• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.1997-2007
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• 2002

Composite air spindles are appropriate for the high-speed and the high-precision machining as small hole drilling of printed circuit board (PCB) or wafer cutting for manufacturing semiconductors because of the low rotational inertia, the high damping ratio and the high fundamental natural frequency of composite shaft. The axial load and stiffness of composite air spindles fur drilling operation are determined by the thrust ben ring composed of the air supply part mounted on the housing and the rotating part mounted on the rotating shaft. At high-speed rotation, the rotating part of the thrust bearing should be designed considering the stresses induced by centrifugal force as well as the axial stiffness and the natural frequency of the rotating shaft to void the shaft from failure due to the centrifugal force and resonant vibration. In this work, the air supply part of the thrust bearing was designed considering the bending stiffness of the bearing and the applied load. The rotating part of the thrust bearing was designed through finite element analysis considering the cutting forces during manufacturing as well as the static and dynamic characteristics under both the axial and con trifugal forces during high-speed rotation.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.998-1002
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• 2003

This paper investigates the characteristics of stiffness and load in the thrust bearing of spindle which could be changeable according to the groove shape of inlet, in order to design a high-stiffness air bearing by selecting a optimal groove shape. In experiments, dead weight and displacement sensor are used to measure the load carrying capacity and the stiffness respectively. Various shapes and different depth of groove of self-restrictor are used as experimental conditions. Comparative study between the theoretical value and the practical one by measuring the value of stiffness and load of the thrust bearing is performed.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.117-124
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• 2021

In this study, we perform a 3D CFD conjugate analysis according to the shape of the foil ramp of the air foil thrust bearing, analyze the flow characteristics inside the bearing, and compare the results corresponding to the two shapes. Air has a lower viscosity than lubricating oil. Therefore, the thrust runner of the bearing must rotate at high speed to support the load. The gap between thrust runner and foil is significantly smaller than that of the oil bearing. Hence, it is crucial to analyze the complex flow characteristics inside the bearing to predict the complex flow inside the bearing and performance of the bearing. In addition, flow characteristics may appear differently depending on the ramp shape of the bearing foil, which may affect bearing performance. In this study, we numerically analyze the main flow path of air flowing into the bearing and the secondary flow path used for cooling the bearing using the commercial CFD software ANSYS CFX and compare the flow characteristics for straight and curved foil ramp shapes. Notably, there is a difference in the speed of the flowing air according to the shape of the ramp, which affects the bearing performance.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.332-341
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• 2020

High-speed turbomachinery implements gas foil bearings (GFBs) due to their distinctive advantages, such as high efficiency, lesser part count, and lower weight. This paper provides the test results of the static structural stiffnesses and loss factors of bump-type foil thrust bearings with increasing preload and bearing deflection. The focus of the current work is to experimentally quantify variability in structural stiffnesses and loss factors among the four test thrust bearings with identical design values and material of the bump and top foil geometries using the same (open-source) fabrication method. A simple test setup, using a rigidly mounted non-rotating shaft and thrust disk, measures the bearing bump deflections with increasing static loads on the test bearing. The inner and outer diameters of the test bearings are 41 mm and 81 mm, respectively. The loss factor, best-representing energy dissipation in the test bearings, is estimated from the area inside the local hysteresis loop of the load versus the bearing deflection curve. The measurements show that structural stiffnesses and loss factors of the test bearings significantly rely on applied preloads and bearing deflections. Local structural stiffnesses of the test bearings increase with applied preloads but decrease with bearing deflections. Changes of loss factors are less sensitive to applied preloads and bearing deflections compared to those of structural stiffnesses. Up to 35% variability in static load structural stiffnesses is found between bearings, while up to 30% variability in loss factors is found between bearings.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.279-284
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• 2009

The limiting load capacity of air foil thrust bearings at extremely high operating speeds is theoretically investigated. The limiting load capacity of a sector is shown to increase as the angular extent ${\beta}$ and the inlet film thickness $h_1$ of the bearing increase, while it decreases with an increase in the ramp ratio b and the compliance ${\alpha}$ of the bearing. But it is found that the angular extent of the bearing is not related to the total limiting load capacity of the $360^{\circ}$ thrust bearing.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.24 no.8 s.197
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• pp.89-96
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• 2007

In this paper, a new air bearing stage with magnetic preload and a linear motor has been developed for the small precision machine systems. The new air bearing stage is unique in the sense that permanent magnets attached bottom of the iron core of table are used not only for preloading air bearings in vertical direction but also for generating thrust force by current of the coil at base. The characteristics of air bearings using porous pads were analyzed with numerical method, and the magnetic circuit model was derived for linear motor for calculating required preload force and thrust force. A prototype of single axis miniature stage with size of $120(W){\times}120(L){\times}50(H)\;mm^3$ was designed and fabricated and examined its performances, vertical stiffness, load capacity, thrust force and positioning resolution.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.23 no.4 s.181
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• pp.29-36
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• 2006

Micro drilling by high-speed air bearing spindle is very useful manufacturing technology in electronic industry For the design of high speed air bearing spindle, there are considered stability of air bearing spindle, allowable load of air bearing, run out and tooling system design for micro drill's attach and remove. According to suggested details, we designed and manufactured high-speed air bearing spindle and carried out performance estimation such as run out, temperature change in running air bearing spindle, stiffness, chucking torque. Results are follows; Run out was measured under $5{\mu}m$ at air bearing spindle revolution $20,000\sim125,000rpm$. High speed air bearing spindle's temperature rose about $20^{\circ}C$ after 5 minutes from running and then was fixed. Allowable thrust load of spindle was 17kgf. Chucking torque of collet was 15kgfcm.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.292-297
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• 2009

Air foil thrust bearings are the critical components available on high-efficiency turbomachinery which need an ability to endure the large axial force. Air foil bearings are self-acting hydrodynamic bearings that use ambient air as their lubricant. Since the air is squeezed by the edge of compliance-surface of bearing, hydrodynamic force is generated. In this study, we measured the air film thickness and obtained the minimum film thickness experimentally. To increase the maximum load capacity, compliance of sub-structure was controlled. From numerical analyses, it is seen that, if the air film thickness is distributed more uniformly by variable compliance, the thrust bearings can take more axial load.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.19-24
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• 2008

We propose a new miniature air-bearing stage with a moving-magnet slotless linear motor. This stage was developed to achieve the precise positioning required for submicron-level machining and miniaturization by introducing air bearings and a linear motor sufficient for mesoscale precision machine tools. The linear motor contained two permanent magnets and was designed to generate a preload force for the vertical air bearings and a thrust force for the stage movement. The characteristics of the air bearings, which used porous pads, were analyzed with numerical methods, and a magnetic circuit model was derived for the linear motor to calculate the required preload and thrust forces. A prototype of a single-axis miniature stage with dimensions of $120\;(W)\;{\times}\;120\;(L)\;{\times}\;50\;(H)\;mm$ was designed and fabricated, and its performance was examined, including its vertical stiffness, load capacity, thrust force, and positioning resolution.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.181-186
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• 2002

A numerical analysis is undertaken to show the influence of bearing design parameters on the load capacity of air lubricated spiral grooved thrust bearing. The governing equation derived from the mass balance is solved by the finite difference method. Optimal values for various design parameters are obtained to maximize the load capacity. The design parameters are the groove angle, the groove width ratio, the groove height ratio, and the seal ratio.