ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 4 -- United States Patent no. 12,320,386, issued on June 3, was assigned to AKTIEBOLAGET SKF (Gothenburg, Sweden).
"Plain bearing" was invented by Philipp Metz (Katzenbach, Germany), Dominik Barthelmann (Knetzgau, Germany), Stefan Keller (Schweinfurt, Germany) and Martin Stephan (Hassfurt, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A plain bearing includes an outer sliding surface element and an inner sliding surface element enclosed by the outer sliding surface element. The outer sliding surface element is divided along a substantially planar surface that includes the main axis of the sliding bearing and is formed with at least one radially encircling groove on the outer su...