Multinational Moldable Air Bearing Project Takes Shape

India's Visvesvaraya Technological University, Magnum Engineers Ltd., and Germany's Diamond MetalPlastic GmbH have formed a consortium to develop and manufacture molded polymer air bearings. The target is to reduce manufacturing costs for a line of specialty-engineered air bearings by as much as 50%, while offering application-specific and enhanced performance. Allowing a wider utilization at lower cost, the participants said, should allow a wider market of applications. Air bearings today, in general, have both cost and engineering challenges due to the highly engineered nature of the bearings and the need for prolonged, expensive design cycles by knowledgeable engineers to properly incorporate air bearings. In addition, many fixed air bearing designs do not lend themselves to customization; the venture's target is to incorporate air bearings into new products at the design stage, but without compromising design, fitment, or performance. The consortium was not only arranged by Germany's International Technology Cooperation Network (INTEC), but will also receive the bulk of its funding from INTEC. For example, INTEC will fund Diamant's polymer formulations research, and molding process research and development. INTEC will fund VTU to develop production engineering and research end-use markets. Magnum Engineers will develop and build the prototype bearings in India, and will also build sample applications for customer evaluation. INTEC, "has been mandated by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology to support German SMEs (Small and medium-size Enterprises) in finding new know-how and suitable business partners abroad." Its directive is to create cooperation in research and development projects with other enterprises and institutes around the world to improve their technological know-how and thus their competitiveness. The organization maintains 15 offices in 11 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as in India and China.