Air bearings promise near-frictionless motion

An IBS Precision Engineering product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Feb 21, 2008

Porous media provide uniform air distribution under the bearing, virtually eliminating static friction and enabling accurate positional accuracy to be achieved with very high repeatability.

A new range of porous air bearings that combines virtually frictionless motion with high load carrying capabilities and locational accuracy is now available in the UK from IBS Precision Engineering.

Available in flat, cylindrical, radial, vacuum preloaded and custom engineered variants, New Way air bearings offer numerous benefits over traditional ball or roller bearings making them an ideal choice for demanding high precision applications in industries as diverse as optical lens or mirror polishing, lithography, precision gauging, metrology, silicon wafer manufacture and high speed machinery.

The units' porous media provide uniform air distribution under the bearing, virtually eliminating static friction and enabling accurate positional accuracy to be achieved with very high repeatability.

Likewise, the bearings' noncontact operating properties effectively eliminate wear, to deliver consistent machine performance and low particle generation over an almost limitless service life.

In addition, air bearings maintain more consistent directional motion and operate more smoothly and silently than traditional roller or ball designs, which generate noise and vibration through the repeated loading and unloading of their rotating elements.

When combined with their inherent squeeze film damping effect, the new range provides high dynamic stiffness and controllability ensuring their suitability for high speed and/or high acceleration applications.

Furthermore, the bearings' operating characteristics eliminate the need for oil lubrication and generate positive air pressure to produce a self-cleaning action in use.

Supplied in graphite or silicon carbide, New Way air bearings feature low air consumption and are available from stock as single units or as fully integrated elements within linear air slides or rotary tables.

The company's flat air bearings feature gimballed mounts and threaded ball studs for simple alignment and are typically used in conjunction with hard guide surfaces such as granite, hard coated aluminium, ceramics, glass, stainless or chromed steel.

However, the nongalling properties of the units' carbon bearing face ensure that they are equally suitable for use with plastics or other epoxy based materials.

New Way cylindrical air bearings provide interchangeability with traditional roller element based designs on rotating shaft applications, while vacuum preloaded variants have been designed to simultaneously create a lifting and preload force.

Clearance height and bearing stiffness can be optimised by simple adjustment of the vacuum and air pressure, enabling high precision component squaring and vertical positioning to be achieved.

Further special purpose porous air bearing variants can also be developed and engineered to specific requirements.