How do Air Bearings work?

 The importance of Air Bearings in the mechanical industry is sometimes overlooked. It is one of the most used equipment as it is needed in almost all heavy operational processes. Some of the productions that use them are as follows:

·         Aircraft manufacturing

·         Embedded Systems

·         Entertainment

·         Military and Defense

·         Shipyard

·         Reel and Roll handling

The list is pretty exhaustive, showing how integral the equipment is.

What are Air Bearings?

It is a non-contacting system, where the two surfaces are separated through only a gas film (Air). The air saves the shaft or an axial thrust bearing from any type of friction that most commonly exists with other bearing types.

The supreme advantage they offer has no backlash or friction; therefore, it makes them the most suitable for high-speed operations. Having said that, you need to be mindful of the conditions where air bearings are suitable and where not. The difference between a successful operating unit and a failed attempt is knowing where to use what type of equipment.

You can never miss out on Air Bearings For Sale!

When there is friction between the parts

When you need a vibration-free precision model having nano-scale resolution, repeatability, and guiding accuracy – a friction less drive is your answer.

There are other solutions apart from air bearings that offer friction less operations. The Piezo drives and flexure guidance are well known for short travel ranges. Magnetic levitation has resulted in wonders in the transportation industry, Maglev trains being a great example of the technology. However, these are very expensive to manufacture

How do air bearings work?

They are rotary and linear positioners having air in between. It eliminates almost all mechanical contact using a preload mechanism. Therefore, air bearing has negligible friction and hysteresis effects.

Advantages of Integrating Air Bearings

An Accurate Friction less Positioning

Managing heavy loads such as moving heavy loads is a complicated task. Using a direct drive motor and a high-resolution encoder supported by air bearings will let you manage the load to the tenths of arc seconds in rotation applications. 

Low error motions

One of the prime benefits of the air bearing is its repeatable angular performance. It guarantees quality and reliability in sensitive applications such as mirror and optics inspection, semiconductor inspection, and medical device manufacturing.

Traveling Long Distances

There are some solutions, such as the Piezo-driven flexure stages, which can help move a few millimeters. When you are using air bearings, it can be used for travels of 25mm or more. There are manufacturers that provide air bearings that can travel to 1m or more.

No Maintenance

As there is no need to lubricate the parts, there is no maintenance needed.  There are no parts in contact undergoing wear and tear, and due to this, the performance will remain constant in the future. The only things which needs maintenance are the moving cables and hoses in the air bearing system. Hand down the best products to purchase for your plant is air bearings for sale.