A dual wedge thrust bearing for holding two relative rotating members in spaced relation includes a wave spring which supports both a thick flexible plate and a thin flexible plate stacked in that order between the cooperating bearing surfaces of the members. By securing the leading edge of the thin plate to the member on which the wave spring rests and in spaced relation to the cooperating bearing surface, a wedge-shaped passage is formed to create a fluid bearing which is efficient for low speeds and loads. At high speeds and loads, when the thin plate would have sagged making an inefficient wedge, the thick plate deflects against the spring at its leading edge to form a more efficient wedge-shaped opening between it and the cooperating bearing surface.

A gas-lubricated bearing employing at least one pad mounted on a rectangular cantilever beam to produce a lubricating wedge between the face of the pad and a moving surface. The load-carrying and stiffness characteristics of the pad are related to the dimensions and modulus of elasticity of the beam. The bearing is applicable to a wide variety of types of hydrodynamic bearings.

A slush freezer has a stationary baffle with a set of stationary fingers and a rotatable agitator having a shaft and a set of movable fingers which interleave and interact with the stationary fingers of the baffle. Interference between the movable and stationary fingers is prevented by a thrust bearing between the agitator and the baffle.

An axial thrust sliding bearing is provided for a shaft-driven centrifugal fluid handling machine which provides non-contact accommodation of axial thrust loads, self-pressurized lubrication, and improved wear resistance. A shaft is journaled within a stationary bearing support sleeve and has an opposed bearing ring disc secured to the shaft for rotation therewith. The sleeve and the disc each have spaced apart, facing front end surfaces angled with respct to the axial center line of the shaft so that during rotation of the shaft and of the bearing ring disc secured thereto, the front end surface of the bearing ring disc is moved toward and away from a fixed point on the front end surface of the stationary bearing support sleeve, thereby providing a pumping action on a lubricating fluid contained between the two surfaces.

A foil member is stretched over a body of pressurizing material so as to be caused to balloon outwardly toward a rotating shaft. A fluid (e.g., air) film bearing is formed between the foil and shaft. The pressurizing material for the foil may be incompressible, but capable of plastic flow (e.g., water). Consequently, the foil is substantially stiff and unyielding to movement of the shaft toward the foil, but is locally yielding as to particles of foreign material that may get into the air film zone between foil and shaft or to misalignment of the shaft, and elastically recovers its original shape when the particle is gone, or the misalignment is corrected, having meanwhile suffered no damage.