Handling and transfer on air cushions

The purpose of this article is to provide users with the information they need to assess whether their handling problem can be solved using air cushion technology. If so, it will provide the information needed to study the preliminary design of the most appropriate solution.

The air cushion does not replace any other conventional handling method, but it does offer transfer and handling solutions that would otherwise be difficult to envisage. In other words, where the wheel is satisfactory, there's no need to study an air-cushion solution, and where rollers or rollers are satisfactory, there's also no need to consider a fluidized-bed solution. Indeed, the air cushion, even if it appears rudimentary in its operation, intrinsically contains, due to its air supply, two constraints:

• one technical, due to the need for an air generator and distribution pipes;

• the other economic due to air consumption.

There are other constraints, in particular concerning the surface condition of the ground on which the air cushion must evolve, but we shall see that in many cases these constraints are largely compensated for by performance or by access to transfer solutions that conventional technology cannot offer.