Air Hockey Table

Overview

An air hockey table lets a puck glide almost frictionlessly by floating it on a thin sheet of air. A Blower Motor inside the Blower Unit pressurises the sealed Plenum Box under the table, and that air escapes upward through the fine holes of the Playfield Surface, lifting the puck off the surface. Players strike the puck with hand paddles, banking it off the Rail & Goal Set rails toward the opponent's goal; an Scoring System system senses each goal and shows the score, while the Puck Return feeds scored pucks back to the players. The whole table stands on a Cabinet with levelling legs.

How it works

The cushion is the trick. The blower's Blower Impeller forces air into the Plenum Duct, which spreads it evenly across the Plenum Box so pressure is uniform corner to corner. The Perforated Play Sheet is drilled with a regular grid of small holes; air bleeding from every hole supports the Puck on a film perhaps a millimetre thick, so it slides with almost no friction and a light tap sends it the length of the table. A slick Surface Coating and a true, flat Playfield Sub-Frame keep the float consistent, any sag or sticky patch makes the puck stall, which is why the Leveling Foot feet matter so much.

Scoring is automatic. Each Goal Mouth has an Goal Sensor, an infrared beam across the slot, and when the puck breaks the beam the Scoring Controller Board increments the count, updates the LCD Panel readout, and fires a jingle through the Speaker. The scored puck drops into the Return Channel and rolls out to a Return Tray at the player's side, so a goal immediately re-arms the game with a fresh serve. A Power Supply runs the blower and the low-voltage electronics together.