ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,553,473, issued on Feb. 17, was assigned to JTEKT Corp. (Kariya, Japan) and NAKANISHI METAL WORKS Co. LTD. (Osaka, Japan).
"Thrust bearing" was invented by Hiroshi Yano (Okazaki, Japan), Mitsuru Saito (Osaka, Japan) and Kohei Shibata (Osaka, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A thrust bearing that can improve the effect of preventing entry of muddy water etc. The thrust bearing includes: an annular first bearing ring; an annular second bearing ring facing the first bearing ring in an axial direction; a plurality of rolling elements rollably arranged between the first bearing ring and the second bearing ring; an outer seal provided on t...