Are taper lock pulleys a good choice for ball screws?

[Muzzer]

I've got a feeling muzzer is using servo's which have much higher torque than steppers.!

Yes, my machines are a 3.5 tonne Shizuoka, a 1 tonne Bridgeport milling machines and a Colchester lathe. The ballscrews are mostly 32mm and 25mm and they all have servos, so as Jazz says, the application is a key part of the decision.

Personally I wouldn't consider the additional moment of inertia of a taperlock pulley to be a massive concern if you have a long 20 or 25mm ballscrew but if you have steppers, I guess you may struggle with speed and response as it is. Without a high drive (power supply) voltage, the torque output of steppers quickly tails off, so the headline torque figure may be misleading. If you are still deciding what to use on the motor front, this may be a good time to consider something better and Jazz has good experience you can learn from on that front.

[JAZZCNC]

Personally I wouldn't consider the additional moment of inertia of a taperlock pulley to be a massive concern if you have a long 20 or 25mm ballscrew but if you have steppers, I guess you may struggle with speed and response as it is. Without a high drive (power supply) voltage, the torque output of steppers quickly tails off, so the headline torque figure may be misleading.

Surprisingly it does Muzzer.! . . Esp with a stepper system on long screws and smaller steppers feel it the more and really struggle with it if the pulleys are heavy. This is why when building machines with long screw lengths and steppers, (over 4ft) I select a higher pitch screw and use a ratio to lower screw speed, this serves 2 purposes, lowers the chance of screw whip and lowers the inertia.
I also only fit Nema 34 motors which use high voltage drives, often these are at mains voltage depending on motor size 8nm + but for the smaller 34's I still wouldn't use drives less than 80Vac/100Vdc. The 4.5Nm and 5.5Nm Nema 24 Closed loop Lichuan motors I use now are so powerful running on 60Vac that I rarely fit Nema 34's below 8nm as the difference they allow in performance is much better.