Memorex Corporation

Syquest Technology, Inc.

Seagate Technology Incorporated

Dysan Corporation

Quinta Corporation

Bin-Lun Ho

Albert J Guerini

Herbert E Thompson

Vinod K Rao

Teong-Hoe Kay

Syed H Iftikar

Robert P Wartenbergh

Efim Bronshvatch

David A Sutton

Bert R Larson

Markus Meier

Geoffrey M Lee

Janusz Warszawski

One or more individual ramps 166 each slidably receive the free end of a tab member 160 connected to one of one or more transducer heads 130 mounted on a head actuator assembly 140 of a storage drive. The location at which each ramp 166 receives the tab member 160 is individually adjustable. Each head 130 is disposed to fly in data transfer relationship adjacent to a respective rotating disk 108.

Adjustable head loading apparatus

A data storage system includes one or more individual ramp faces for each to slidably receive the free end of a tab member connected to one of one or more transducer heads mounted on a head actuator assembly. Each head is disposed to fly in data transfer relationship adjacent to a respective rotating disk surface. Each ramp face is disposed on one of one or more individually adjustable ramp members connected to ramp mounting means. The ramp mounting means, the actuator assembly, heads and the disks are mounted on a rigid base in cooperating relationship. Head actuator assembly positioning means for moving the heads along the disk surfaces positions each head with respect to the corresponding disk surface so the respective tab is in sliding contact with the associated ramp face when the head is to be lifted from the related disk surface. The respective ramp face is arranged so that the corresponding head will be lifted safely from the disk surface to at least a predetermined parking distance as the free tab end slides outward along the respective ramp face. Multiple individual ramp face adjusting means is provided to enable multi-disk/head systems to have minimal wasted disk surface and minimum disk to disk spacing for given actuator/head geometry by adjusting the position of each ramp face with respect to each related head and tab when the actuator positioning means positions the heads at a maximum outer data transfer radius or when the positioning means positions the heads at a minimum disk to head safe displacement spacing.

A removable cartridge disk drive includes a removable cartridge adapted to be received by a disk drive having a base plate and right and left guide walls. The cartridge inserts into the drive at an angle with the aid of a movable slider attached to one of the guide walls. Once inserted, the cartridge is locked in and held. During operation, a rotary actuator arm with adjustable angular orientation loads one or more read/write heads off of a fixed ramp onto the surface of a data storage disk contained inside the cartridge. After read/write operations are finished, the head is unloaded onto the fixed ramp and the cartridge is ejected from the drive at an angle.

Disk drive for receiving a removable cartridge and method of inserting

Removable cartridge disk drive

A removable hard disc memory cartridge for use with a drive mechanism including a spindle located within a drive housing. The drive housing interior is provided with stationary position registration members which cooperate with mating side edge portions of the cartridge to provide positive positioning when the cartridge is inserted into the drive housing. A disc lock carried by the cartridge maintains the internally mounted cartridge disc in a secured locked position when the cartridge is not in use, the lock mechanism cooperating with release posts carried by the drive housing to free the disc for rotation just prior to engagement by the drive spindle. The disc has a self centering hub including a spindle referencing member having an aperture for receiving the free end of the spindle, the referencing member including angularly spaced arcuate segments closely matched to the radius of curvature of the drive spindle and providing a lateral abutment for the outer surface of the surface, the referencing member further including a spindle biasing spring laterally spaced from the arcuate segments and engageable with the outer surface of the spindle for urging the spindle into surface contact with the arcuate segments. The housing includes an end wall with an air exit port laterally displaced from the transducer access port, which provides a circumferentially oriented flow exit path for air entering the volume enclosed by the cartridge via the access port when the disc is rotated.

Removable disk cartridge

A crash stop for use in a rotary disc file storage system, particularly for use with a rotary-type electromechanical actuator, the crash stop comprising a dual stop mechanism for delimiting the travel of an actuator arm in either of two reciprocal directions, the stop having two symetrically oriented plain levers having separate spaced pivots, the levers each having first segments projecting from the pivot and adjustably spaced on either side of a stop pin fixed on the actuator arm and second segments oppositely projecting from the pivot and interconnected by a spring loaded, adjustment mechanism, whereby movement of the actuator arm is restricted by contact of the stop pin with one of the first lever segments and limited compression of a spring in the adjustment mechanism.

Crash stop for disc drive actuator

A recording head support assembly for use on a high density, direct access data storage device, the head support assembly having multiple arms rigidly interconnected in bank and attached to an actuator mechanism, and having at least one magnetic head flexibly mounted to each arm by a localized spring assembly for reduction of tolerances and maintenance of alignment.

Recording head support assembly

Growing community of inventors

Los Gatos, CA, United States of America

Bin-Lun Ho