Why Air Bearings from PI Nelson Air?
Since 1984, Nelson Air has designed and manufactured precision air bearings, air bearing stages, linear air bearing slides, rotary air bearing tables, and integrated air bearing positioning systems for industrial, scientific, semiconductor, metrology, optics, and automation applications.
Products include flat Z/tip/tilt, linear air bearings, rotary spindles, spherical, and planar air bearings and systems. We also specialize in application-specific bearings and integrated systems for demanding motion-control requirements.
PI's Air Bearing Design & Manufacturing OperationOur air bearings outperform traditional mechanical bearings in high-performance motion applications where friction, wear, stiction, vibration, and geometric error must be minimized. In some precision motion problems, air bearings are the only practical solution.
Typical Applications for Our Air Bearings
Air bearings are used in two major classes of applications: frictionless motion and ultra-precision positioning. Frictionless motion applications take advantage of the completely noncontact nature of air bearings, even under significant loads. Ultra-precision positioning applications use the tight manufacturing tolerances and inherent error averaging of air bearings to achieve exceptional straightness, flatness, pitch, roll, yaw, and runout performance.
Frictionless Motion
- Micro-tensile and micro-torque testing
- Moving heavy loads with extreme smoothness and zero stiction
- Zero-gravity simulation for attitude control or deployment testing
- Self-aligning presses for delicate optical assembly
- Custom test, metrology, and automation applications
Ultra-Precision Positioning
- Micromachining systems with multiple axes and spindles
- Semiconductor inspection and processing
- Disk-drive writing and testing
- Roundness measurement
- Optical alignment and centration
How Do Air Bearings Work and How Do They Differ from Mechaical Bearings ?
Air bearings use a thin, pressurized film of air to support and guide moving surfaces without mechanical contact. Unlike mechanical bearings with balls, rollers, or sliding elements, air bearings eliminate friction, wear, stiction, vibration, and rumble, enabling smoother motion and higher precision. Other friction free nanopositioning technologies include piezo flexure stages.
PI Nelson Air offers a wide range of precision air bearings and integrated positioning systems designed to meet the exact needs of demanding OEM, industrial, scientific, and metrology applications.
5 Reasons Why Air Bearing Stages Are Superior to Mechanical Bearing Stages
1. No Mechanical Contact
Air bearing stages float on a thin film of pressurized air, eliminating metal-to-metal contact, friction, wear, stiction, and particle generation.
2. Smoother Motion
Because there are no rolling elements, air bearings avoid bearing rumble and provide exceptionally smooth motion for scanning, inspection, and metrology.
3. Higher Geometric Accuracy
The air film averages small surface errors, helping deliver excellent straightness, flatness, pitch, roll, yaw, and rotary runout performance.
4. Long Service Life
With no mechanical contact during operation, air bearing stages have virtually no guideway wear and can maintain precision over very long operating periods.
5. Better Performance for Clean, Precision Applications
Air bearing stages are well suited for cleanrooms, semiconductor tools, optics, laser processing, precision inspection, and high-end automation where mechanical friction, vibration, and wear can limit performance.
Click on a product for more information or contact PI Nelson Air to discuss your application and request detailed specifications.