Patent ID: 7800268

Claim:
A compact thrust load enhancement device for a rotor-bearing system, comprising: a stator mounted on a rotation axis of the rotor-bearing system; a rotor mounted on the rotation axis of the rotor-bearing system and separated from said stator by a magnetic air gap on the rotation axis; at least one permanent magnet mounted on the rotation axis of the rotor-bearing system; said at least one permanent magnet being fixed to a first one of: i) said stator and ii) said rotor, and being separated from a second one of: i) said stator and ii) said rotor by said magnetic air gap; wherein the rotor length needs not be modified to accommodate said thrust load enhancement device, and a minimum volume of magnet is used; said at least one permanent magnet, said stator, said rotor and said magnetic air gap forming a magnetic circuit generating a compensation force between said rotor and said stator that opposes an external force F ext , said compensation force being either attractive or repulsive depending on said external force F ext ; and force measurement devices to measure the compensation force.