Efficient Air Bearings for Blowers, Compressors and Other Fuel Cell Balance of Plant

Background

Fuel cell developers are always looking for ways to optimise their systems. Air bearings have the potential to optimise balance of plant through increased efficiency, system size reduction, improved reliability and a number of other areas. Westwind Air Bearings are the world’s largest specialist air bearing designer and manufacture with experience in PCB drilling and other precision manufacturing industries.

Partnerships

Westwind are looking for development partners to investigate using their air bearing technology for blowers and compressors as an alternative to existing bearing technologies. Westwind will be funding their own research and development and are looking for partners with:

Experience with fuel cell balance of plant
Existing fuel cell customer base

Benefits of Westwind Air Bearings

High efficiency
Low parasitic load
High precision
High integrity design solutions
High rotational speed
Consistent performance
Long lifetime
Cost

Applications

System power range – 5 to 120kW, power ranges below a kilowatt are possible but they become less cost competitive
PEM - Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells, we are currently investigating the viability of our bearings for high temperature fuel cells and are interested in talking to companies in this area
Air systems only
Transportation