• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.309-314
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• 2017

This paper presents a theoretical investigation of the dynamic characteristics of externally pressurized air pad bearings with closed loop grooves. These grooves are made on the surface of bearings to reduce the number of supply holes so that manufacturing costs can be reduced. The semi-implicit method is applied to calculate the time varying pressure profile on the air bearing surface owing to the advantages of numerical stability and fast time tracing characteristics. The static pressure of the groove bearings is much higher than that without grooves, so the groove bearings can provide high load carrying capacity. The equation of motion considering vertical motion and tilting motion are also solved using the Runge-Kutta 4th order method. By combining the semi-implicit method and the Runge-Kutta method, fast calculations of the dynamic behavior of the air bearing can be achieved. The variations of bearing reaction force, air film reaction moment, height, and tilting angle are investigated for the step force input, which is 20% higher than the bearing reaction, when the nominal clearance is 6 mm. The effect of the groove width and the groove depth are investigated by calculating the dynamic behavior. The possibility of the air hammering with the depth of the groove is found and discussed.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2020

Air stages are usually applied to precision engineering in sectors such as the semiconductor industry owing to their excellent performance and extremely low friction. Since the productivity of a semiconductor depends on the acceleration and deceleration performance of the air stage, many attempts have been made to improve the speed of the stage. Even during sudden start or stop sequences, the stage should maintain an air film to avoid direct contact between pad and the rail. The purpose of this study is to quantitatively predict the dynamic behavior of the air stage when acceleration and deceleration occur. The air stage is composed of two parts; the stage and the guide-way. The stage transports objects to the guideway, which is supported by an externally pressurized gas bearing. In this study, we use COMSOL Multiphysics to calculate the pressure of the air film between the stage and the guide-way and solve the two-degree-of-freedom equations of motion of the stage. Based on the specified velocity conditions such as the acceleration time and the maximum velocity of stage, we calculate the eccentricity and tilting angle of the stage. The result shows that the stiffness and damping of the gas bearing have non-linear characteristics. Hence, we should consider the operating conditions in the design process of an air stage system because the dynamic behavior of the stage becomes unstable depending on the maximum velocity and the acceleration time.