Spherical Air Bearings

 

Spherical Air Bearings

New Way® Spherical Air Bearings offer frictionless, unconstrained motion for a variety of applications. These bearings come in a wide range of standard sizes to easily integrate into your current process.

Our spherical air bearings are shaped out of our Porous Media TechnologyTM to support a sphere on a stiff cushion of air. The spherical cup can also come vacuum pre-loaded for added positioning precision.

All of New Way’s air bearings are constructed out of a porous carbon substrate. The millions of sub-micron passageways that wind through the material naturally restrict air flow leaving a uniform, stiff air cushion at the surface of the bearing. Since the holes are evenly distributed over the surface of the bearing, unlike orifice air bearings, pressure gradients never occur making crashes a thing of the past.

Clean Room Compliant

Click to view full testing and analysis report

The unique use of porous media in spherical air bearings makes them ideal for clean room use. Not only is less air used in spherical air bearings when compared to orifice-based air bearings, but the air is evenly distributed by the porous media. Both of these features minimize the potential of currents or eddies in the clean room and its damaging impacts on production.

Another benefit of the use of porous media is its ability to perform as a sub-micron filter for the air emitted. Testing indicates the bearing satisfies the requirements of Class 1 (ISO class 3) cleanliness, with airborne particulate concentrate limits of less than 1,000 x 0.1μm particles / m3.

New Way also offers custom spherical air bearings to fit any specifications. Reach out today and tell us about your application.

  • Custom sizes
  • Vacuum pre-load available
  • Precision motion
  • High-level control
  • Crash-resistant
  • No noise
  • No contact
  • No lubrication

Applications

New Way’s spherical air bearings come in standard and custom sizes to fit your specific application. These bearings are ideal for many industries.

Aerospace
Flexible Web Handling
  • Stiff, stable air gaps for high-speed motion
  • No vibration allows for smooth, silent operation
Flight simulators
  • Bearings are unconstrained so can be precisely positioned in three dimensions
  • No contact between components so maintenance downtime is eliminated

Spherical Bearing Product Line

Spherical air bearings are available in a variety of sizes that are easy to install into established production processes. We also provide custom spherical air bearings to fit your specific application. Contact us to learn about your options.


Standard Product Line Spherical Air Bearings
Standard Product Line Spherical Air Bearings

Custom With Vacuum Spherical Air Bearings
custom with vacuum
Custom With Vacuum Spherical Air Bearings

Custom Product Line Spherical Air Bearings
custom product line
Custom Product Line Spherical Air Bearings



Questions

If you’re looking for the freedom to move frictionlessly in three dimensions, contact New Way today to tell us more about your specific application.

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