Effect of Manufacturing Errors on Static Characteristics of Externally Pressurized Spherical Air Bearings

Externally pressurized spherical air bearings are the key component of the three-axis air bearing table, and the manufacturing errors of the bearing affects the performance of the air bearing table. However, the manufacturing errors are unavoidable, and the pursuit to enhance the manufacturing accuracy will increase the cost greatly. In order to provide some theoretical guideline for the tolerance choice in the design of the externally pressurized spherical air bearings with inherent compensation, the effects of several manufacturing errors on the static characteristics of the air bearing are studied. Due to the complex geometry of the computational domain, an unstructured meshing technology is used for mesh generation. A finite-volume method is adopted to discretize the three-dimensional steady-state compressible Navier-Stokes equations. A modified SIMPLE algorithm which is suitable for compressible flows is applied to solve the discretized governing equations. The effects of the dimension error and the roundness error of the ball head and the ball socket on the static characteristics are investigated. The investigation result shows that the positive dimension error and the oblate spheroid-type roundness error of the ball head as well as the negative dimension error and the prolate spheroid-type roundness error of the ball socket can improve the bearing capacity and static stiffness of the air bearings by reducing the mass flow. The calculation method proposed in this paper fits well for the general principle, which can be extended to the characteristics analysis of other air bearings.

Characteristics of supersonic flow in new type externally pressurized spherical air bearings

In order to predict accurately the characteristics of supersonic flow in new type externally pressurized spherical air bearings under large bearing clearance and high air supply pressure, which could decrease their load carrying capacity and stability, a CFD-based analysis was introduced to solve the three-dimensional turbulent complete compressible air flow governing equations. The realizable κ-ε model was used as a turbulent closure illustrate that the interaction exists between shock waves The supersonic flow field near air inlets was analyzed. The flow structures and boundary layer, and the flow separation is formed at the lower comer and the lower wall around the point of a maximum velocity. The numerical results show that the conversion from supersonic flow to subsonic flow in spherical air bearing occurs through a shock region （pseudo-shock）, and the viscous boundary layer results in the flow separation and reverse flow near the shock. The calculation results basically agree with the corresponding experimental data.

Static characteristics of new type externally pressurized spherical air bearings

In order to provide some theoretical guideline for the structure design of the new type externally pressurized spherical air bearings,the static characteristics and the factors affecting the static characteristics of the air bearings were analyzed.A finite volume method was adopted to discretize the three-dimensional steady-state compressible Navier-Stokes equations,and a modified SIMPLE algorithm for compressible fluid was applied to solve the discretized governing equations.The pressure field and velocity field of the air bearings were obtained,and the factors and rules affecting the static characteristics were analyzed.The results show that the pressure of near air intakes can reach above 80% of air supply pressure,and there is a pressure steep fall around the air intakes.When the film thickness is greater than 20 μm,the bearing capacity rapidly decreases as film thickness increases.As the air supply pressure increases from 0.2 to 0.6 MPa,the maximum static stiffness increases by more than three times.The calculation method proposed well fits the general principle,which can be extended to the characteristic analysis of other air bearings.

Design and Key Technology of Oil-Free Centrifugal Air Compressor for Hydrogen Fuel Cell

For a 120 kW hydrogen fuel cell system,a centrifugal air compressor with fixed power of 22 kW fuel cell is designed.Firstly,the theoretical calculation is carried out for the aerodynamic characteristics of a ultra-high-speed permanent magnet synchronous motor,an air compressor,and an aerodynamic foil bearing.Then,a prototype is trial-produced and a related test bench is built for test verification.Finally,both the simulation and test results indicate that the designed centrifugal air compressor meets the overall requirements of the hydrogen fuel cell system,and the relevant conclusions provide both theoretical and experimental references for the subsequent series development and design of the centrifugal air compressor.

Dynamic performance of a long-stroke fast tool servo system

A fast tool servo(FTS)system can be used to efficiently manufacture optical freeform surfaces.This paper investigates the dynamic performance of an FTS system driven by a voice coil motor and guided by air bearings.A simulation model and testing platform are developed to evaluate the load capacity and stiffness of the air bearings.The mechanical dynamic performance of the designed FTS,including modal and harmonic analyses,is assessed using finite element analysis.A nonlinear relation between air-bearing stiffness and mechanical bandwidth is obtained.The working dynamic performance is tested through system runout,tracking performance,and closed-loop tests.Quantitative relations between air-bearing stiffness and the mechanical and working bandwidths are established and analyzed.Machining experiments verify the feasibility of the FTS system with 31.05 N/μm stiffness air-bearings.

