LF, SBR, SHF and SK are house codes. Know which is which before you order.
THK · NB · IKO · HIWIN · SBC Guide 4BK, BF, EK, EF, FK and FF are shared industry codes — the strongest interchange story on this site, plus the three measurements that still settle it.
HIWIN · PMI · TBI MOTION · ABBA · CPC · THK · NSK · IKO · NB Guide 5Actuators have no shared codes between makers. The seven-point specification that replaces a model number — and how to send it to us.
HIWIN · PMI · TBI MOTION · CPC · THK · NSK · IKO · NBThree rules, applied on every family page above. One: we only call a designation shared when it demonstrably is; everything else is a house code and gets a drawing conversation. Two: shared codes refer to mounting dimensions — load rating, preload and accuracy are verified per application, never assumed. Three: when a claim depends on the drawing rather than the name, we ask for the drawing. We would rather check it properly than have you discover a mismatch on the bench.
Not sure which series replaces your current part?
Send us the old part number or a dimension drawing and we will return a drawing comparison plus a quote.
Request a QuoteHIWIN, THK, PMI, TBI MOTION, ABBA, CPC, NSK, IKO, NB and SBC are trademarks of their respective owners. RFU Motion is not affiliated with, authorised by, or endorsed by any of them. Brand names are referenced solely to identify dimension conventions. Nothing on this page constitutes a guarantee of interchangeability — always verify against current dimension drawings before ordering.