Covidien LP

Other

Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Hgst Netherlands, B.v.

Maxtor Corporation

David D Brause

Brian Lee Rappel

Chad A Bogacz

Curtis S German

Dylan R Kingsley

Zachary S Heiliger

Jason Gary Weihe

William Ross Whitney

Crystal A Adams

Curtis M Siebenaller

Tave Joseph Fruge

Dana C Fisher

Todd M Morton

Matthew J Sandor

Janice E Heil

A knife assembly for use with a surgical instrument includes a knife having proximal and distal ends, the proximal end including an aperture defined therein having a series of spaced apart fins extending thereacross. A knife drive rod is included and is configured to operably engage the fins to secure the knife drive rod to the knife. A retention mechanism is operably disposed at a distal end of the knife drive rod and is configured to secure the knife drive rod in engagement between the fins.

Engagement features and methods for attaching a drive rod to a knife blade in an articulating surgical instrument

A method for attaching a drive rod to a knife includes: forming a knife having proximal and distal ends; forming an aperture within the proximal end of the knife, the aperture including a series of fins disposed therein; weaving a distal end of a knife rod through the series of fins in an alternating manner; and engaging a cap onto the distal end of the knife drive rod to secure the knife drive rod within the aperture of the knife.

A surgical instrument includes a housing including an actuator disposed thereon and an elongated shaft extending therefrom. The elongated shaft includes an end effector assembly including a pair of opposing jaw members including a knife channel defined therein. An articulation section is disposed between the housing and the end effector assembly and is configured to articulate the end effector assembly upon actuation of the actuator, the articulating section and a proximal end of the knife channel defining a first distance therebetween. A knife assembly includes a knife having a length, the proximal end including an engagement feature disposed thereon. A knife drive rod is configured to engage the engagement feature to secure the knife drive rod to the knife such that the distal end of the knife extends beyond the engagement feature and wherein the knife length is less than the length of the first distance.

Drive rod and knife blade for an articulating surgical instrument

A surgical end effector assembly includes first and second jaw members configured to grasp tissue. At least one of the jaw members defines a channel. A cutting element reciprocates through the channel to cut grasped tissue. The cutting element may include a first bevel defined along a first portion of a distal edge on a first side surface of the cutting element and a second bevel defined along a second portion of the distal edge on a second side surface of the cutting element. The first and second portions of the distal edge are sharpened to facilitate cutting tissue upon distal advancement of the cutting element. Alternatively or additionally, the cutting element may include a proximal body and a distal fin defining a height greater than a height of the proximal body and including a thinned portion defining a depression within a first side surface thereof.

Cutting elements for surgical instruments such as for use in robotic surgical systems

A storage drive configured for use in a storage drive block and a storage drive block are provided. The storage drive block in one example includes a plurality of storage drives joined together into a substantially rigid storage drive block, a block communication element extending to the plurality of storage drives and adapted to communicatively link a plurality of communication boards of the plurality of storage drives to a mass storage chassis assembly, and one or more joining elements affixing the one or more mounting elements of each storage drive to form the storage drive block.

Storage drive and storage drive block

A disk drive includes a spindle motor attached to a disk drive base. The spindle motor includes a hub that rotates about a spindle rotation axis. An annular disk is mounted on the hub. A clamp is attached to the hub. The clamp has a body portion that is stamped from a metal sheet. The clamp also includes an annular rib that protrudes from the stamped sheet metal body portion towards the annular disk. The annular rib includes an annular contact surface that may be lapped to enhance flatness and that contacts the annular disk. The annular rib also includes inner and outer side walls that are each normal to the annular contact surface.

Disk drive having a sheet metal clamp with a stamped annular protruding disk contact feature

A head stack assembly (HSA) having an actuator comb with a stepped inner bore may have an upper portion of the inner bore with a first diameter that is greater than the diameter of a lower portion of the inner bore. Therefore, little friction and resistance is encountered when force fitting a pivot-bearing assembly into the upper portion of the stepped inner bore, thereby avoiding surface damage and the generation of unwanted debris particles. The HSA may further comprise a plurality of tolerance rings to couple the actuator comb with the pivot-bearing assembly, such as one tolerance ring positioned below the step feature and one tolerance ring positioned above and seated on the step feature of the comb inner bore.

Actuator comb having a stepped inner bore

A disk drive housing, base assembly for use as part of the housing and associated method are disclosed. The base assembly is configured for receiving a cover. In one feature, a base housing serves to define a housing interior in cooperation with the cover for receiving a plurality of components therein as part of the disk drive and the base housing includes a peripheral edge configuration. A molding surrounds and sealingly engages the base housing such that the molding defines a peripheral sealing surface for use in sealing the cover to the base assembly. In another feature, accommodating one or more given components within a given base housing outline, which would not otherwise be accommodated, is described by outsetting a peripheral sidewall of the base housing, adjacent to the given component.

Apparatus and method for sealing a hard drive enclosure

A digital storage apparatus includes a housing defining a housing interior and defining a ramp support surface. A disk is supported for rotation in the housing. A head gimbal assembly is supported for use in pivotally accessing the disk in performing one or more data accesses and for moving to an unloaded position from an access position. A ramp arrangement receives the head gimbal assembly in the unloaded position. The ramp arrangement includes at least three feet for sliding engagement with the ramp support surface for use in at least partially establishing an operational position of the ramp arrangement. In one aspect, the housing defines a first surface and a second surface, which are in a transverse relationship with respect to one another. The ramp arrangement engages the first surface and the second surface for establishing an operational position of the ramp arrangement in the housing interior.

Ramp arrangement for a disk drive and method

A head stack assembly of a disk drive has a hub including a side margin defining a channel for carrying VCM conductors at least partially around an angular offset such that the conductors are contained within a peripheral outline of the hub and the conductors can extend completely within an overmolding thickness. A first portion of a flexible interconnection biases against a side margin of the hub such that a rotation of the HSA causes a length of the first portion to change. A floating portion of length of the flexible extension follows a semicircular path between a first contact position on the hub and a second contact position on the support surface such that a floating loop diameter is defined between the contact positions. The hub and the support surface can be configured for changing the floating loop diameter with rotation to vary resilient biasing torque to the HSA.

Flexible electrical interconnection with ends urged into engagement with curved surfaces of a support and hub in a miniature hard disk drive and method

An actuator/coil assembly () is disclosed where two different bonding operations are used. First, a bobbin () is overmolded to a coil (), and a first overmolded part () is overmolded to both the coil () and a fan tail () of the actuator (). The overmolding operation defines one or more adhesive receptacles () in the bobbin () on a perimeter that interfaces with the coil (), and further defines one or more adhesive receptacles () in the first overmolded part () on a perimeter that interfaces with the coil () and that interfaces with the fan tail () of the actuator (). Adhesive () is disposed within these receptacles () to increase the stiffness of the actuator/coil assembly ().

Growing community of inventors

Longmont, CO, United States of America

David D Brause