Development and experimental evaluation of air flotation element with additional air‐intake capacity

Abstract

AbstractFocusing on the flotation transmission of thin and light glass substrates, we propose a new air flotation element design. This new element takes advantage of a rotating airflow to form negative pressure, which then intakes additional air to support the floating workpiece via an intake hole connecting the negative pressure with the atmospheric environment. This design can effectively improve the flotation height and can reduce air consumption. Here, the structure and operating principles of this new element are illustrated, while the fundamental characteristics are experimentally investigated. We study the variation of negative pressure and the resulting intake flow when the flotation height varies. It is found that the new flotation element can intake additional air when the flotation height is larger than a certain critical value. Also, the additional air is conducive to raising the flotation level of the workpiece. This feature is suitable for applications involving low flotation forces, e.g. the flotation transmission of thin and light glass substrates. Additionally, the performances of the new element and the traditional orifice element are compared, indicating that, for the same flotation force and supplied airflow, the newly designed element can increase the flotation height by 25%. On the other hand, the air consumption can be reduced by approximately 50% using the new element, for the same flotation force and height. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.