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US 8,619,388 B2Granted
Fluid dynamic bearing with an immiscible fluid barrier
AssigneeHGST Netherlands B.V.
InventorsThomas E. Karis, Neal B. Schirle, Kunihiro Shida
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fluid dynamic bearing with an immiscible fluid barrier deposited on the bearing oil is disclosed. One embodiment provides the fluid dynamic bearing having a seal gap to define a seal cavity. The seal cavity is filled with the bearing oil for lubricating the fluid dynamic bearing. The immiscible fluid is disposed on the bearing oil to prevent the bearing oil from evaporating from the seal cavity. In one embodiment, the immiscible fluid is insoluble in the bearing oil.
Claims25
A hard disk drive, comprising:
- an enclosure;
- and
- a disk rotatably mounted to the enclosure and having magnetic media;
- an actuator pivotally mounted to the enclosure and having a transducer for reading data from the magnetic media;
- a fluid dynamic bearing that is lubricated with bearing oil and a seal for retaining the oil, the seal having a seal gap;
- and
- a barrier comprising a bearing-oil-immiscible fluid disposed as a homogeneous layer only comprising said bearing-oil-immiscible fluid on top of the bearing oil for preventing the bearing oil from leaking through the seal gap, such that only said bearing-oil-immiscible fluid of said barrier is in contact with said seal gap.
4 more elements
A data storage device, comprising:
- a housing;
- at least one disk mounted to the housing and rotatable relative to the housing;
- an actuator mounted to the housing and being movable relative to the disk, the actuator having a suspension for reaching over the disk, the suspension having a slider coupled therewith, the slider having a read/write head element on a trailing edge (TE) portion of the slider;
- a fluid dynamic bearing having bearing oil;
- and
- a seal cap adjacent to a shaft of the fluid dynamic bearing, the seal cap having an outside end proximal such that an air-gap is provided between the outside end of the cap to define a bearing cavity;
- and
- a barrier comprising a bearing-oil-immiscible fluid disposed as a homogeneous layer only comprising said bearing-oil-immiscible fluid on top of the bearing oil to prohibit the bearing oil from evaporating from the bearing cavity, such that only said bearing-oil-immiscible fluid of said barrier is in contact with said seal gap.
5 more elements
A fluid dynamic bearing, comprising:
- a seal gap to a fluid dynamic bearing, the seal gap for preventing oil leakage in the fluid dynamic bearing;
- bearing oil for lubricating a drive hub in the fluid dynamic bearing;
- and
- a barrier comprising a bearing-oil-immiscible fluid disposed as a homogeneous layer only comprising said bearing-oil-immiscible fluid on top of the bearing oil for prohibiting evaporation of the bearing oil through the seal gap, such that only said bearing-oil-immiscible fluid of said barrier is in contact with said seal gap.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.