Stability Analysis of a Three-Ball Automatic Balancer

Ball-type automatic balancers can effectively reduce the vibrations of optical disk drives due to the inherent imbalance of the disk. Although the ball-type automatic balancer used in practice consists of several balls moving along a circular orbit, few studies have investigated the dynamic characteristics of ball-type balancers with more than two balls. The aim of this paper is to study the dynamic characteristics of a three-ball automatic balancer. Emphasis is put on the effects of the number of balls on the stability of the perfect balancing positions-the equilibrium positions where the disk is perfectly balanced. A theoretical model of an optical disk drive packed with a three-ball automatic balancer is constructed first. The governing equations of the theoretical model are derived using Lagrange's equations. Closed-form formulas for the equilibrium positions are presented. The stability of the perfect balancing positions is checked with the variations for a pair of design parameters. Stable regions of the perfect balancing positions in the parameter plane of a three-ball balancer are identified and compared with those of a two-ball balancer.