loking for air casters / bearings

TBoomz

New User
Ron
anyone ever use these things to move equipment? I'd like to find a company [preferably in Piedmont] that rents them out for a day/hourly. Had thought to try and find an electric pallet jack, but this would only work if machine is all ready on pallet. Air bearings seem a better fit for a small shop.
 

Gotcha6

Dennis
Staff member
Corporate Member
You might also look into a set of Hillman rollers. It may be overkill for a shop but they can do wonders. They even moved the Cape Hatteras lighthouse with them.
 

Hmerkle

Board of Directors, Development Director
Hank
Staff member
Corporate Member
air casters may not work as they rely on a "REALLY" flat and smooth surface.
 

Charles Lent

Charley
Corporate Member

Aerogo is the company name. On a project at work we moved an 1,800 lb robot using 4 of these and 8-11 psi of air pressure. Once air was applied you could easily move it with one hand, but there can't be ANY cracks or divots in the floor or the air escapes and the pad collapses.

One thing that we discovered is that each pad required it's own regulator with all four fed from a higher pressure. When trying to do it with only one regulator, the robot would pop up off the floor, but then break into a side to side rocking motion that became very unstable. This had to do with the air cross feeding first to the side with the least weight and when the air escaped, it would rock to the opposite side, increasing in rock distance each time in an oscillating motion. I almost flipped a robot over before discovering this and coming up with the solution.

The air pads were developed by Boeing to move sections of aircraft around easily during assembly. Aerogo is, or was, a subsidiary of Boeing.

For moving just a few hundred pounds on a level tile floor with no wide cracks of voids, probably the smallest pad that they sell, in a group of 3 (tripod effect) would work best and because of the three support points, it should handle uneven floors better this way than using 4 suspension points.

You might even try making some of these for lifting small machinery, like found in a wood shop. Learn how they are built and copy the design. It isn't complicated.. I'll supply tech help if you want to try making your own. Send a PM.

Charley
 

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