ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,345,293, issued on July 1, was assigned to IHI Corp. (Tokyo).

"Thrust foil bearing" was invented by Tsutomu Iida (Tokyo), Seiichiro Yoshinaga (Tokyo), Masahiro Nakajima (Tokyo), Shigekazu Aoyama (Tokyo) and Naomichi Omori (Tokyo).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A thrust foil bearing includes: a base plate including an insertion hole through which a shaft is inserted, and a supporting surface expanding in a direction orthogonal to an axial direction of the insertion hole; a step member placed on the supporting surface and formed of a different body from the base plate; and a back foil extending in a circumferential direction of the insertion...