Air Bearing Application and Design Guide

The Air Bearing Application and Design Guide

New Way Air Bearings^® has taken great care to compile all the technical know-how our customers are looking for in one convenient place: The Air Bearing Application and Design Guide. This 70 page PDF forms a comprehensive, start-to-finish document so you can evaluate all aspects of air bearings and make your decision on our products having the utmost confidence.

Part One: Understanding Air Bearings

Part One is your introduction to the air bearing and why we’ve devoted our company to the pursuit of Frictionless Motion^®️. This section covers the benefits derived from air bearing operation (vs. contact bearings and orifice bearings), as well as technical data on stiffness, compliance, lift/load curves, and stability. This section concludes with a brief overview of relevant industries for air bearings, as well as our current product line.

Part Two: Choosing Air Bearings

Part Two provides you with a convenient table for comparing our selection of Flat Pads, Bushings, Vacuum Preloaded bearings and stages against their respective characteristics. This includes cross-referencing cost, assembly, precision, load capacity, and other relevant factors. Additionally, this section covers environmental effects on bearing operation, such as the results of dust oil, water, and temperature.

Part Three: Designing with Air Bearings

For the customers keen on understanding how air bearings will fit into their process, Part Three is your bread and butter. In this section, we cover requirements for using air bearings (like surface finishing and local flatness) as well as a comprehensive overview of how and when to preload your bearings. This section discusses how air bearings handle holes and imperfections on a guide way, as well as the distinction between pre-loading for static and dynamic systems.

Part Four: Setting up and Using Air Bearings

Part Four focuses on how to set up and utilize air bearings. We provide an in-depth look at all our available mounting hardware, both to make installation and retrofitting a breeze, as well as to allow for optimal operation with our self-levelling, adjustable ball mounts. This section also covers how to adjust preloaded bearings, and numerous configurations for flat air bearings in linear and rotary applications, allowing you to identify the configuration that best fits your needs.

Part Five: Additional Information

Part Five covers the aspects of air bearing operation which concern air supply, filtering, and the necessary equipment to ensure your air bearings are operating in an ideal capacity. Here we discuss ISO classifications for air cleanliness based upon dirt, water, and oil content, as well as providing the necessary equations and charts so you can calculate and provide the correct volumetric flow to your bearings.

Contact Us

If you’ve read through the guide and want to discuss your application with us, or simply have a question to ask, don’t hesitate to reach out to us!