page_title: Air bearing
section_title: Various designs
hierarchical_section_title: Air bearing / Gas bearing types / Aerostatic bearings / Various designs
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Standard-Luftlager rund
context_page_description: Air bearings are fluid bearings that use a thin film of pressurized gas to provide a low friction load-bearing interface between surfaces. The two surfaces do not touch, thus avoiding the traditional bearing-related problems of friction, wear, particulates, and lubricant handling, and offer distinct advantages in precision positioning, such as lacking backlash and static friction, as well as in high-speed applications. Space craft simulators now most often use air bearings and 3-D printers are now used to make air-bearing-based attitude simulators for CubeSat satellites.
  A differentiation is made between aerodynamic bearings, which establish the air cushion through the relative motion between static and moving parts, and aerostatic bearings, in which the pressure is being externally inserted.
  Gas bearings are mainly used in precision machinery tools and high-speed machines.
context_section_description: Standard air bearings are offered with various mountings to link them in a system:
  Bearings for flexible connection with ball-pins. This design for standard air bearings is usually supplied on the market.
  Bearings with a high-stiff joint instead of a conventional ball-pin. Using this version the stiffness of the complete system is significantly higher.
  Bearings with integrated piston for preload of statically determined guidances.
  In addition, there are also rectangular bearings with a fixed mounting (joint-less) for guidances with highest stiffness for highest accuracy or highest dynamic.
  Furthermore, there are also air bearings with integrated vacuum or magnetic preloads, air bearings for high temperatures with more than 400 °C, as well as ones manufactured with alternative materials.
caption: Standard bearing round
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