Seagate Technology Incorporated

Daniel Scott Thompson

Paul Allison Beatty

Aaron Steve Macpherson

Terence H West

Thomas M Durrum

James Rex Staggers

Shantanu Dattatrey Joshi

A breather filter is assembled within a disc drive by positioning the filter atop a flex circuit bracket on a base plate of the drive. A breather port is formed through a top cover of the disc drive, and an inlet of the breather filter is sealed against the top cover of the drive. Compressing the top cover against the top of the breather filter helps to retain the filter in position between the flex circuit bracket and the top cover without an adhesive connection to the top cover. The connection of the breather filter to the flex circuit bracket allows a top-down assembly of the disc drive so that an adhesive connection between the filter and the top cover of the drive is not required.

Disc drive breather filter mounted to a flex circuit bracket

The performance of a leaf spring disc clamp can be enhanced by utilizing a roughly triangular shape for the center aperture. Such a disc clamp exhibits a substantially more uniform distribution of clamping force on the data disc and thereby reduces the deformation of the disc. It has further been determined that a stiffening rib located adjacent to the rim portion which contacts the data disc also leads to more uniform distribution of clamping force. Lastly, vibrations in a leaf spring disc clamp from external shocks or drive operation can be reduced utilizing a dampening ring of visco-elastic material. The dampening ring can be fastened to the surface of the disc clamp or placed within a rib on the disc clamp.

Uniform loading damped disc clamp

Growing community of inventors

Longmont, CO, United States of America

Daniel Scott Thompson