Study on Floating Characteristics of an Innovative Liquid Bearing Utilizing Traveling Waves

Hydrostatic bearing is wildly utilized in many precision applications and positioning stages due to their ability to support designed load at zero relative speed between bearing and guide surfaces. However, in practice external pressurized source is necessary for realizing the hydrostatic bearing, which sometimes leads to difficulty in some medical and aero applications within tightly sealed container. In order to tackle this problem, an innovative principle bearing, which utilizes traveling waves, has been proposed by authors in previous researches. The proposed principle is ought to eliminate drawbacks of conventional hydrostatic bearing such as external pressure source, use of compressor, external pump and tubing system, while still achieving comparable static and dynamic capabilities. Based on the proposed principle, a prototype device of liquid bearing utilizing traveling waves was developed and analyzed by experiments in this present paper. Its floating and smooth motion is confirmed by experiments here.