SADAP supports its customers on the way to a successful development of air and foil bearings for their applications. Using high-precision digital design tools, we develop the air-lubricated bearings for your machine (e.g. compressors in fuel cells) in such a way that the bearing meets all your requirements and has optimized properties against the effects that occur during operation. We pay particular attention to ensuring that the lift-off process (build-up of aerodynamic pressure in the lubricant film) is as fast as possible and that the bearing has sufficient load capacity over the entire operating range. Minimizing energy losses due to frictional torques is another objective in the development of air and foil bearings. In addition, the self-excited (so-called subsynchronous) vibrations must be avoided as far as possible by an optimized design and stable operation must be realized over the targeted operating range. In this context, the bearing should be designed against both external excitation and self-excited vibrations with sufficient stiffness and damping. In applications where eccentric operation of the shaft is not a major problem (e.g. in the automotive industry), foil bearings are recommended, where the additional damping mechanism in the foil structure (due to frictional effects) provides stability and simplifies the manufacture of the bearing in terms of manufacturing tolerances. Air bearings without a compliant foil structure, on the other hand, are recommended for applications where there is little room for shaft motions (e.g., in medical technology or precision machining). We can answer these and other application-specific questions with our expertise based on the current state of the art, thus significantly optimizing the performance and efficiency of your machine!