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US 6,293,705 B1Granted
Annular gimbal assembly suitable for disc drive spindle bearings and method of making same
AssigneeSeagate Technology LLC
InventorsJohn William Elsing, David John Jennings
Life of this patent
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Abstract
According to the present invention spindle bearings are assembled with at least one annular gimbal to compensate for undesired components of bearing compression force. Specific devices and methods are directed to compensating for either (a) operational force variations such as those caused by temperature variation or (b) assembly-related force variations such as those caused by misalignment.
Claims14
A spindle bearing having an axis of rotation, comprising:
- a first set of balls positioned for movement along a first circle about the axis;
- a second set of balls positioned for movement along a second circle about the axis;
- a first member configured for rolling engagement with the first set of balls;
- a second member configured for rolling engagement with the second set of balls;
- an annular gimbal operatively coupled between the first and second members and able to bend so that the first member moves axially with respect to the second member;
- and
- a third member configured for rolling engagement with both sets of balls so that the third member rotates with respect to the first and second members.
4 more elements
A disc drive comprising:
- a plurality of discs mounted on a spindle bearing;
- and
- means for compensating for temperature-induced ball bearing preload force variation in the spindle bearing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.