Questions You Should Know about Tilt Pad Bearings

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Hi. The front side of pads (near shaft) is really important. But it is unlikely that the back part of the pads is not important, for these reasons:
Suppose the curvature of the back of the pad is the same as the inner curvature of the housing, in this case the pads do not perform any tilting. Now suppose the curvature of the pads is much less than the curvature of the housing, in this case the pads will tilt with the least force. There are many options for the pivot on the back of the pad. The most common would be a button design with the button being a much smaller curvature than the bore it rests on. This is essentially a point contact which allows the pad to pivot in any direction. That point contact will tend to fret or wear, increasing the bearing clearance. Other bearings use a key on the back that creates a line contact. This design only allows pivot in one direction so the alignment of the bearing bores becomes more critical. The least common design is a ball and socket or spherical pivot. This allows pivot in any direction, but provides much greater surface area to avoid pivot wear. The pivot is usually in the center of the pad. Offset pivots can be used to make the gap between the pad and shaft more or less tapered.

Johnny Pellin