Effect of an Hourglass-Shape Tapered Sleeve on the Performance of the Fluid Dynamic Bearings of a HDD Spindle Motor

Fluid dynamic bearings (FDBs) of a HDD spindle motor support the rotating disk-spindle system through the pressure generated in the fluid lubricant. The radial and axial clearances of a 2.5″ HDD spindle motor are approximately 2 and 30 micro-meters, respectively, and herringbone or spiral grooves are inscribed in the sleeve of journal or thrust bearings to provide pumping pressure. One of the difficult manufacturing processes is to inscribe uniform grooves, especially groove depth in the range of several micro meters. Grooves are inscribed on the surface of the stainless steel sleeve by the electro chemical machining (ECM) which generally generates rough surface of the sleeve in grooved bearing. Ball-sizing process is used to scrape down rough surface. When a ball passes through the sleeve of FDBs to make rough surface smooth, compressive pressure is generated between ball and sleeve inlet and between ball and sleeve outlet, respectively. It forms an hourglass-shape tapered sleeve as shown in Figure 1, and tapered sleeve generally decreases the static and dynamic performance of the FDBs and the HDD spindle system, consequently.