Hutchinson Technology Corporation

John B Symons

Raymond R Wolter

Yiduo Zhang

A shock limiter system for a head suspension configured to engage with an external structure in a rigid disk drive. The head suspension has a flexure with a head slider oriented in a first direction over a disk surface. The head suspension includes a load beam having a mounting region, a rigid region and a spring region located between the mounting region and rigid region. The rigid region and the flexure define a distal region of the head suspension. The shock limiter system comprises a shock limiter extending from the distal region in a second direction generally opposite the first direction. The shock limiter is positioned on the distal region to engage with the external structure to limit movement of the head suspension away from the disk surface during a shock event.

Shock limiter system for a head suspension

A head suspension for supporting a read/write head adjacent a data storage device has a monocoque construction produced by overlapping laminae having mutually opposed surfaces, with at least one of the surfaces having a cavity etched therein. The monocoque construction of the head suspension constructed according to a method of the invention results in reduced mass of the head suspension and increased rigidity and stiffness.

Monocoque head suspension and its method of construction

The present invention is a magnetic disk drive head suspension of the type having a load beam and a flexure, including an alignment measurement pattern on either the load beam or the flexure. The flexure is mounted to a distal end of the load beam, and the alignment measurement pattern is used to evaluate and quantify the position of the flexure relative to the load beam. The alignment measurement pattern includes a plurality of openings adjacent a tooling reference hole that are sized and positioned to expose the outer perimeter of a corresponding tooling reference hole. In this manner, the alignment measurement pattern provides an accurate assessment of the alignment between the load beam and the flexure by indicating the offset of the flexure tooling hole relative to the load beam tooling hole.

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Hutchinson, MN, United States of America

John B Symons