outer edge of the counter plate 130 and the sleeve 112 this laser weld is applied using well known techniques and technology but by its very simplicity enhances the reliability given the welded counterplate to sleeve shoulder scheme of fig2 this effectively seals the hydrodynamic bearing fluid however thermal contraction forces caused by cooling of the weld nugget at the seam along the counterplate sleeve interface results under certain circumstances in a bowing of the counterplate 130 this bowing can increase the gap which is intended to be carefully defined between the counterplate and sleeve thereby impacting the stiffness and wear contact conditions of the thrust bearing the succeeding figures show a plurality of solutions to eliminate counterplate distortion from fluid bearing design due to laser welding referring for example to fig3 a we see an example wherein a groove is cut at the weld interface 300 into both the counterplate 302 and the radially inner edge of the shoulder 304 of sleeve 306 preferably the groove depth should be about half of the counterplate thickness further as is shown the radial width of the groove as cut into the shoulder 304 is about half of the total width 310 of the sleeve testing has demonstrated that this is highly effective in relieving the stress imposed by the weld 300 at the seam 315 between counterplate 302 and sleeve 306 in an alternative shown in fig3 b a groove 320 is cut into the interface between counterplate 302 and sleeve 306 at the seam 315 in this case rather than cutting a rectangular cross sectional groove into the shoulder 304 of the sleeve 306 a cut which is at first a continuation of the cut imposed on the counterplate.