Hitachi, Ltd.

Kenziro Kai

Koichi A Ono

Hiroshi Nishida

Tatsuya Ishigaki

Yoshihiko Kinoshita

Yasutaka Kurihashi

A disk drive for driving storage disks can suppress warping of the disks even when thinner disks and a less rigid hub are employed for the purpose of reducing the size of the disk drive. The disk drive includes a plurality of disk-type storage media, spacers placed between respective two adjacent disk-type storage media, a hub on which a stack of the disk-type storage media and the spacers is fitted, the hub having a surface contacted by the disk-type storage medium positioned on one end of the stack, and a clamp which presses the stack onto the surface of the hub.

Device for driving disk-type storage medium with improved clamp and hub

An alternator for use in an automobile which includes two cooling fans, rear and front, rotatable with the rotor shaft disposed on opposed sides of the rotor, which cooling fans are received in front and rear brackets, respectively. The brackets have inlet ports and outlet ports through which drafts of cooling air are to be drawn in and out of the inner cavity of the alternator through rotation of the fans, attaining cooling of necessary parts e.g. a stator winding, rotor exciting winding, rectifier diode, etc. It is uniquely designed that the one fan on the front side has a suction capacity greater than that of the other fan on the rear side, causing a negative pressure differential between the two suction sections of cooling fans. This results in an additional axial flow of cooling air directed from the rear to the front which contributes to improvement of cooling efficiency for the rectifier diode and rotor exciting winding. Thus the alternator can advantageously be made in compact size yet have a higher output.

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Chigasaki, Japan

Kenziro Kai