Magnetic suspension designs initially appear to be an ideal isolation solution, but then there are some limitations that become apparent. It is relatively easy to magnetically float a mass in one direction (i.e. isolation from vertical movement), but try to keep those opposing magnets stable from horizontal movement and you can imagine the difficulty in maintaining stability. So most of these magnetic isolation systems actually only provide vertical isolation by magnetics and have to incorporate some kind of mechanical support to maintain horizontal integrity. This is where some tradeoffs enter the picture.
|