Nova Pot Type Bridge Bearings can be designed to support virtually any vertical load and accommodate rotation about any horizontal axis. They can provide horizontal movement capability in one or more horizontal directions or can be fixed, offering no horizontal movement capability.
Rotation is made possible by an enclosed rubber pad situated inside the steel pot. Under high pressures this pad develops fluid like behaviour. This allows the top part of the bearing to rotate with respect to the bottom part of the bearing about any horizontal axis.
Sliding bearings have a Teflon (PTFE) to Polished Stainless Steel sliding interface which allows for low friction translation. The sliding properties of PTFE are well known. Nova Engineering Works has undertaken in-house testing using PTFE and stainless steel samples identical to those used in our bearings. We have achieved coefficients of friction as low as 0.016 at a contact pressure of 26 MPa.
Nova Pot Bearings are available in three types:
- FIXED (Types FNN and FAA). Fixed bearings allow for rotation about any horizontal axis but do not allow translation. They can therefore resist horizontal loads in any direction
- UNIDIRECTIONAL (Types UNN and UAA). Unidirectional bearings allow rotation about any horizontal axis and allow translation in one direction only. They can therefore resist horizontal forces perpendicular to the axis of movement.
- MULTIDIRECTIONAL (Types MNN and MAA). Multidirectional bearings allow rotation about any horizontal axis and allow translation in all directions. Horizontal forces are therefore not resisted.
Download Pot Bearing Catalogue.