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US5538774A Expired / Lapsed US ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Internally damped rotatable storage article

Assignee: 3M Innovative Properties Co
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Filing: 1994-07-29
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Granted: 1996-07-23
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Expires: 2014-07-29
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Abstract

Abstract The present invention provides a method for internally damping a rotatable storage article which is subject to resonant vibrations. More specifically, the present invention provides a method of improving the damping properties of a rotatable storage article by introducing a viscoelastic material as an inner layer(s) of the rotatable storage article. The invention also provides the damped rotatable storage articles themselves.

Inventors

  • 👤 Donald T. Landin
  • 👤 Jeffrey W. McCutcheon

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction US
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-11-08 05:31
CPC Classifications
G; G11; G11B; G11B7/00; G11B7/24; G11B7/24018; G11B7/24024; F; F16; F16F; F16F3/00; F16F3/08; F16F3/087; F16F3/093; F16F1/00; F16F1/36; F16F1/3605; F16F15/00; F16F15/02; F16F15/04; F16F15/08; F16F9/00; F16F9/30; F16F9/306; G11B7/2403; F16F2224/00; F16F2224/04; F16F2224/048; F16F2228/00; Y; Y10; Y10S; Y10S428/00; Y10S428/913; Y10S430/00; Y10S430/146; Y10T; Y10T428/00; Y10T428/21; Y10T428/25; Y10T428/252; Y10T428/254; Y10T428/256; Y10T428/257; Y10T428/31504; Y10T428/31511; Y10T428/31515; Y10T428/31522

