Micropolis Corporation

Dan L Kilmer

Lloyd Levy

Rick L Freeman

Kenneth H Brown

Chia-Yen Peng

Kevin P Maher

Scott Henry

Michael W Warner

A connector assembly for use with a sealed housing, such as a hard disk drive housing, including a bulkhead adapted to cooperate with a connector slot, the bulkhead supporting a plurality of electrical connection pins, a flex circuit including electrical leads operably connected to respective electrical connection pins and a layer of pressure sensitive adhesive formed substantially between the flex circuit and the bulkhead. The present invention may also include a seal which rests substantially between a base portion of the bulkhead and the outer surface of the housing to prevent contaminants from entering the housing through the bulkhead/slot interface.

Air-tight connector assembly

The head positioner for a Winchester type hard disk drive digital storage system includes a main rotating metal body portion made of magnesium or other lightweight metal and having outwardly extending, integral, head positioning arms. The shape of the arms is such that the rotary moment of inertia is minimized while maintaining high resistance to vertical and in-plane bending, torsional twisting and shock, which cause the head to move off track. The integral arms are tapered in a curved fashion having an inner base portion and an outer narrower end to which a load beam and a magnetic head are secured. Three openings are provided in each of the integral arms, including a generally arch shaped opening adjacent the base of each arm and two outer generally oval openings tapering down in their transverse dimensions generally corresponding to the tapering of the arms.

Low inertia Winchester disk drive actuator

A digital memory system of the hard or Winchester disk type, includes a series of hard disks, and pivoted mounting arms for the magnetic heads or sliders. In order to minimize the vertical, or inter-disk space occupied by the sliders and their mounting arms when used in a rotary type of head positioner, the end of a direct, or straight, mounting arm for each slider is generally ring-shaped, or of an open rectangular configuration, with the outer transverse portion of the mounting arm extending through a slot in the surface of the slider which is not intended for engagement with or proximity to the recording disk. In addition, the slider is secured to the mounting arm by a small springy resilient sheet metal member, having a broad central area with a rounded protrusion intended to engage the outer transverse portion of the ring-shaped end of the mounting arm, and being bonded to the slider at the bottom of the slot in the slider on either side of the rounded bearing member. This small springy member has two arms extending from it which are secured to the slider mount, at the outer ends of the arms away from the broader central area of the springy member, so that the slider is free to pivot through a small angle relative to its mounting arm, thereby allowing stable operation of the air bearing action to support the slider in a predefined position and attitude relative to the disk surface. The slider mounting arm has an outer load beam section with up-turned edges to increase its stiffness or rigidity, and a transverse plate is secured to these upturned edges to increase the natural frequency of the slider mounting arm. The load beam has the additional function of establishing force equilibrium with the air bearing action to provide control of flying height above the disk surface.

Compact magnetic head flexible suspension

A Winchester disk drive assembly includes upper and lower mounting plates and shafts for the main drive motor assembly and for the head positioner firmly connected to both mounting plates. One end of the shafts is mounted to one of the mounting plates by a shouldered washer. A shouldered washer is mounted in a counterbored hole in the adjacent mounting plate and is firmly secured to the adjacent shaft end by a steel screw, with the dimensions of the washer being selected to provide space between the enlarged head portion of the washer, and the counterbore, so that the shaft is entirely stress-free. The space between the inner surface of the enlarged portion of the T-shaped washer and the counterbored recess is then filled with epoxy which bonds the two parts together. The shouldered washer then becomes an essential part of the adjacent mounting plate, and the mounting plate may be removed and separated from the shaft by removing the steel screw. The shouldered washer and the mounting plate may be formed of aluminum or an alloy thereof, and the epoxy may be filled with finely-divided aluminum particles, so that thermal cycling has no adverse effects.

Stress free winchester drive shaft mounting

The head positioner for a Winchester type hard disk drive digital storage system includes a main rotating metal body portion having outwardly extending, integral, head positioning arms. The magnetic heads for reading and writing information on the hard disks are mounted on springly members which are referred to as 'load beams'. In order to reduce vibration, and to increase the accuracy of positioning of the heads on the disks, the outwardly extending arms from the main metallic body of the head positioner unit extend outwardly from the central axis of rotation for a distance which is substantially greater than the additional outward extent of the springy load beams upon which the magnetic heads are supported. Preferably the outward extent of the rigid arms is in the order of twice the length of the springy load beams. In addition, the bearings for supporting the rotating head positioning assembly are preferably mounted directly to the metallic body of the head positioner assembly. The springy load beams which support the magnetic heads may be secured to the ends of the outwardly extending arms by metal plates having tublets which may extend through holes in the springy load beams, and which are swaged into openings at the ends of the integral rigid arms. The plates may also be spot-welded to the inner ends of the springy load beams which support the magnetic heads.

Integral head positioner for hard disk storage system

A digital storage system of the Winchester or hard disk drive type has the annular, hard aluminum disks mounted coaxially around the drive motor. A central fixed aluminum shaft has the motor stator coils centrally mounted on it, and an aluminum disk mounting sleeve is mounted to the shaft by bearings located above and below the motor stator. To accommodate the difference in thermal coefficients of expansion between the steel cylinder forming the outer periphery of the motor's rotor and the aluminum disk assembly, the outer steel cylinder of the motor rotor is bonded to the aluminum disk sleeve by means of an elastic adhesive, which permits relative expansion between the steel and aluminum parts occasioned by changes in temperature of the drive. The rotor, including its permanent magnets and outer steel cylinder, is mounted from the inner surface of the aluminum disk mounting sleeve, with the rotor in operating proximity to the stator. The aluminum storage disks and the spacers between them are clamped between the top and bottom of the aluminum mounting sleeve.

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Reseda, CA, United States of America

Dan L Kilmer