The Modal Shop is an industry leader in calibration systems, digital sensing and vibration calibrators. When they needed to produce a high frequency calibration shaker with zero transverse motion, they looked to our flat round air bearings to provide highly stiff motion, producing a clean sinusoidal response.
The Modal Shop is an industry leader in calibration systems, digital sensing and vibration calibrators. When they needed to produce a high frequency calibration shaker with zero transverse motion, they looked to our flat round air bearings to provide highly stiff motion, producing a clean sinusoidal response.
The 9155D-830 series High Frequency accelerometer Calibration Shaker began with a request from PCB Piezotronics in Buffalo, New York, specifically for accelerometer calibration. As an OEM for numerous kinds of transducers, telemetry kits and sensors, accurate calibration is a critical component of their process. New Way is no stranger to the electronics and semiconductors industries, and we’re also quite familiar with in line testing and calibration stages. Our porous media air bearings can be found in Sparknano’s revolutionary spatial ALD technology, as well as calibration systems for Magtrol, +Vantage Corporation, and others. After an initial discussion with The Modal Shop regarding their needs, we had a clear understanding of their vision, and PCB’s requirements for this product.
“Calibration of those units is at the core of their production, and their core technologies”, said Rick Bono, Senior Application Specialist with The Modal Shop. Immediately, we could assure The Modal Shop had come to the right place. Our air bearings are prized for use in calibration systems owing to their non contact operation. Because there is no sliding friction and no internal inertia contained in roller or ball bearings elements, porous media bearings are not susceptible to over or undershoot, and exhibit hysteresis free motion in MIT laboratory testing.
New Way bearings also eliminated another problem common to accelerometer calibration, that of resonant frequencies. “The core of accelerometer calibration is a good quality vibration signal. The air bearing eliminates transverse motion common to traditional flexure based shakers, that have historically caused issues. You get glitches at certain frequencies related to cross axis resonances of those shaker suspension systems”, explains Rick Bono.
While resonant or whirl frequencies are more commonly understood as a danger and concern for large rotating artifacts, they can just as easily manifest at small scale under the right boundary conditions. Due to the squeeze film effect which produces a positive relationship between stiffness and damping, porous media bearings passively dampen resonant frequencies and produce smooth responses in the frequency domain, an ideal characteristic for accelerometer testing.
“Since we developed it with PCB, it’s very intuitive and easy to use”, said Mr. Bono. Since their integration, the 9155D series built on flat round air bearings has been a success for both parties. Unlike magnetic bearings, they do not require an external computer system to ensure stability, and unlike orifice bearings, are not prone to pneumatic hammer instabilities. Each unit is built on a self cleaning, long lasting porous media bearing, who’s only requirements are a cleaned, regulated air supply.
If you have questions about The Modal Shop and PCB’s application of our flat round air bearings, or have your own application in mind, please reach out to us, and our dedicated engineering sales team will get back to you!
rhesse@newwayairbearings.com