Nhk Spring Co., Ltd.

Nippon Mektron Limited

Tdk Corporation

Akira Nojima

Yasuji Takagi

Masashi Shiraishi

Takeshi Wada

Ichiro Takadera

Norimasa Fujita

Akira Tadakuma

Takashi Horiuchi

Tatsuhiko Nishida

Hideki Fuchino

Masaki Yokota

Noriyuki Saitoh

A suspension includes a load beam, a flexure and a dimple portion. The flexure includes a tongue. The dimple portion swingably supports the tongue at least over a first position and a second position. In the tongue, first pillow portions supporting a slider and an adhesive portion fixing the slider are provided. In the load beam, a second pillow portion protruding towards the slider is provided. The second pillow portion is in contact with the slider when the tongue is located at the first position, and separates from the slider when the tongue has moved to the second position.

Disk drive suspension

A piezoelectric element easily and surely forms polymer coatings on peripheral end faces of the piezoelectric element without deteriorating a yield of the piezoelectric element. The piezoelectric element is manufactured by a method including steps of cutting a piezoelectric element out from a base piezoelectric material plate so that peripheral end faces are formed to define a peripheral shape of the piezoelectric element, and forming polymer coatings on at least objective areas of the peripheral end faces of the piezoelectric element by vapor deposition polymerization.

Piezoelectric element having polymer coating, piezoelectric actuator using said piezoelectric element, and head suspension using said piezoelectric actuator

An method of manufacturing a piezoelectric element easily and surely forms polymer coatings on peripheral end faces of the piezoelectric element without deteriorating a yield of the piezoelectric element. The method includes steps of cutting a piezoelectric element out from a base piezoelectric material plate so that peripheral end faces are formed to define a peripheral shape of the piezoelectric element, and forming polymer coatings on at least objective areas of the peripheral end faces of the piezoelectric element by vapor deposition polymerization, respectively.

Method of manufacturing piezoelectric element

A slider tester includes a disk, movable table, table drive mechanism, guide member, etc. A plurality of suspensions are mounted on the movable table. A slider is mounted on each suspension. A guide member can support respective lift tabs of the suspensions. The guide member includes a first guide surface, second guide surface, and opening arranged in a track width direction of the disk. When any of the lift tabs gets into the opening as the movable table moves in the track width direction of the disk, the slider is dropped toward a recording surface of the disk.

Method for inspecting a slider for a disk drive

In a disk drive suspension including a baseplate, a load beam, and a flexure, the suspension comprises a recess formed in one surface of the load beam relative to the thickness thereof, a damping material contained in the recess, and a lid portion superposed on the damping material so as to cover at least a part of the recess. The lid portion is formed of a part of a flexure. The flexure is an example of a suspension constituent member.

Disk drive suspension having a recess in a load beam or baseplate to contain damping material, and a lid portion for the recess formed by a plate-like constituent member of the suspension

Slider tester and method for testing slider

A head suspensionhas a piezoelectric elementthat deforms in response to a voltage applied thereto, a base platehaving an openinginto which the piezoelectric elementis fitted, and a load beamthat is fixed to the base plateso that a front end of the load beammoves in a sway direction according to the deformation of the piezoelectric element. The head suspensionincludes an electric insulating layerformed at the openingby vapor-depositing and polymerizing electrically insulative high polymer materials at the opening. The piezoelectric elementis fitted into the openingthrough at least the electric insulating layer. The head suspensionsatisfies a miniaturization requirement.

Head suspension

A method of manufacturing a load beam precisely positions a slider on a dimple of a load beam according to precisely obtained positional data of the dimple, the method includes preparing a work which is a flat plate and serves as the load beam, irradiating at least a part of the work where the dimple is formed with a laser beam, to form a modified part at the irradiated part, carrying out plastic working on the modified part, to form the dimple having a concave curved surface at the modified part, taking an image of the concave curved surface of the dimple, obtaining the positional data of the dimple from the image, and positioning the slider on the dimple according to the positional data.

