Development of Adjustable Conical Air Bearings for Non-Contact Direct Machine Drives

Research contribution

From analytical transformation to a tested adjustable-conical spindle architecture.

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

Engineering lineage

The publication sits inside a longer method → definition → hardware chain.

Keywords

Conical air bearings · manufacturing research · non-contact machine drives · gas-dynamic parameters · dynamic stability criterion · pneumatic spindle · bearing geometry