Seagate Technology Incorporated

Albert Michael Lindrose

Frederick Mark Stefansky

Walter Wong

William J Bryan

A disc drive assembly has an actuator for moving an actuator arm above the surface of a rotating disc. A suspension connects a slider to the actuator arm and maintains the slider substantially engaged with the disc surface in the absence of a shock event. A head-slap arrestor attached to the actuator arm includes a finger extending over the suspension so that the head-slap arrestor does not contact the suspension in the absence of a shock event. The finger of the head-slap arrestor pivots into engagement with the suspension during a shock event to maintain the slider substantially engaged with the disc surface. The force applied by the finger of the head-slap arrestor to the suspension is directly related to the force of the shock event.

Disc drive inertial head-slap arrestor

A low-profile pivot assembly is disclosed. The assembly includes two generally coaxial bearings having differing diameters so as to define inner and outer bearings. This arrangement permits the pivot assembly to be constructed with a lower profile than conventional pivot bearings. These and other and benefits will become apparent upon a review of the attached figures and the accompanying description.

Low-profile pivot assembly

An apparatus and method for attaching a data storage device to a stationary planar support surface using an attachment member having a first side attached to the data storage device and a second side operable to attach to the stationary planar support surface. The attachment member is positioned about a center-of-mass of the data storage device so as to impede the rotation of the disc drive about the center-of-mass.

Disc-drive mounting using adhesive films

A mounting system for attaching head suspension assemblies to actuator mounting arms of a disc drive actuator. The mounting system of the invention comprises mounting plates for the head suspension assemblies that include bosses inserted in cooperative holes in the actuator head mounting arms. Mounting discs of shape memory allow, in martensitic phase, having outer diameters selected for cooperation with the inner diameter of the bosses, are press-fitted into the bosses. The mounting discs are then heated to transform the material of the mounting discs to the austenitic phase. This transformation causes the outer diameter of the mounting discs to increase with sufficient force to deform the bosses of the mounting plates into interference fit with the holes in the actuator head mounting arms.

Head suspension assembly attachment using shape memory alloy

An improved pivot mechanism for an actuator assembly of a disc drive having an E-block that supports plurality of read/write heads in data reading and writing relationship to an array of spinning data discs. The pivot mechanism has a bearing cartridge that supports the E-block and which pivots about a pivot shaft which supports a pair of ball bearings of the bearing cartridge. Each of the ball bearings contains only three balls that are evenly distributed circumferentially about the pivot shaft. Contact surfaces of the bearing outer race and inner race provide single-point contact between the races and the balls.

Actuator pivot bearing with reduced hysteresis

A passive actuator latching system in which a magnetic latch mechanism is mounted on an air damping mechanism. The air damping mechanism is optimized to the moving mass of the actuator and the specified mechanical shock tolerance to allow a relatively weak magnetic latch to resist unlatching due to relatively large short-duration mechanical shocks by providing damped compliance to the latching system during the application of mechanical shocks, and attenuating the shock force experienced at the magnetic interface. Various mechanisms for selecting the direction and magnitude of the damping of the compliance are disclosed.

Air damper for disc drive actuator latch mechanism

A disc clamping system which exhibits a dual spring rate. The first spring rate is relatively low, allowing the disc clamping system to compensate for variations in dimensional tolerance buildup in the components of the disc stack, and is exhibited by the disc clamping system during initial tightening of the screws used to mount the disc clamp. The second spring rate is relatively high to provide tolerance to mechanical shocks applied in the disc drive's Z-axis, and is exhibited by the disc clamping system when the screws mounting the disc clamp to the spindle motor hub are tightened to a point of contact between contact features on the disc clamp and spindle motor hub.

Disc clamping system with a dual action spring rate

A disc clamp with a varying peripheral wall height at its outermost diameter. Variation of the peripheral wall height results in a circumferentially varying stiffness modulus of the disc clamp at specific circumferential positions relative to the position of multiple mounting screws which attach the central mounting portion of the disc clamp to the spindle motor hub. Varying the stiffness modulus of the disc clamp circumferentially results in even distribution of the clamping force about the contact surface of the disc clamp.

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Boulder, CO, United States of America

Albert Michael Lindrose