空气轴承的常用应用

空气轴承提供众多优于机械轴承的优点，例如成型线性导轨和交叉滚筒载玻片。但是，许多设计师和工程师仍然认为它们是一种高成本解决方案，主要用于需要极其精度的利基应用。然而，它们的益处包括不仅仅是高精度，并且通过增加轴承表面的制造商的数量和材料和制造业的进步，成本下降。

To demonstrate how air bearings are becoming more common in industrial equipment and processes, here are some of the benefits they provide and the applications they serve.

益处：高定位精度和可重复性

Air bearings have no mechanical contact and are virtually frictionless. This means they do not experiencestick效果或效果滞后, allowing them to achieve nanometer-level positioning accuracy and repeatability.

应用：超精密机床;光学研磨

New Way air bearings used on a coordinate measuring machine.
图像信用：L.S.Starrett.

福利：非常直的旅行

With linear air bearing guides, pitch, roll, and yaw errors are virtually eliminated, as are tilt and wobble errors with rotary air bearings. This is due in part to the “surface averaging” effect, which occurs because an air bearing supports the load along its entire length, in contrast to mechanical rolling element bearings, which support a load only at the contact points of the balls or rollers. This allows an air bearing to average all the imperfections of the surface across the length of the bearing, where a mechanical bearing’s travel is influenced by every imperfection in the bearing surface.

应用：光学检测设备;医疗器械制造

One factor in an air bearing’s extremely smooth, precise motion is the surface averaging effect.
Image credit: Physik Instrumente

益处：精确的力控制

The frictionless nature of air bearings, together with无铁线性电机要么语音线圈，创建可作为力发生器或换能器的精度阶段，甚至达到Millinewton水平。

Applications: Tensile and friction testing equipment

益处：平滑，恒定速度

With no rolling elements to cause perturbations in motion, air bearings can maintain a highly consistent, controlled velocity.

Applications: Wafer scanning; digital printing

线性电机和空气轴承阶段的速度偏差在4mm / s下行驶。
图片信用：多佛运动

益处：低粒子生成

因为它们没有接触部件，所以空气轴承（和带空气轴承和线性电机的阶段）几乎不会产生颗粒。并且用于最严格的cleanrooms在需要几乎不可检测的颗粒的情况下，它们可以用99.9％的纯氮而不是空气操作。

应用：半导体晶片加工;医疗器械制造;医学研究和测试

益处：随着时间的推移没有性能特征的变化

摩擦是高度线性的，减少或消除它意味着沉降时间较短，因为没有必要等待（相对）慢servo loopto overcome the effects of friction. This also means that the primary variables in performance become the servo bandwidth, payload, and machine resonances, making performance very stable and predictable over time.

Applications: Semiconductor manufacturing; equipment located in remote or difficult-to-access locations

福利：几乎无限制的使用寿命

负载，速度，加速度和其他应用参数不会影响空气轴承的寿命。事实上，由于受污染的空气引起的主要因素是磨损，这可能导致腐蚀。对于由音圈或线性电机驱动的空气轴承级，电缆和电缆管理 - 在大多数情况下，易于更换 - 成为磨损和寿命的限制因素。

应用：需要连续运行或极高占空比的过程

特征图片信用：多佛运动