Design and analysis of vibration isolation systems for hard disk drives

Hard disk drives (HDD) are increasingly being used in mobile applications and consumer electronic devices in potentially harsh dynamic environments. In mission-critical applications such as in computers on board trains and military vehicles, the vibration experienced by the operating HDD can be very severe. An effective suspension system is necessary to isolate the HDD from the strong vibration transmitted from the ground, vehicle engine, etc. This paper gives details on how to design, test and evaluate vibration isolation systems for operating HDD subjected to very severe random vibrations based on military specifications MIL-STD-810E. One design is presented and evaluated based on well-defined criteria. Design principles on how to achieve the required degree of vibration isolation is described. A computer simulation model of an example design is formulated and correlated with experiments. It is shown that a low-cost, vibration isolation system can indeed be made that will allow an HDD to operate well when subjected to strong input vibration.