Abstract: An AE signal is acquired from an AE sensor disposed on a fixed part of the rotating machine, and the presence or absence of rubbing in the rotating machine is determined, based on the AE signal. As a result, if the rubbing is determined to be present, a rubbing suppression operating condition imposed on control of the rotating machine is decided to suppress the rubbing.

Abstract: An example thin substrate built-in hard disk drive includes a magnetic disk in a disk shape having a through-hole at the center, a spindle motor inserted into the through-hole of the magnetic disk and co-rotatably supporting the magnetic disk, and a base plate made of an aluminum alloy and supporting the spindle motor. The base plate has a metallographic structure in which a perimeter of a second phase particle having a longest diameter of 10 ?m or more is 3 mm/mm2 or more, and the number of second phase particles having a longest diameter of 500 ?m or more is 0 particles/mm2.

Abstract: In each time slot, along with processing collected sets of amperage data and voltage data and a data on a reference current to provide a first value as an estimated residual capacity for a normal travelling, the amperage data are processed to provide a second value representative of a discharge quantity, and the second value is subtracted from the first value to provide a third value as a residual capacity for a high load condition, permitting the first value to be displayed in the normal travelling and the third value to be displayed under the high load condition, as this condition is detected by checking a significance of correlation in dispersion of the collected sets of data.

Abstract: A voltage sensor detects a terminal voltage of a battery connected to a load and a current sensor detects a current flowing through the load. A voltage-current changing tendency calculation unit reads a detected voltage and a detected current detected by the voltage sensor and the current sensor and outputs, every predetermined period of time, plural data of the detected voltage and the corresponding detected current as dispersed data. A voltage-current approximating line calculation unit inputs the dispersed data and determines, based on the dispersed data, a voltage-current approximating linear function each time the predetermined period of time. A battery remaining capacity calculation unit determines, each time the voltage-current approximating linear function is determined, a remaining capacity of the battery based on the voltage-current approximating linear function.

Abstract: The apparatus and method of the present invention measure the remaining capacity of a battery connected to a fluctuating load. The apparatus senses dispersive terminal voltages and dispersive discharge currents from the battery, and samples the sensed terminal voltages and discharge currents. On the basis of the sampled terminal voltages and discharge currents, the apparatus calculates a watt-hour value of the battery for a predetermined time interval, and checks whether the calculated watt-hour value reaches a predetermined value. If the calculated watt-hour value reaches the predetermined value, the apparatus calculates an approximate linear function indicative of a trend of the sampled terminal voltages and discharge currents, and calculates a voltage corresponding to a reference discharge current in accordance with the calculated approximate linear function as a remaining capacity voltage.