Gallery, Projects and General > How do I??

Air handling, fitering etc. for air spindle bearings?

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PekkaNF:
I have been offered an used air bearing spindle. It is odd, because it has 1:10 speeder and 115 VAC motor. Not that cheap and it comes without air handling system.

I don't know much about these systems.

1) How do I check used spindle that the bearings hasn't been contaminated/crashed and that they are functional? If the seller ever has plugged them into normal shop air, is it a big no-no?

2) If I understand air quality requirements at all, they look pretty steep. Is there any "normal" components I can hook up and get away with it or it really is that specialized and the whole works needs to be specific for air bearings?
http://www.loadpoint-bearings.co.uk/about/how-air-bearings-work/

3) What sort of consumption/pressure would 57 OD diameter and about 350 mm long spindle have. WAG-value is a good starting point.

I may skip this now if it looks too chalenging. I try to learn one thing at the time, but this has several unknowns to me.


Thank you,
Pekka

hanermo:
Some people have built them.
They used shop air, and they worked very very well.

The pressure needed was quite small circe 0.3-0.5 bar, and air usage is pretty low.
My wag, about 1/5 that output by a 2 hp std cheap compressor.

I think the cleanliness specs is so that very expensive spindles dont fail due to contamination even over time.
Just dry, and sort of clean.
Maybe an extra filter, or dryer, these are cheap bits, and thats it.

Its what I have seen .. but no real personal experience.

PekkaNF:
Thanks. I just talked here one pneumatic systems designer and he knew about this stuff, but never ordered these components. Industry standard here seems to be 5 um, so prefilter is no problem. But 1 um oil separating filters and rest of the stuff is definately nonstandard and not available on local normal industry shops.

I'll try to find out a bit more, but if I can't easily find parts to make this work, I think I'm going to pass it.

Pekka

NeoTech:
Been curious about larger air bearing applications, for like a lathe and such..  Seems so simple and bloody complex at the same time..

hanermo:
Air bearings work well, for lathes.
They can be made very stiff, and very accurate.

And I have NO clue why they are not more common- probably just lack of new thinking.
There are videos on youtube of airbearings on lathes.

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