ANALYSIS OF STEADY AND TRANSIENT CHARACTERISTICS OF PNEUMATIC CONTROLLED AIR BEARING

Abstract

Pneumostatic bearings are generally used in continuous positioning systems, machine tool slides and measuring robots. The stiffness of these air bearings can be increased by using control systems that control gap height as a function of applied load. In this paper the design and construction of a pneumatic proportional control system which controls the relative displacement by a back pressure displacement transducer and bearing supply pressure regulating valves is presented.For this system both the steady state and transient behaviour of the bearing in different load condition were investigated theoretically and experimentally.