Technology

■  Non-contact Gas Bearings

  • Core technology of oil-free turbomachinery is non-contact gas bearings. We are very specialized in design, prototyping and testing of advanced foil bearings with various sizes, from 5mm up to 200mm in diameter. Bellkim Energy has exclusive license of foil bearings developed at University of Texas at Arlington. Core competency of our team is thorough knowledge and know-how on manufacturing process of foil bearings and their operating characteristics. Bellkim Energy helped many companies to develop oil-free bearing technology through technology transfer program.
  • Based on extensive experience of many different bearing sizes and unique scaling law developed internally, scaling up/down of existing foil bearing design is accomplished without design/test iterations. Many our foil bearings applied to the commercial products are from initial prototype bearing without any further design change during entire development period, which often takes a few years.
2000px-University_of_Texas_at_Arlington_logo.svg

Related technical papers

Microturbomachinery and Energy Systems Laboratory

Radial Foil Bearings
20mm/180,000rpm
20mm/180,000rpm
35mm/100,000rpm
35mm/100,000rpm
60mm/60,000rpm
60mm/60,000rpm
70mm/30,000rpm
70mm/30,000rpm
Axial Foil Bearings
80mm/300N
80mm/300N
155m hydrostatic<br>
foil bearing, 3000N
155m hydrostatic
foil bearing, 3000N
100mm/650N
100mm/650N
38mm/75N
38mm/75N
135mm/800N
135mm/800N
155m hybrid foil<br> bearing, 2000N
155m hybrid foil
bearing, 2000N

■  Flexible Coupling

  • Flexible couplings are used to connect high speed motors/generators to either compressors or expander turbines
  • Traditional off-the shelf couplings do not meet the high speed/high power requirements, and Bellkim designs various bellows and diaphragm flexible couplings tailored to specific speed/torque requirements considering rotor dynamics of entire rotor
  • Coupling designs are available for the following applications

8kW/180krpm
100kW/51krpm
140kW/64krpm
350kW/75krpm

Flexible Coupling

■ Oil-free Turbo Compressors and Blowers for Waste Water Treatment and Fuel Cell Systems

Motor driven PEM air compressors (air cooled)<br>12.0kW/120,000rpm: pressure ratio 2.5, 100g/s
Motor driven PEM air compressors (air cooled)
12.0kW/120,000rpm: pressure ratio 2.5, 100g/s
150kW blower core, 25,000rpm
150kW blower core, 25,000rpm

■ Motors and Generators

  • Bellkim provides a turnkey solution of various oil free high speed motors and generators with custom designed foil bearings.
  • Representative products are as follows.
160kW/51,000rpm<br>Ceramic Ball Bearings with SFD
160kW/51,000rpm
Ceramic Ball Bearings with SFD
160kW/51,000rpm<br>Foil Bearings (60mm)
160kW/51,000rpm
Foil Bearings (60mm)
350kW/75krpm with custom-designed diaphragm<br>coupling and hydrodynamic foil bearings
350kW/75krpm with custom-designed diaphragm
coupling and hydrodynamic foil bearings
350kW, 4 pole  permanent magnet,<br>22~25krpm, hybrid foil bearings
350kW, 4 pole permanent magnet,
22~25krpm, hybrid foil bearings
2000kW, 4 pole  permanent magnet,<br>18krpm, hybrid foil bearings
2000kW, 4 pole permanent magnet,
18krpm, hybrid foil bearings

■ Customized Test Rigs

  • Typically foil bearing developments need a series of unique tests before applying them to final systems. From years of onsite test support of various high speed turbomachinery, our team offers the best solutions from a simple component level test to full scale rig/actual system tests
30kW MGT simulator test rig with foil bearing, 96,000rpm
30kW MGT simulator test rig with foil bearing, 96,000rpm
Actual engine hardware
Actual engine hardware
62,000rpm turbo jet simulator test rig
62,000rpm turbo jet simulator test rig