Westwind Air Bearings

With over forty years experience, Westwind Air Bearings is universally recognised as a world leader in the design and manufacture of air bearing spindle systems. Westwind technology has been successfully applied across a broad spectrum of industry throughout the world � from paint spraying to pre-press image setting � whilst in today�s PCB industry there are more Westwind drilling spindles in use than any other.

Westwind has established an extensive range of proven PCB spindles, designed to meet emerging areas of PCB drilling - many of Westwind�s spindles are recognised as the industry-standard. Westwind has developed a range of spindles with speeds up to 250,000 rpm, with low dynamic runout, enabling microvia production down to 75 �m diameter holes.

Westwind plays a leading role in the development and evolution of air bearing spindles for the semiconductor equipment market. Primarily working with OEMs, applications include:

� High stiffness linear air bearings for single wafer ion implantation

� Ultra smooth wafer dicing and wafer back grinding spindles

� High-speed wafer edge and notch grinding spindles

� Custom designs for CMP, spin cleaning and wafer inspection

Westwind Air Bearings is a division of GSI Group.