Originally Posted by
RCaffin
I agree with Ian - why does it get tighter when pressurised?
Other thoughts: if it was that easy to make air bearings which work like that, why do most (if not all) modern air bearings use the 'mass of small air pockets' (mosap) approach? The ones we built used the mosap approach and did work. We were measuring the change in torsional rigidity of a single wool fibre as the humidity changed. Kinda low forces.
On the other hand, I think I could make a good argument that this Weldon design should lock up when pressurised. The air flow could push the shaft to the bottom, cancelling the clearance there, and making the clearance at the top bigger. That could be a positive feedback thing: more air pressure, more sideways force.
OK, try something else. Could you try pressurising the thing with 1 psi (or less) instead of 80 psi? ie very LOW pressure. I have no idea whether this will work, but surely the thing did work once?
Cheers
Roger