Abstract
Hydrostatic bearings utilize an externally pressurized source that pumps in lubricant to create a film between the moving bearing faces. Hydrostatic bearings have the characteristics of having essentially zero to no wear, low friction, and high damping capabilities. The thickness of this fluid film is affected by the design of the restrictor and bearing, load on the bearing, the source pressure et al. The importance of this is that at small film thicknesses, there may be solid-to-solid contact between the components. Thus, the wear and friction may drastically increase. In general, the thinner the film thickness, the greater the resulting stiffness of the bearing. However, thin film thicknesses may cause solid-to-solid contact of the machine parts. Thus, this study aims to investigate the effects of surface characteristics such as surface roughness and film thickness on the coefficient of static friction of a hydrostatic bearing. This study will utilize a variable capillary restrictor to adjust the film thicknesses to the desired levels and test the amount of force required to induce movement in a linear guide-way carriage, thus, giving a quantitative result about how a small film thickness might affect the performance of the hydrostatic bearing.