The aim of ISO 12130 is to achieve designs of plain bearings that are reliable in operation by the application of a calculation method for oil-lubricated hydrodynamic plain bearings with complete separation of the thrust collar and plain bearing surfaces by a film of lubricant.

This part of ISO 12130 applies to plain thrust bearings with tilting-type sliding blocks (tilting pads), where a wedge-shaped lubrication clearance gap is automatically formed during operation. The ratio of width to length of one pad can be varied in the range B/L = 0,5 to 2.

The calculation method described in this part of ISO 12130 can be used for other gap shapes, e.g. parabolic lubrication clearance gaps, as well as for other types of sliding blocks, e.g. circular sliding blocks, when for these types the numerical solutions of Reynolds' differential equation are present. ISO 12130-2 gives only the characteristic values for the plane wedge-shaped gap; the values are therefore not applicable to tilting pads with axial support.

The calculation method serves for designing and optimizing plain thrust bearings e.g. for fans, gear units, pumps, turbines, electric machines, compressors and machine tools. It is limited to steady-state conditions, i.e. load and angular speed of all rotating parts are constant under continuous operating conditions.

This part of ISO 12130 is not applicable to heavily loaded tilting pad thrust bearings.