Operation, Cleaning and Care of air bearings
Air bearings

Operation, cleaning and care of air bearings

Learn the essential air supply specifications necessary for optimal air bearing performance and detailed cleaning instructions to maintain their precision and longevity. Ensure your air bearings operate smoothly and efficiently with key insights and practical steps for proper maintenance.

Air supply

DO NOT OPERATE THE AIR BEARINGS  UNLESS AIR PRESSURE IS APPLIED!

The compressed air which you supply our air bearings with must be properly cleaned and dried. Air bearing performance and useful lifetime greatly depends on the quality of your air supply. An efficient system will ensure minimal pressure loss as well as the removal of contaminants such as water, oil, dirt, rust and other foreign particles. It is strongly advised to use a filtered air supply, ideally of ISO-class 3, but at the very least ISO-class 4. See ISO-table below for specifications.

04.Air Supply specification table for Air bearings v2

Air pressure

Depending on the application, porous media air bearings may need air pressures ranging from 2 to 25 bar. However, for the majority of applications, 4.1 bar is typically sufficient.

Air Pressure table for Air bearings v2-1

 

Surface finish

IBS Precision Engineering recommends a surface finish of 0.4 Ra (μm) / 0.44 RMS (μm) or better. Although rougher surfaces may be adequate, we ask that you discuss your specific application with us before employing air bearings in such a situation. For porous media air bearings, the surface finish must be considered as being part of the gap, so surface finishing becomes more crucial as you design for smaller gaps. 

Cleanroom operation

04.LP_Cleanroom-suitable-200pxOur air bearings have been verified to satisfy the requirements of ISO 14644-1 Class 3 cleanliness, with airborne particulate concentrate limits of less than 1,000 x 0.1μm particles / m³.

Additionally, the porous media itself acts as a sub-micron filter, so the air flowing out of the bearing is inherently clean, making it plausible for their usage in cleanrooms as clean as Class 1.

Essential cleaning instructions

  • Keep guideway and bearing surfaces clean of debris and excessive dust.
  • Avoid contaminations with oil, coolant or other fluids.
  • If needed, clean porous media and guide surfaces with 60 psi (0.41MPa) air pressure applied.
  • Never clean with the air pressure off!
  • Clean guide surfaces or bearing surfaces using only a clean, dry cloth with 70% isopropanol (isopropyl alcohol).
  • After cleaning allow the Isopropanol to evaporate completely.
  • Do not clean bearings or guide surfaces with ketones.
Wipe carefully over the surface - ab cleaning
Wipe carefully over the surface
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