Radial Air Bearing Line Launch - Short Press Release April 16, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - SHORT PRESS RELEASE
New Way Air Bearings® launches line of porous media Radial Air Bearings to deliver frictionless rotary motion for precision applications.
Aston, Pennsylvania, USA, April 16, 2009 -- New Way Air Bearings announced the launch of a new line of radial air bearings for use in precision rotary motion applications. These new modular components do not constrain rotary motion using a 360° housing as rolling element bearings do; instead they are positioned in combinations of 3-4 segments to support a rotor from just a small percentage of its circumference. When this rotor is also constrained axially - for example, using New Way flat round or rectangular air bearings - it will float on a five micron film of air, enabling frictionless rotary motion. The resulting assembly is simple, has only one moving part, and provides smoother, faster, more consistent and precise frictionless motion, without noise, vibration, or need for lubrication.
New Way radial air bearings are available in four basic configurations: Concave configurations are for use on the Outside Diameter (OD) of a rotating body; Convex configurations may be used on the Inside Diameter (ID). The radius for either of these basic configurations may then be cut by the length of the bearing or by its width. This new line is available for shafts as small as 25 mm and for rings as large as 3 meters. Larger diameters can also be accommodated, as custom orders.
Technically, New Way Radial Air Bearings are not a standard product. Because each radius must be precisely machined to the dimension and tolerance requirements of the application at hand, they cannot be ‘stocked.' They are, however, as close to a stock item as a ‘Designed-to-Order' component can be. New Way does stock the ten standard-size bearing housings with which they are manufactured. These housings range in size from 12x24mm to 150x300mm, for a wide variety of application scales. Although they are not quite available ‘off the shelf,' the delivery timeframe for these precision components is just eight weeks, with incremental shipping timeline improvement projected as quantities-of-scale build.
"Rolling-element bearings have many limitations, despite their ability to carry impressive loads," noted Drew Devitt, New Way Chief Technology Officer. "Our new radial air bearings are a non-contact solution, so they offer engineers all the advantages of frictionless motion: Much higher speed, greater precision, repeatability, and many other superior performance characteristics."
New Way's modular radial air bearing products are inexpensive, robust and easy to use. They operate quite differently from conventional orifice air bearings. New Way's Porous Media® Technology distributes air evenly through millions of sub-micron sized holes across the bearing surface. More consistent air pressure distribution provides for superior performance. Further, because the carbon is itself a bearing material, New Way radial air bearings will still function effectively even after severe damage.
Radial air bearings cost less, provide better performance characteristics, reduce the weight of a machine, reduce the energy draw, increase speed and precision, and are simply a more elegant design for many classes of rotating equipment. They are ideal for a wide range of high-performance applications, including: Inspection, imaging, wind power, fans, turbo machinery, metal cutting, pumps, compressors, powder processing, energy storage flywheels, centrifuges and many others. |