Air bearing

Supplying gas to the interface between moving elements of an aerostatic bearing can be achieved in a few different methods:[4] There is no single best approach to feeding the film.

[5] Dead volumes refer in particular to chambers and canals existing in conventional aerostatic bearings in order to distribute the gas and increase the compressed pressure within the gap.

However, in order to allow a uniform gas pressure even with only some nozzles, aerostatic bearing manufacturers take constructive techniques.

This design assumes that with a limited amount of nozzles, the dead volume should decrease while distributing the gas within the gap uniformly.

[9] Laser-drilled micro nozzle aerostatic bearings make use of computerized manufacturing and design techniques to optimize performance and efficiency.

In many cases engineers can create air bearings that approach the theoretical limit of performance.

Micro-nozzle aerostatic bearings achieve an effective, nearly perfect pressure distribution within the gap with a large number of micro nozzles.

The micro nozzles are automatically drilled with a laser beam that provides top-quality and repeatability.

The physical behaviors of the air bearings prove to have a low variation for large as well as for small production volumes.

Unlike liquid-lubricated bearings, the gas lubricant has to be considered as compressible, leading to a non-linear differential equation to be solved.

Fat- and oil-free drives for respirators, stick-slip-free movements of scanners or a high rotary speed of large rotors have all been achieved with air bearings.