Hard disk drive spindle is one of the critical mechanical components in hard disk drives (HDDs),which has great influence on their overall performance, including track density, data transfer rate, energyconsumption and noise, etc. Nowadays, HDDs with higher density and speed, larger capacity, smaller sizeare under active development, which requires that HDD spindles should have fast rotating speed, excellentaccuracy and small size. However, ball bearing spindles, which are widely used in current HDDs, cannotmeet these requirements. HDD spindles supported by oil-lubricated spiral groove bearings are consideredto be the candidate of ball bearing spindles. There is no oil supply device in the bearing. Therefore, theflowing characteristics of lubricant in the bearing have great effect on the performance of the spindle. Inthis paper, fluorescent method is applied to study the flowing characteristics of the lubricant in the spiralgroove bearing. The establishment and recovery of the lubricant film during start/stop of the spindle areobserved. The effects of working conditions on the thickness and distribution of the lubricant film areinvestigated. The influence of oil supply on the performance of the bearing is also studied.
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