New Way® Air Bearings understands that straightness and flatness of motion along the horizontal axis can only be controlled by your bearings to such a degree. The rest of the job is up to the surface you float your bearings on. To this end, we’ve partnered with our sister company, Devitt Machinery, to offer precision epoxy products for floating air bearings.
Poured epoxy surfaces may not be your first instinct when you’re investigating a new guideway, but the benefits are more substantial than one might expect. Self-levelling epoxy surfaces are highly economical. For a 10 foot long, 3 foot wide surface, an equivalent steel or granite solution can exceed $20,000 with a 10 week or longer lead time.
An equivalent epoxy solution would be quoted well under $10,000, with a lead time in the area of 3 to 4 weeks. Additionally, self-levelled epoxy surfaces can be repaired as well as produced on site. This makes them ideal for specialty applications that are difficult to reach, or in the field usage cases.
See our Epoxy Surfaces Brochure
Devitt Machinery produces their epoxy surfaces with Diamant Moglice, a moldable low friction wayliner for which they have been the exclusive North American distributor for over 20 years. Devitt has had great success with Moglice and thanks to the close collaboration between New Way and Devitt Machinery, we can work hand in hand to develop the poured epoxy surface and air bearing solution to meet your exact needs.
New Way Air Bearings treats Devitt Machinery as we would any other supplier we work with, which is why we retain our stringent 0.002” per foot flatness requirement, which Devitt’s Moglice easily meets and exceeds, allowing for the incredible straightness of motion our Porous Media Technology™ is known for.
The combination of precision-poured epoxy surfaces and Porous Media air bearings represents an almost limitless potential for precision motion, maintainability and cost efficiency. Moglice epoxy can be used to rebuild slideways for coordinating measuring machines, or for a full conversion to an air bearing-based system. Additionally due to the highly portable nature of the component materials, epoxy poured guideways can be produced on site as your needs require. This combination of versatility and precision makes the surfacing ideal for supporting CNC routers, lathes, and grinders.
New Way Air Bearings Epoxy Surfaces
To help provide Keystone Tower Systems, Inc. with the capability to manufacture straight and tapered wind turbine towers on-site, we partnered with our sister company, Devitt Machinery. This enabled the production of a solution to float flat round air bearings for a portable machine that can roll and weld a sheet of metal into a turbine tower.
If you’re ready to get started on your epoxy surface project or want to learn about how New Way can benefit your application, please reach out to us!
