Finite element analysis of unbalance response of high-speed polygon mirror scanner motor considering the flexibility of the structure

This paper presents the finite element method and the mode superposition method to analyze the unbalance response of a high speed polygon mirror scanner motor supported by sintered bearing and flexible supporting structures. Finite element equations of each component of the polygon mirror scanner motor and the flexible supporting structures are consistently derived by satisfying the geometric compatibility in the internal boundary between each component. The rotating polygon mirror is modeled by annular sector element, and its rigid body motion is also considered. The rotating components except for the polygon mirror are modeled by Timoshenko beam element including the gyroscopic effect. The flexible supporting structures are modeled by using a 4-node tetrahedron element and 4-node shell element with rotational degrees of freedom. The rigid link constraints are imposed at the interface between sleeve and sintered bearing to describe the physical motion at this interface. A global matrix equation obtained by assembling the finite element equations of each substructure is transformed to a state-space matrix-vector equation, and both damped natural frequencies and modal damping ratios are calculated by solving the associated eigenvalue problem by using the restarted Arnoldi iteration method. Unbalance responses are calculated by superposing the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the free vibration analysis. The validity of the proposed method is verified by comparing the simulated unbalance response with the experimental results. This research also shows that the flexibility of supporting structures plays an important role in determining the unbalance response of the polygon mirror scanner motor.