New Way^® Air Bearings offers thrust bushings to compliment our air bushing product line.

If you’re looking for frictionless, rotary motion that doesn’t move linearly, then our thrust bushings are the product you need.

The thrust bushings consist of a hollow cylinder of our Porous Media Technology™ whose outer surface is encased in an aluminum housing. In order to prevent linear motion, we added a thrust face that is also made from porous carbon. These bushings are found in many rotary applications such as turbochargers in high-performance automobiles.

The porous carbon that comprises all our air bearings creates a reliable, stiff air gap between components. Air that is fed through the bearings must make its way through tortuous passageways that naturally occur throughout the carbon substrate to reach the surface. This arduous journey leaves a uniform distribution of air at the surface of our bearings.

With no contact between components, our bearings never wear out and the soft carbon substrate means knicks and scratches won’t affect the distribution of air over the surface. Our bearings are crash and wear resistant.

Clean Room Compliant

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The unique use of porous media in thrust bushings makes them ideal for clean room use. Not only is less air used in thrust bushings 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.