Mechanical characteristics of air bearings for supporting a flexible optical disk.
A disk-supporting mechanism for a high-capacity 90-mm (3.5-in) flexible optical-disk system is studied for low-cost recording media and small drives. The mechanical characteristics are analyzed by a simple calculation of dynamic air pressure generated by pocket thrust bearings and by measurements of disk vibrations. The flexible disk rotates stably, supported by two thrust air bearings fabricated in a plastic cartridge, with disk tilt less than 5 mrad and disk acceleration less than 5 m/s(2) The feasibility of this system is confirmed by write-erase operations at a 2-µm track pitch.
Tamaru
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