A Chicago-area bakery was replacing the tray support bearings in its ovens on a reactionary basis. Their weekly inspection cycle was resulting in two mechanics spending an average of 20 labor hours per week to replace failed bearings. The premature bearing failures were caused by a combination of the high heat and humidity in the ovens, resulting in lubrication failure and contamination. When BDI was asked to recommend a solution, the bakery was averaging one month of bearing life in this application.

Mechanical guiding systems, such as crossedroller bearings, work well for most motion control applications; however, when precision, angular repeatability, and geometric performance (runout, straightness) are critical or where submicron bearing rumble is problematic, air bearings are recommended. An air-bearing stage is a rotary or linear positioner that floats on a cushion of air, using one of several preload mechanisms, nearly eliminating mechanical contact and thus wear, friction, and hysteresis effects. Here are eight reasons why an air-bearing stage might be the right choice for your application:

Synchronous drives are especially well-suited for low-speed, high-torque applications. Their positive driving nature prevents potential slippage associated with V-belt drives, and even allows significantly greater torque carrying capability. Small pitch synchronous drives operating at speeds of 50 ft/min (0.25 m/s) or less are considered to be low-speed. Care should be taken in the drive selection process as stall and peak torques can sometimes be very high. While intermittent peak torques can often be carried by synchronous drives without special considerations, high cyclic peak torque loading should be carefully reviewed.

The average travel time to work in the United States is 25.4 minutes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This number is probably low if you factor in a traffic accident in New York City, light rain in Chicago or it's simply Tuesday in Los Angeles. It's safe to say 25.4 turns into 45 minutes in many areas of the country at seven o'clock in the morning.

Two weeks ago I was invited to speak at Infolytica’s Engage 2016 conference (infolyticaengage.com). The company makes tools for f...

Matthew Jaster, Senior Editor                 SPS IPC Drives 2016 took place November 22-24 in Nuremberg, G...

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Recently our customers have indicated a great concern over power factors when starting new development projects for higher-efficiency motors. Wh...