Stress relief in a magnetic thrust bearing

摘要

Undesirably high stresses are minimized in a magnetic thrust bearing (15) having a disc (52) mounted on a shaft (54). The disc (52) is flanked on both sides (60,62) by respective armatures (68,70) which act to apply a magnetic field to the disc (52) to locate the same at a desired location along the axis (66) of the rotor (14) of the machine in which the thrust bearing (15) is employed. A peripheral, radially outwardly opening, annular groove (76) is disposed in the outer periphery (64) of the thrust bearing disc (52) to relieve stresses during operation.