Rheology, the study of deformation and flow, finds many applications in the
modern world, from foodstuffs to thermo-plastics and from ceramics to volcanism.
Proper operation of the air bearings used in rheometers to provide stiff,
frictionless support of the drive shaft is critical to the quality of analysis.
Contamination of air bearings can drastically affect the quality of data acquired.
Friction can increase causing measurement accuracy and precision to degrade
markedly. Cleaning of contaminated air bearings can be difficult and invariably
a costly replacement is usually required once the bearing is contaminated.
For this reason it is critical that only the highest quality air is used to
supply the air bearings used on rheometers.