Influence of Disk Surface Bulge and Hard Disk Operating Conditions on Hard Disk Gas Film Heat Transfer

When the hard disk is running,the cantilever of the magnetic head imposes a certain preload on the slider of the magnetic head to form a wedge space with the disk.When the disk rotates,the viscous gas enters the convergence gap so that the hydrodynamic pressure generates balance with the force acting on the cantilever,ensuring that the magnetic head flies above the disk in a stable altitude and forms a stable air film between the magnetic head and the disk called air bearing.When the flight altitude is low,the bulge on the disk surface will affect the pressure distribution of air bearing.Furthermore,the pressure affects the heat flux of air bearing by influencing the heat transfer parameters,such as thermal conductivity,dynamic viscosity,gas density,and the molecular free path of the gas.In this paper,heat transfer parameters influence on gas film heat transfer were explored.Based on this,flathead slider and Tri-pad barotropic magnetic head slider were compared,and the effects of disk operating conditions at the average temperature of air bearing were also studied,such as pitch and roll angle of the magnetic head slider,the disk s speed,and the bulge on disk surface.

ALTERABLE INTERVAL OPTICALELECTRONIC AUTOCOLLIMATION METHOD FOR STRAIGHTNESS MEASUREMENT OF PRECISION GUIDE

Optical-electronic autocollimation method is commonly used to measure straightness of precision guides in engineering application. However, the traditional fixed interval optical-electronic autocollimation method is not suitable for measuring straightness of an air-bearing guide with a long air-bearing bush or a precision straight guide with a long slide-carriage, because the air-bearing bush and the slidecarriage are actually taken as a big bridgeboard bigger than the length of the bridgeboard with the reflector, which is about 1/4-1/2 of total length of the measured guide. If straightness is measured according to the traditional method, only a few points are sampled so that the guide straightness can not be evaluated fully or accurately. In order to solve the problem, an alterable measuring interval method is proposed for straightness measurement based on analyzing the mutual relations and effects among the tilting angle of the reflector, the length of the bridgeboard, the measuring interval and the straightness of the guide. A straightness calculation model is also developed using the method, and the errors stemming from the method proposed are introduced in brief. A precision air-bearing guide with a long air-bearing bush is measured and evaluated using the method proposed, and the actual measurement and evaluation results prove that the method is correct in theory and practical in operation. The method proposed gives an effective and flexible solution to the straightness measurement of the precision guide with long slide-carriage or air-bearing bush in application. It is an extension of the traditional optical-electronic autocollimation method for straightness measurement.

Numerical modeling and analysis of plasmonic flying head for rotary near-field lithography technology

Rotary near-field lithography(RNFL) technology provides a route to overcome the diffraction limit with a high throughput and low cost for nanomanufacturing. Utilizing the advantage of the passive flying of a plasmonic head, RNFL can achieve a 10 m/s processing speed with a perfect near-field condition at dozens of nanometers. The flying performance of the plasmonic flying head(PFH) is the pivotal issue in the system. The linewidth has a strong correlation with the near-field gap, and the manufacturing uniformity is directly influenced by the dynamic performance. A more serious issue is that the unexpected contact between the PFH and substrate will result in system failure. Therefore, it is important to model and analyze the flying process of the PFH at the system level. In this study, a novel full-coupled suspension-PFH-air-substrate(SPAS) model that integrates a six-degree of freedom suspension-PFH dynamics, PFH-air-substrate air bearing lubrication, and substrate vibration, is established. The pressure distribution of the air bearing is governed by the molecular gas lubrication equation that is solved by the finite element method(FEM) with a local pressure gradient based adaptive mesh refinement algorithm using the COMSOL Multiphysics software. Based on this model, three designs of the air bearing surface are chosen to study the static, dynamic, and load/unload performance to verify whether it satisfies the design requirements of RNFL. Finally, a PFH analysis solver SKLY.app is developed based on the proposed model.

STABILITY ANALYSIS OF COUPLED SYSTEM OF MAGNETIC HEAD AND ULTRA-THIN GAS FILM

This paper presents a pressure perturbation equation for the ultra-thin gas film lubrication of magnetic head-disk based on a generalized gas lubrication equation applicable to arbitrary Knudsen number. The gas film pressure of Air Bearing Slider (ABS) was obtained by using the operator-splitting and finite element method. The pressure perturbation equation was solved by the finite element method with unstructured triangle grids to calculate the stiffness and damping coefficients of the gas film. Modal analysis of coupled system of magnetic head and gas film was carried out to obtain natural frequencies, damping rates and mode shapes of the magnetic head vibrations. Vibration stability of Ω-type magnetic head was predicted in this work. Numerical results indicate that the natural frequencies of the coupled system increases as the gas film thickness decreases, and the natural frequencies and damping rate of the coupled vibration modes of heave and pitch motions are much lower than those of uncoupled modes. And it is concluded that the stability of magnetic head is slightly worsened when the disk rotation speed increases.