Development of Adjustable Conical Air Bearings for Non-Contact Direct Machine Drives
Research connecting analytical bearing-system transformation, adjustable conical support geometry, rotor dynamic stability, pneumatic spindle design and full-scale experimental verification.
International Journal of Manufacturing Research · Inderscience Publishers · DOI 10.1504/IJMR.2026.10079893
Research contribution
The paper develops adjustable conical air bearings for non-contact direct drives and models each conical support through equivalent radial and thrust-bearing representations. It establishes analytical links among bearing geometry, structure and gas-dynamic behaviour, then extends the model to resonant vibration and a rotor dynamic-stability criterion.
The theoretical work is connected to hardware through pneumatic-spindle variants, a dedicated test rig and a full-scale experimental method. The modified configuration was experimentally compared against the earlier design and demonstrated lower mass, smaller overall dimensions and reduced air consumption while improving operating characteristics.
Reported experimental improvements
Publication record
The publisher currently lists the article in its forthcoming / Online First collection. The DOI is fully citeable; volume, issue and page details are not stated here until the final issue assignment is published.
Keywords
Conical air bearings · manufacturing research · non-contact machine drives · gas-dynamic parameters · dynamic stability criterion · pneumatic spindle · bearing geometry
Recommended citation
Breshev, O.; Bashta, O.; Nosko, P.; Bashta, A.; Chodnicka-Wszelak, K.; Unger, F.; Uhlmann, E. “Development of Adjustable Conical Air Bearings for Non-Contact Direct Machine Drives.” International Journal of Manufacturing Research, Online First, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJMR.2026.10079893