Seagate Technology Incorporated

Dysan Corporation

Efim Bronshvatch

Ming-Goei Sheu

Sanjoy Ghose

Gunter Karl Heine

Ramgopal Battu

Donald James Macleod

Robert P Wartenbergh

Hatem R Radwan

Bin-Lun Ho

David A Sutton

Miles L Peterson

Bert R Larson

Markus Meier

Janusz Warszawski

Bernhard M Seeger

Enrique J Klein

Oswald Kuwert

Ron Fasano

A disc drive including a dual disc clamp for clamping a number of hard discs within a disc drive is disclosed. The clamp is comprised of a top circular clamp member in contact with a bottom circular clamp member, with the clamp members having the same physical shape and area. The bottom clamp member has number of holes formed therein which reduce the disc distortion. The top clamp member has a concave upper surface, while the bottom clamp member has a convex upper surface. The clamp holds the discs in place through pressure provided by a plurality of screws which are passed through holes in the clamp members. The disc drive also includes a spindle motor to which the dual disc clamp is connected. The spindle motor provides a greater torque constant, thereby allowing lower start and run current.

Dual member disc clamp for uniform clamping load distribution

A latching mechanism for a disc drive actuator that makes use of a constant force to hold the latch in an unlatched position while the disc drive is in operational mode. The latching mechanism uses the power of the actuator to move the latching mechanism into a latched position under program control or upon the detection of a power loss. While in the latched position, the configuration of the latching mechanism components combined with the frictional contact between heads and discs serves to overcome the constant force and maintain the actuator in its park position, even in the presence of applied mechanical shock, until power is restored to the disc drive. Unlatching of the latching mechanism is accomplished by bringing the spindle motor up to a speed at which the heads begin to fly, eliminating the friction between the heads and discs and allowing the constant force to move the latching mechanism to it unlocked position. The latch mechanism includes features which move the actuator from its park position as the latching mechanism is disengaged. Various mechanisms for providing the constant force to the latch body are disclosed.

Actuator latch activated by head gram load for hard disc drives

A disc clamp formed in a circular shape from planar material. The disc clamp includes a central mounting portion having screw holes through which screws are inserted and fastened to matching tapped holes in the hub of the spindle motor. A circular corrugation is formed closely adjacent the outer diameter of the clamp forming a circular contact surface facing in the direction of the uppermost disc in a vertical stack of discs. A stiffening bend is formed at a radius lying between the central mounting portion and the circular corrugation to distribute the clamping force evenly between adjacent pairs of the screws. In a second aspect of the invention, the central mounting portion of the clamp includes a central opening and that part of the central mounting portion between the central opening and the stiffening bend is formed out-of-plane in the direction of the discs so that the central mounting portion will be substantially flattened onto the top of the hub of the spindle motor when the screws are tightened.

Disc clamp with integrated stiffener for hard disc drives

In a disc drive with an integrated casting comprising the housing for the stepper and spindle motors, the transducer is mounted on a normal bearing pivot assembly lightweight actuator arm and biasing strip spring. One end of the strip spring is mounted to a block and the effective force of the spring is aligned with the actuator arm running toward the stepper motor. The other, or head end of the actuator arm contains a gear sector having gear teeth on its face which mesh with a pinion on a motor shaft so rotation of the motor shaft across the face of the gear sector causes movement of the head mounting arm. The actuator arm is formed of a self-lubricating polymer or other lightweight self-lubricating material. This way, wear on the gear is reduced; and as the teeth are worn, the gear is still tightly biased against the pinion to maintain accurate movement of the actuator arm with rotation of the pinion.

Rotary actuator

In a disc drive, the normal bearing pivot assembly is replaced with a combination of a lightweight actuator arm and biasing strip spring. One end of the strip spring is mounted to a block and the effective force of the spring is aligned with the actuator arm running toward the stepper motor. The other, or head end of the actuator arm contains a gear sector having gear teeth on its face which mesh with a pinion on a motor shaft so rotation of the motor shaft across the face of the gear sector causes movement of the head mounting arm.

Integrated disc drive and actuators support

A disc drive is disclosed which includes a base casting, a spindle motor mounted for supporting one or more discs for continuous rotation, an actuator for selectively positioning the transducers relative to the disc, and a cover which is to be fastened to the base casting to provide a sealed head disc environment. In order to achieve the seal in a preferred form of the invention, several corners of the base casting and/or other points along the edges of the casting are cast with upright posts. In assembly of the drive, a seal is placed around the upstanding edge of the casting, with the post protruding through the seal. The cover, which has openings matching the posts, is pressed down against the seal with the post protruding up through the cover and seal or gasket. An attachment clip is then pressed down over the top of the post, the clip being defined to comprise an annular ring and a plurality of inwardly protruding fingers, the fingers being sufficiently long that their ends slide against and the fingers are flexed by friction between the post and the ends of the fingers. Therefore, when the attachment clip is pressed down in place against the cover, the clip cannot ride back up over the post so that the cover is held tightly down against the gasket and base casting.

Disc housing clamping method

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.

Growing community of inventors

Saratoga, CA, United States of America

Efim Bronshvatch