Turbocharger.

摘要

A turbocharger to provide pressurised combustion air for an internal combustion engine from which exhaust gases drive turbine wheel 10 which rotates shaft 8 driving the air compressor wheel 12. Rotating with the shaft is a bush 52 having a flange 58 having a counterthrust surface facing a tapered-land thrust bearing 70 on one side of plate 56. The tapered lands form an annular array of bearing sectors 82a to 82d about aperture 60 which receives the bush. A slight step 88 extending radially separates the high end H of each sector from the adjacent low end L of the adjacent sector. Groove 78 surrounds the sectors. Rebates or retrenchments 90a to 90d opening into the groove eliminate a portion of the high end of each sector and a portion of the low end of the adjacent sector. At the high end of each sector each retrenchment has a side or edge 100 at an angle PSI to the radial direction so that at each high end contact between the thrust bearing and the counter-thrust surface on the conically rotating shaft is (instead of area contact) reduced substantially to line contact thereby reducing frictional retardation of the shaft. Radial notches 86a to 86d facilitate lubrication.