International Business Machines Corporation

Richard E Mach

David W Albrecht

James William Berberich

Norman G Ainslie

Mats Anders Engwall

Daniel W Chapman

Zack D Reynolds

Patrick F Merrell

A spindle system is comprised or a journal and thrust air bearing. The journal bearing; has two sets of opposing groove areas. The thrust air bearing has two sets of spiral grooves. The thrust air bearing is gimballed to compensate for misaligment. A bias contact member is connected to the rotating member along the axis of rotation and provides electrical grounding, The spindle system is especially applicable to mounting recording disks in a data storage disk drive.

Spindle system for a disk drive

A spindle system is comprised of a journal and thrust air bearing. The journal bearing has two sets of opposing groove areas. The thrust air bearing has two sets of spiral grooves. The thrust air bearing is gimballed to compensate for misalignment. A bias contact member is connected to the rotating member along the axis of rotation and provides electrical grounding. The spindle system is especially applicable to mounting recording disks in a data storage disk drive.

A compact housing 10 and disk stack subassembly for use in a data recording disk file permit the disk stack subassembly to be located entirely within and axially secured to the parallel interior walls 12, 14 of the housing 10. The disk stack subassembly includes an in-hub motor having a stator assembly 60 which is secured to a lower bearing support 42. The lower bearing support 42 is axially movable with respect to the outer race 33 of the lower bearing assembly 24. The inner race 27 of lower bearing assembly 24 is attached to the rotatable shaft 20 of the disk stack subassembly. The lower bearing support 42 and the attached stator assembly 60 are biased axially by means of disk spring 52 in the direction of the cavity 35 where the in-hub motor is located. Thus, the overall axial length of the disk stack subassembly is less than the axial distance between the parallel interior walls 12, 14 of the single piece half shell housing 10. This permits easy insertion of the completed disk stack subassembly into the housing 10 and connection thereto by means of axially aligned bolts 59, 61 which are threaded into upper bearing support 40 and lower bearing support 42. When bolts 59, 61 secure the disk stack subassembly to the walls 12, 14 of housing 10, disk spring 52 is compressed to thereby apply an axial preload to lower bearing assembly 24, which prevents axial movement of the disk stack during operation of the disk file.

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Los Gatos, CA, United States of America

Richard E Mach