Head suspension, load beam, and method of manufacturing load beam

A suspension is provided with a base plate, load beam, and flexure. The base plate includes a boss portion, a first region situated on a side closer to a slider with respect to a center of the boss portion, and a second region situated on a side more remote from the slider. A pair of first projections are formed in the first region. A pair of second projections are formed in the second region. The projections project in the thickness direction of the base plate. The boss portion is inserted into a hole in an actuator arm, and the projections contact a suspension support portion of the actuator arm. The boss portion is pressurized from inside to be enlarged, whereby the base plate is fixed to the inner peripheral surface of the hole of the actuator arm.

A head suspension for a disk drive includes a base () to be attached to a carriage, a load beam () having a rigid part () and a resilient part () supported by the base, to apply load on a data read/write head () arranged at a front end of the rigid part, a flexure () attached to the load beam and being provided with the head, and a guide face () formed on an edge () of the rigid part where a jig is inserted, to guide the jig without wearing away the jig. The guide face is formed by providing the edge of the rigid part with an integral thin part that is thinner than the rigid part and bending the thin part, or by partly removing the edge of the rigid part. The jig is inserted into a head suspension module, which is made by arranging the head suspension and other identical head suspensions at regular intervals, such that the teeth of the jig slide on the guide faces of the head suspensions to maintain spaces between the rigid parts of the head suspensions, to install the head suspension module into the disk drive such that the heads of the head suspensions face disks in the disk drive.

Disk head suspension arm having comb receiving portion

A head suspension for a disk drive includes a base () to be attached to a carriage, a load beam () having a rigid part () and a resilient part () supported by the base, to apply load on a data read/write head () arranged at a front end of the rigid part, a flexure () attached to the load beam and being provided with the head, and a guide face () formed on an edge () of the rigid part where a jig is inserted, to guide the jig without wearing away the jig. The guide face is formed by providing the edge of the rigid part with an integral thin part that is tinner than the rigid part and bending the thin part, or by partly removing the edge of the rigid part. The jig is inserted into a head suspension module, which is made by arranging the head suspension and other identical head suspensions at regular intervals, such that teeth of the jig slide on the guide faces of the head suspensions to maintain spaces between the rigid parts of the head suspensions, to install the head suspension module into the disk drive such that the heads of the head suspensions face disks in the disk drive.

The invention is directed toward a method of manufacturing a flexure blank whereby an opening portion is provided in a in a connecting portion of a flexure blank, an opening end portion of an insulating base layer is coated with a conductive member without exposing the opening end portion of the insulating base layer in the connecting portion, and a lower surface of the conductive member of the opening portion in the connecting portion of the flexure blank is structured such as to form the same surface as the lower surface of the insulating base layer.

Method of manufacturing a flexure blank

A head suspension for a disk drive includes a plate that is easily and correctly be attached to a carriage of the disk drive and improves the attaching accuracy and strength of the head suspension to the carriage. The head suspension includes the plate and a load beam. The plate has a boss that is formed separately from the plate. The boss has a base fixed to the plate and a protrusion fitted into a hole of a carriage arm of the carriage. The plate has a through hole. The base of the boss is fitted into the through hole and is fixed to the plate. Under this state, the protrusion of the boss protrudes from a first face of the plate, and the base of the boss protrudes from a second face of the plate. An end face of the base of the boss serves as a contact face for jig.

Head suspension for disk drive having a contact face to receive jig

In a suspension comprising a limiter, the limiter is provided with arm portions. These arm portions project outside to-be-supported portions of a flexure from the opposite sides of the distal end portion of a beam portion, extend ahead of the to-be-supported portions, and face the respective one-side surfaces of the to-be-supported portions, individually. Formed between the arm portions is an aperture that is wide enough to receive a bonding jig. Formed on the respective inside portions of the distal ends of the arm portions are bent portions, which are bent in the thickness direction so as to be directed from the one-side surfaces of the to-be-supported portions toward the other-side surfaces. Opposite portions extend rearward from the respective distal ends of the bent portions, individually. These opposite portions face the respective other-side surfaces of the to-be-supported portions, individually.

Suspension for disc drive

An opening portion is provided in a connecting portion of a flexure blank, an opening end portion of an insulating base layer is coated with a conductive member without exposing the opening end portion of the insulating base layer in the connecting portion, and a lower surface of the conductive member of the opening portion in the connecting portion of the flexure blank is structured such as to form the same surface as the lower surface of the insulating base layer.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Akira Nojima