Beauchamp Tower - Alison Avery Part of the Tower of London castle |
Kingsbury Tilting Pad Thrust Bearing |
Near as I can tell, these bearings were originally developed for propeller shafts for big ships and are still in use today. They can support loads of 100 tons, which is kind of what you need when you want to push a gazillion ton ship through the water at 20 knots. I mean the propellers are generating the necessary thrust, but you really need to to transfer that thrust to the hull of the ship. Hence, you need a big-ass thrust bearing.
This whole air bearing thing is a bit opaque. There is a lot of mumbo jumbo about how they work, but I haven't found any kind of clear explanation of the principles involved, which leads me to suspect that either a) they don't really know, or b) it's some kind of quantum effect, which means it may as well be magic.
No comments:
Post a Comment