Foil Bearing
Foil bearings, also known as foil-air bearings, are a type of air bearing. A shaft is supported by a compliant, spring-loaded foil journal lining. Once the shaft is spinning quickly enough, the working fluid (usually air) pushes the foil away from the shaft so that there is no more contact. The shaft and foil are separated by the air's high pressure which is generated by the rotation which pulls gas into the bearing via viscosity effects. A high speed of the shaft with respect to the foil is required to initiate the air gap, and once this has been achieved, no wear occurs. Unlike aero or hydrostatic bearings, foil bearings require no external pressurisation system for the working fluid, so the hydrodynamic bearing is self-starting.
Read more about Foil Bearing: Development, Applications
Famous quotes containing the words foil and/or bearing:
“the stars turn slowly
in the blue foil beside them
like the eyes of a mild savior.”
—James Tate (b. 1943)
“Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”
—Bible: Hebrew Genesis 1:29.
But in a later context, God told the disgraced Adam, “and thou shalt eat the herb of the field” (Genesis 3:18)