Re: Question on "air bearings"

Unless you're planning on a pretty short test, I have my doubts about trying
to make a treadmill work--you're well in excess of the design load of the
machine, and the belt friction is only one area of concern.

There are SAE papers available that publish a "standard" design for test
machinery of this sort... a trip to a decent engineering library would be
time well spent.

"*" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:01c61c35$f99258c0$f9a4c3d8@xxxxxxx
>I am modifying a manual tread mill to roll automotive tires.....
>
> I want to load these tires up to 1000 pounds.....maybe a bit more....
>
> Obviously, the nylon/teflon/whatever pad under the belt will withstand the
> momentary, moving footprint of an adult of sizeable weight, but I suspect
> a
> stationary tire footprint of 1000 pounds will be something much different.
>
> Rather than get involved with some sort of messy lubrication scheme, I
> thought an air bearing just might do the trick.
>
> I can drill the support pad with the right-sized holes, and feed the right
> air pressure from my shop compressor.
>
> Question is, "How does one calculate the size of the holes and the air
> flow
> needed?"
>
> I've seen automotive machinery that allow you to slide massive truck
> engine
> components around on a cushion of air with one hand, and I can pretty much
> pinpoint the tire footprint - which should allow me to concentrate on the
> affected area only.
>


.

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