Fluid bearing
AssigneeAgfa-Gevaert
InventorEric Jozef Blondeel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fluid bearing, which is an aerostatic bearing, wherein one of the surfaces which determine the bearing gap is compliant, so that the geometry of the bearing gap may increase upon increasing load. The notion "compliant" stands for surfaces that are clamped at one point and that are displaceable at a remote point by deformation of the surface, such as steel membranes for thrust bearings, as well as for surfaces that are not deformable but that may pivot about a given point, such as bearing sleeves for rotatable shafts. By the application of compensation the bearing stiffness may be increased.
Claims28
A fluid-static bearing for supporting a load transmitting object wherein a surface of the bearing and a surface of a portion of said load transmitting object together define a bearing gap and wherein one of said surfaces is compliant and comprises a fluid inlet zone connected with an external supply of pressurized fluid at a substantially constant pressure for introduction of such fluid at a substantially constant pressure through said inlet opening into said bearing gap so that said fluid under pressure can flow along said gap from said inlet zone to one or more fluid outlet zones located at an outer extremity of said bearing gap, so that at any bearing load within a certain range the said gap will exhibit, where load supporting reaction forces occur, convergence in the direction of fluid flow, and any increase in such load within the said range will cause a relative displacement of said sufaces involving an increase in said convergence.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.