Nidec Corporation

Satoru Sodeoka

Hideki Nishimura

Takayuki Oe

Ming Feng

A bearing assembly for use in an electric motor minimizes the generation of a negative pressure. In the bearing assembly, gaps are formed between a shaft provided with a flange portion, a ring member mounted on the shaft, and a sleeve member with a through hole formed therein are continuously filled with lubrication oil. When a rotor rotates, the rotor is supported by a fluid dynamic pressure. In the bearing assembly, herringbone grooves are formed in an upper surface of the flange portion of the shaft fixed to a base plate. When the sleeve member rotates with respect to the shaft, ends of all of the herringbone grooves and the through hole are superposed on each other sequentially. Thus, the lubrication oil can be efficiently supplied to an outer peripheral region in the thrust dynamic pressure bearing mechanism in which the negative pressure is most prone to be generated, and generation of the negative pressure can be efficiently minimized.

Bearing assembly, motor and recording disk drive

An oil dynamic bearing, a motor and a disk drive adapted to be reduced in both size and thickness are disclosed. The oil dynamic bearing (B) includes at least two bearing portions (B, B), each having a bearing near end nearer to the rotational axis or the bearing center of the bearing and a bearing far end farther from the rotational axis or the bearing center of the bearing. The near and bearing far ends are each connected to a taper seal portion, which in turn communicates with the atmosphere. The taper seal portion connected to the bearing near end of the bearing portion (B) and the taper seal portion connected to the bearing near end of the other bearing portion (B) make up a common taper seal portion.

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Kyoto, Japan

Satoru Sodeoka