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The Status Of Gas-Lubricated Bearings, Bhaskar Dattatraya Shiwalkar

Masters Theses

"The idea of gas-lubricated bearings was suggested as far back as 1854 by Hirn, but it is only very recently that they have aroused a great amount of interest. The interest is centered on the advantages of gas-bearings for the following major applications:

1. High temperature lubrication where ordinary liquid or grease lubrication fails.
2. Bearings operating in radio-active atmospheres where conventional lubrication may break down.
3. Applications sensitive to contamination where fouling from lubricating oil becomes serious.
4. Low-friction devices--an especially important advantage because of the trend to high speed machinery.
5. Applications where positional accuracies down to micro-inches are required.

As a result …