Ultra-precision bearings can achieve extreme accuracy of rotation, making them ideal for use in numerous applications across a variety of fields, including hard disk drives, roundness measuring machines and optical scanners. Ultraprecision Bearings provides a detailed review of the different types of bearing and their properties, as well as an analysis of the factors that influence motion error, stiffness and damping. Following an introduction to basic principles of motion error, each chapter of the book is then devoted to the basic principles and properties of a specific type of bearing: ball, hydrodynamic, aerodynamic, hydrostatic and aerostatic. The book concludes with a comparison of these types of bearing and their applications. - Provides practical information relating to precision bearing design and application - Provides an insight into the basic mechanisms that influence precision bearing performance - Written by an experienced and well respected bearing specialist

Compiling the expertise of nine pioneers of the field, Magnetic Bearings - Theory, Design, and Application to Rotating Machinery offers an encyclopedic study of this rapidly emerging field with a balanced blend of commercial and academic perspectives. Every element of the technology is examined in detail, beginning at the component level and proceeding through a thorough exposition of the design and performance of these systems. The book is organized in a logical fashion, starting with an overview of the technology and a survey of the range of applications. A background chapter then explains the central concepts of active magnetic bearings while avoiding a morass of technical details. From here, the reader continues to a meticulous, state-of-the-art exposition of the component technologies and the manner in which they are assembled to form the AMB/rotor system. These system models and performance objectives are then tied together through extensive discussions of control methods for both rigid and flexible rotors, including consideration of the problem of system dynamics identification. Supporting this, the issues of system reliability and fault management are discussed from several useful and complementary perspectives. At the end of the book, numerous special concepts and systems, including micro-scale bearings, self-bearing motors, and self-sensing bearings, are put forth as promising directions for new research and development. Newcomers to the field will find the material highly accessible while veteran practitioners will be impressed by the level of technical detail that emerges from a combination of sophisticated analysis and insights gleaned from many collective years of practical experience. An exhaustive, self-contained text on active magnetic bearing technology, this book should be a core reference for anyone seeking to understand or develop systems using magnetic bearings.