Advanced micro-manufacturing of air foil bearing for micro motor drive using nanopowder metallurgy process

This paper introduces micro-manufacturing of foil bearing with a diameter of 5mm and a length of 0.5mm for micro motor drive. Potential applications include micro gas turbines for mobile robots, turbo compressors/micro blower for micro fuel cells, micro bearings for pediatric heart, etc. In the field of a manufacturing technology for microparts, nanopowder metallurgy processing has received a great deal of attention in recent years. In this study, the nanopowder foil gas bearings were prepared by new method using powder metallurgy and LIGA process. The effect of the manufacturing condition on sintering properties of the nanopowder gas bearing was investigated. The density, shrinkage behavior and dimensional stabilities were analyzed.