International Business Machines Corporation

Brian Lee Rappel

Eric Alan Eckberg

Gerald Daniel Malagrino, Jr

Michael Scott Good

James M Rigotti

Jeffrey Fred Boigenzahn

Richard Edward Lagergren

Lyle R Tufty

Darrell Eugene Bratvold

Gregory Allen Lyons

Dale E Goodman

Dale C Goeke

Thomas Donald Weller

Charles Allan Brown

John Beck

Herman Russell Wendt

Douglas W Johnson

Luke A Cossette

Laurence J Schmidt

Daniel C Stucky

Subrahmanyan Nagarajan

Dennis Ronald Ziegenhagen

A data storage disk drive is provided with a spindle which supports a plurality of disks having at least one magnetic disk surface to form a spindle assembly for rotation of the disk surfaces about a common axis and a rotary actuator which supports magnetic transducers for movement in unison about respective disk surfaces. The disk drive includes a disk drive enclosure having die-cast generated predetermined zero draft geometries for mounting the spindle motor shaft and the actuator bearing shaft. The enclosure includes a base casting and a cover casting, each casting including structure for locating and retaining electrical connectors used for connecting to a planar electronics card located outside the drive enclosure. The disk drive includes an effective and easily manufacturable electrical path from a flex circuit to an actuator comb. The disk drive includes a tubular chemical breather filter arranged with integral housing and diffusion channels formed in the cover casting.

Structure and enclosure assembly for a disk drive

Disclosed is a disk drive for storing data which includes disks and an actuator mounted on a frame or first housing part. A second housing part, when joined with the first housing part, forms a disk enclosure. The disk enclosure includes rails which have openings therein for mounting the disk drive to the user frame of a computer system. Deformable inserts are placed into the openings in the rails and screws are passed through openings in the frame of the computer system and into the inserts in the openings in the rails of the disk drive. The inserts are more forgiving and result in less distortion than in a mounting system in which the screws are passed directly into tapped holes in the rails of the disk drive. The inserts also electrically insulate the disk drive from the user frame of the computer system.

Direct mounting system for a disk drive

An actuator of a high performance tape drive for coarse and fine positioning of a read/write head incorporates at least a pair of cantilevered beam springs which support a read/write head for controlled movement relative to a moving storage tape. The beam springs and head are controlled by a rocker member that transmits movement of a voice coil to the head for servo controlled fine positioning of the head relative to the data track of the tape.

Servo actuated read/write head actuator assembly for a tape drive

A data storage disk drive is provided with a spindle which supports at least one disk having at least one magnetic disk surface to form a spindle assembly for rotation of the disk surfaces about a common axis and a rotary actuator which supports at least one magnetic tranducers for movement about respective disk surfaces. The enclosure includes a base casting and a cover casting. The base casting include predetermined registration surfaces for mounting the spindle and the rotary actuator and having a mating face. The cover casting has a mating face for engaging the base mating face to define the disk drive enclosure for enclosing the spindle, the at least one disk surface, the at least one magnetic transducer and the actuator. The mating faces extend along the length of the disk drive enclosure. The base casting including a locational and retention cast pocket structure for locating and retaining electrical connector and a flexible cable used for connecting to a planar electronics card located outside the drive enclosure.

Enclosure assembly for a disk with a locational and retention cast

Hybrid actuator servo actuated tape drive having a pivotally mounted

An actuator for coarse and fine positioning of a read/write head incorporates at least one pivoted member to position the read/write head relative to storage tape that stores the data. The pivoted member may be a beam supporting a read/write head or link of a four bar linkage and is typically pivoted on a carriage. The pivoted motion and the associated motion of the read/write head must not introduce excessive zenith tilt or the recording/writing of data will be unreliable.

Actuator for servo actuated tape drive

A pivot bearing structure formed of a leaf spring is incorporated into a rocker or force transmission member which whenever mounted to a carriage of a high density data tape drive system precisely defines the pivot axis of the rocker and provides a very high degree of stiffness in a vertical plane, that plane being parallel to the recording surface of the magnetic tape. The rocker derives motion from a voice coil motor (VCM) and transmits that controlled motion to a magnetic head which is suspended for movement in a vertical plane while in contact with a length of magnetic tape upon which data is recorded or from which data is read. The movement of the magnetic head may be very precisely controlled by energizing the VCM, because the pivot axis is extremely well defined due to the stiffness in the vertical plane of the pivot bearing. Movement of the VCM coil directly translates into movement of the magnetic head. The rocker is fabricated to form a cavity or pocket exposing a portion of the leaf spring to permit the bonding of another part to the leaf spring.

Pivot bearing having no moving parts for use in a high density data tape

A tape drive which may accommodate tapes having a servo control track thereon as well as tapes without such tracks advantageously uses a lockout to prevent unwanted head translation when operating in an open loop mode. The lockout may be accomplished by energizing a voice coil motor to fix the head position, driving the voice coil motor to a fixed stop positioning the head, or latching a rocker connected to the head, thereby preventing movement of the head. The latching/unlatching function may be accomplished by driving an actuator supporting the beam springs, head and latch to an end-of-track position to similarly unlatch the rocker and return the assembly to a servo controlled mode of operation.

Head locking apparatus in a servo system so that the head can read and

A tape drive is fabricated with a chassis and a bridge. The bridge acts to support the read/write head actuator and to also define the datum surfaces for locating a mating magnetic tape cartridge. The bridge is manufactured of materials which are highly rigid and stable dimensionally. The chassis of the tape drive is fabricated from materials such as plastics which are relatively flexible and do not have the rigidity of that characterized by the bridge. The more flexible chassis of the tape drive permits the isolation of distortions and distortionary forces in the chassis and does not transmit those forces and distortions to the bridge. The effect of the two piece arrangement is that the pieces may be made relatively inexpensively and retain reliability of much more expensive materials in manufacturing processes herefore considered necessary. The electronic circuits associated with and part of the tape drive may be protected by fabricating the bridge of an electrically conductive material and grounding it to insure that the chances for electromagnetic and electrostatic discharge are minimized.

Mechanical device enclosure for high performance tape drive

A tape drive system is described which incorporates a zero clearance bearing for use on a lead screw positioning system having a structure which inherently flexes or closes onto the external surfaces of the lead screw to cause a precise positioning of the lead screw axis relative to a bearing and a bearing support for the bearing. The bearing contact surfaces of the central passage of the bearing which engage the external surfaces of the lead screw are generally planar in form and thus form line contacts with the external surface of the lead screw. The disclosed tape drive system is enhanced in that the play and loose fitting parts in conventional bearing systems are eliminated, and the subject bearing will act to confine the axis of the lead screw to a fixed position relative to the carriage structure of a high density tape drive or other device utilizing a precision lead screw positioning system.

Tape drive actuator including a one piece internally pre-loaded linear

A data storage disk drive is provided with a spindle which supports a plurality of disks having at least one magnetic disk surface to form a spindle assembly for rotation of the disk surfaces about a common axis and a rotary actuator which supports magnetic transducers for movement in unison about respective disk surfaces. The disk drive includes a voltage reference tab provided for quick assembly and removal from an actuator comb. The voltage reference tab maintains the magneto-resistive transducers and the magnetic disks at the same reference voltage potential thus minimizing electrical discharge from the transducer to the disk. The voltage reference tab is a copper tab having symmetrical slots about a fastening hole to facilitate the bending operation and to reduce the rate at which heat is conducted during the soldering process. The tab maintains the voltage reference potential between the head and disk through an extension of the flex cable attached to the actuator.

Growing community of inventors

Grand Meadow, MN, United States of America

Brian Lee Rappel