Alio Industries

Here at New Way Air Bearings ®, we’re proud to work with a wide array of end users and systems integrators, both large and small. Among these are ALIO Industries, who expanded from humble beginnings into an industry leading firm specializing in precision motion across metrology, life sciences and semiconductor production, with numerous patents held for their revolutionary Hexapod technology. For their air bearing systems product line, ALIO turned to New Way, which began a decade-long partnership to develop the best possible motion systems for the most demanding applications.

Who is ALIO?

ALIO Industries, based out of Arvada, Colorado, has been an industry leader in nanometer precision motion, quality control, and systems integration since their founding in 2001. In 2009 they achieved a world first, developing an air bearing lift state, with motion repeatability below 10 nanometers. Now as an established shop for both off the shelf and custom solutions, ALIO integrates a wide array of New Way porous media air bearings for their complete lineup of air bearing based stages.

Air Bearing Motion Systems – XY Configurations

ALIO Industries, based in Arvada, Colorado, has been an industry leader in nanometer precision motion, quality control, and systems integration since their founding in 2001. In 2009 they achieved a world first, developing an air bearing lift state, with motion repeatability below 10 nanometers. In 2021, ALIO was acquired by Allied Motion, an Allient company and is continuing to grow and evolve. As an established source for both off the shelf and custom solutions, ALIO integrates a wide array of New Way porous media air bearings for their complete lineup of air bearing based stages.

• photovoltaic manufacturing
• semiconductor manufacturing
• ink jet deposition
• lithography.
• optical inspection applications

The Necessity of Porous Media

ALIO Industries defines 6-D Nano Precision ® as “Precision [referring] to documented proof of performance at or below the +/- 450 nm level. 6-D Nano Precision® means the documented proof of performance over all 6 degrees of freedom of a body in motion at the nanometer level of precision.” For motion positioning at the nanoscale level, only porous media is capable of meeting these requirements. Since porous media air bearings have zero dynamic rolling elements, there is no internal inertia to cause over/undershoot. This is not simply a selling point or catch phrase, but a well studied phenomenon by academic collaborators at MIT, which found air bearings produce an order of magnitude reduction in motion error when compared to contact alternatives.

The Product Line

Boxway Linear Slides and ALIO Industries Air Bearing Stages can be purchased in varying sizes, and may be purchased directly through New Way on this website, or via one of our distributors or systems integrators.