Roll-to-roll systems with conventional contact rollers commonly induce defects and manufacturing flaws in the materials they’re handling. Any surface defect on the rollers themselves can, in turn, create a corresponding flaw on the product being transported—costing you time and money to correct the imperfection.

Air Turns offer multiple solutions to the problem of roller-induced defects. First, the complete lack of frictional contact between the material and the roller eliminates the possibility of contact-induced imperfections. Second, the stiff pillow of air protects the material from contaminants on the roller. Finally, the viscous shear inherent to the air film acts to scrub the material surface, and can also function to dry materials of residual moisture. This can be especially useful in R2R converting applications for electronics industries.

Air Turns don’t just remove the possibility for roller-induced defects, but also support material quality control. By varying the air pressure being supplied to the Air Turn, and making adjustments to the air bearings which drive the material across the rollers, fly height and web tension can be adjusted on the fly to account for changes in material flatness.

The tunable nature of an air surface cannot be replicated by traditional contact turn bars. New Way’s Air Turns allow for web height variations <5µm/55mm in the web travel direction, and <15µm/200mm in the transverse direction. In other words, the Air Turn provides flatness of 75nm/mm, befitting any industry which demands precision in every aspect of its manufacturing process. In roll-to-roll processing, this prevents wrinkles from forming while the material is transported at high speeds.

Of course, not all materials and processes are the same and New Way understands this. The adjustable nature of air bearings allows for a wide range of air height thicknesses, ranging between 100 and 600µm, and web tension up to 200N. No matter your roll-to-roll process or materials involved, New Way’s Air Turns are up to the task.

Click to view full IBS report (shown on right) In any industry where flexible materials are manufactured to a precise standard, the measurement of flatness and defects is paramount. Because Air Turns convey material on an adjustable film of air, this opens the door to the use of nanoscale interferometry techniques in order to measure flatness and web stability in real-time, as well as being able to adjust your Air Turns system accordingly.Independent testing via IBS Precision Engineering utilized ARINNA (areal interferometry for nanoscale surfaces) to conduct a test of web stabilization in a polyethylene terephthalate film (PET) coated substrate—both with and without—an air table. Without an air table and traveling at 5m/min, the web height varied by upwards of 100µm, whereas the air table produced a maximum variation of only 6µm.Interferometry measurements like these are only possible when an air gap or similar environs exists on both sides of the material, and thus, the Air Turn provides you with the unique capability to measure nanoscale defects throughout the manufacturing process rather than after the fact. To learn more, download our roll-to-roll processing eBook here.

In late 2019, New Way developed Higher Temperature Air Turns. These high- temp air turns are an evolution of our standard Air Turns. Search (-HT) at the end of our standard Air Turn part numbers to increase the temperature rating up to 400 Degrees F. To see how these work in a real-world R2R application, check out the success that our customer Multi-Plastics Inc. has experienced!Air Turns come in numerous sizes, diameters, and can also be customized to fit your exact needs. Please reach out to New Way Air Bearings today to see how our Air Turn technology can benefit your company.