Vacuum Preloaded Air Bearings
For applications where pre-loading is difficult or impossible, Vacuum Preloaded Air Bearings add vacuum to New Way Porous Media Technology. Simply then, these bearings hold themselves down while simultaneously lifting themselves from the guide surface.

Using a combination of air pressure and vacuum, New Way VPL air bearings hold themselves down while simultaneously lifting themselves from a guide surface. By adjusting the vacuum and the pressure separately, the fly height and stiffness of these vacuum preloaded air bearings can be optimized.

This arrangement is ideal for applications where preloading is difficult or impossible. Obviously, there is a cost advantage because only one flat guide surface is necessary. (Opposed bearing preloading requires two flat guide surfaces that are parallel.

There is also a significant technical advantage. Both "x" and "y" axes can be supported by a single bearing plane. Further, the adjustability of film thickness can be used for focusing, squaring and sub-micrometer vertical positioning over a range of several microns.