Patent ID: 7703982

Claim:
A radial bearing apparatus comprising: a rotor having a body and at least one recess formed in the body; at least one bearing element associated with the rotor, the at least one bearing element including a rotor bearing surface; a stator having a body and at least one recess formed in the body; at least one bearing element associated with the stator, the at least one bearing element including a stator bearing surface; at least one biasing element configured to allow for a selected magnitude of elastic axial displacement of at least one selected bearing element, the at least one selected bearing element comprising at least one of: the at least one bearing element associated with the stator; the at least one bearing element associated with the rotor; wherein the at least one selected bearing element comprises a polycrystalline diamond table formed on a substrate, at least a portion of the substrate being disposed within the at least one recess of its associated stator or rotor; wherein the rotor bearing surface and the stator bearing surface are structured to slidingly engage each other; and wherein the selected bearing element is displaceable within the at least one recess of its associated stator or rotor in response to engagement between the rotor bearing surface and the stator bearing surface.