Talk:Foil bearing
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[edit] Invention and Early Development
Some early history is reported in Giri L. Agrawal, "Foil Air/Gas Bearing Technology -- An Overview," American Society for Mechanical Engineers, Publication 97-GT-347 (1997) and Giri L. Agrawal, "Foil Bearings Cleared to Land," Mechanical Engineering 120 (July 1998): 1978-80.Mack2 05:19, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
Another early source: M. A. Barnett and A. Silver, "Application of Air Bearings to High-Speed Turbomachinery," Society of Automotive Engineers International, Technical Paper No. 700720 (September 1970), available at http://www.sae.org/servlets/productDetail?PROD_TYP=PAPER&PROD_CD=700720 . This article has a picture of one of AiResearch's foil bearings and discusses the advances owing to this development.Mack2 08:24, 2 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Merger?
Regarding the suggestion of a merger of varied articles on bearings, bear in mind that the terms referred to in that suggestion (air bearings, hydraulic bearings, dynamic air bearings) are not synonymous. Foil bearings are a very distinct type of air bearing (and share the feature that air is the main lubricant) but in terms of design and function are well defined by the current article on foil bearings, IMO.Mack2 16:21, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
- agree, i've removed the merge note. --Duk 16:58, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
- So why has the suggestion reappeared? I thought this was settled. The tag should be removed. It makes sense to have a "Category" called bearings, of which foil bearings are one type. But they are very distinct from other bearings, even from other hydraulic bearings. Why submerge this distinct invention? It wasn't "air bearings" but rather specifically "foil bearings" that were widely adoped in environmental control systems and certain other high speed and sometimes relatively inaccessible (from a service standpoint) turbomachinery. --Mack2 17:04, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