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 35
Claim 1
Independent Claim 80 words
An internally damped rotatable storage article having at least one layer of vibration damping material contained therein, comprising a viscoelastic material, said vibration damping material having a loss factor of at least about 0.01 and a storage modulus of at least about 6.9×10 3 Pascals, wherein the thickness of each of said layer(s) ranges from about 0.002 mm to about 0.5 mm, and wherein the vibration damping is improved by at least about 10% in at least 1 vibrational mode.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim 80 words
An internally damped rotatable storage article having at least one layer of vibration damping material contained therein, comprising a viscoelastic material, said vibration damping material having a loss factor of at least about 0.01 and a storage modulus of at least about 6.9×10 3 Pascals, wherein the thickness of each of said layer(s) ranges from about 0.002 mm to about 0.5 mm, and wherein the vibration damping is improved by at least about 10% in at least 1 vibrational mode.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 24 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the thickness of each of said layer(s) ranges from about 0.02 mm to about 0.15 mm.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 24 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the thickness of each of said layer(s) ranges from about 0.02 mm to about 0.05 mm.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 30 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the thickness of each of said layer(s) of vibration damping material is about 0.5 to about 50% the thickness of the article.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 31 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the thickness of each of said layer(s) of vibration damping material is about 1 to about 25% of the thickness of the article.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim 30 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the viscoelastic material has a loss factor greater than about 0.1 and a storage modulus of at least about 6.9×10 4 Pascals.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim 33 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the viscoelastic material has a loss factor of 0.5 to about 10 and a storage modulus of about 6.9×10 4 to about 1.4×10 7 Pascals.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim 25 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the viscoelastic material is selected from the group consisting of thermoplastic polymers, thermosetting polymers, and mixtures thereof.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim 15 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the viscoelastic material is a thermosetting polymer.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim 14 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 9 wherein the thermosetting polymer is an acrylate.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim 30 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 selected from the group consisting of magnetic rotatable storage articles, optical rotatable storage articles, magneto-optical rotatable storage articles, and mechanical rotatable storage articles.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim 39 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 selected from the group consisting of magnetic rigid disks, magnetic floppy disks, magnetic drums, optical compact disks, optical disks, optical drums, magneto- optical compact disks, magneto-optical disks, magneto-optical drums and vinyl records.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim 21 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein said rotatable storage article contains at least 2 layers of vibration damping material.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim 17 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the vibration damping material further comprises a fibrous material.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim 32 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 14 wherein the vibration damping material includes about 3 to about 60 weight percent fibrous material, based on the total weight of the vibration damping material.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim 17 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the vibration damping material further comprises a particulate material.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim 40 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 16 wherein the particulate material is selected from the group consisting of glass bubbles, glass beads, ceramic bubbles, ceramic beads, thermally conductive bubbles, aluminum oxide powder, aluminum nitride powder, silica, and cured epoxy nodules.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim 33 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the vibration damping material includes about 0.5 to about 70 weight percent of particulate material based on the total weight of the vibration damping material.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim 21 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the vibration damping material further comprises a fibrous material and a particulate material.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim 47 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 which contains a single layer of vibration damping material wherein said layer is positioned within the article at a distance of at least about 5% of the thickness of the article from an upper and lower surface of the article.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim 47 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 which contains a single layer of vibration damping material wherein said layer is positioned within the article at a distance of at least about 30% of the thickness of the article from an upper and lower surface of the article.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim 34 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the rotatable storage article has one layer of damping material positioned equidistant from an upper surface of the article and a lower surface of the article.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim 74 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 which contains at least two layers of vibration damping material wherein each damping material layer is positioned within the article such that it is at least about 5% of the thickness of the article away from an upper and lower surface of the article and each vibration damping material layer is at least about 5% of the thickness of the article away from another vibration damping layer.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim 70 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 which contains at least two layers of vibration damping material wherein each damping material layer is positioned within the article such that it is at least about 5% of the thickness of the article away from an upper and lower surface of the article and each vibration damping material is at least about 20% of the article thickness away from another damping layer.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim 70 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 which contains at least two layers of vibration damping material wherein each damping material layer is positioned within the article such that it is at least about 5% of the thickness of the article away from an upper and lower surface of the article and each vibration damping material is at least about 30% of the article thickness away from another damping layer.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim 29 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the vibration damping material further comprises an epoxy resin material, wherein said epoxy resin material may optionally have vibration damping properties.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim 16 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the vibration damping layer is a continuous layer.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim 26 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the vibration damping layer is a continuous layer made up of adjacent sections of different vibration damping materials.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim 30 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the article contains at least 2 layers of vibration damping material, wherein at least 2 of the layers comprise different damping materials.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim 16 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein the vibration damping layer is a discontinuous layer.
Claim 32
Dependent Claim 22 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 30 wherein the discontinuous layer comprises sections of damping material separated by non-damping material or spaces.
Claim 33
Dependent Claim 19 words
The rotatable storage article of claim 1 wherein each vibration damping material layer is encased within the storage article.
Claim 34
Independent Claim 96 words
A method of improving the viscoelastic damping characteristics of a rotatable storage article comprising providing at least one layer of vibration damping material within the rotatable storage article, each vibration damping material layer comprising a viscoelastic material, said vibration damping material having a loss factor of at least about 0.01 and a storage modulus of at least about 6.9×10 3 Pascals, wherein the thickness of each of said layer(s) ranges from about 0.002 mm to about 0.5 mm, and wherein the vibration damping is improved by at least about 10% in at least 1 vibrational mode.
Claim 35
Independent Claim 96 words
A method of improving the viscoelastic damping characteristics of a rotatable storage article comprising providing at least one layer of vibration damping material within the rotatable storage article, each vibration damping material layer comprising a viscoelastic material, said vibration damping material having a loss factor of at least about 0.01 and a storage modulus of at least about 6.9×10 3 Pascals, wherein the thickness of each of said layer(s) ranges from about 0.002 mm to about 0.5 mm, and wherein the vibration damping is improved by at least about 10% in at least 1 vibrational mode.

USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows

Annuity Stage Window Opens Payment Deadline Surcharge Period Until Estimated Fee Status
3.5 Years (Year 4) 1999-07-23 2000-01-22 2000-07-23 $2000.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8) 2003-07-23 2004-01-22 2004-07-23 $3760.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12) 2007-07-23 2008-01-22 2008-07-23 $7700.00 Window Closed / Lapsed

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