Digital Equipment Corporation

John D Read

Charles M Riggle

Charles E Vaillant

Christopher Anthony Pollard

Frank W Bernett

Peter R Svendsen

William B Noe

Richard Winfrey

Gordon J Norquay

Removable rigid disk drive

A removable self-contained rigid disk drive has a head and disk assembly (HDA) and controller enclosed by a top and bottom cover. The industry standard form factor drive is externally dimensioned to be removably installable in a disk bay of the same form factor. HDA components are mounted on one side a composite plastic-steel base, and the controller is attached to the other side. The controller is proved with an industry standard electrical interface for connecting the drive with a host computer system with a complementary electrical interface. The covers of the drive are made of metal to reduce electromagnetic interference when the drive is in operation.

Removable enclosure housing a rigid disk drive

A combined shock mount frame and seal for a rigid or hard disk drive is constructed by attaching a compressible seal to the edge of a rectangular rigid plastic frame. The seal is provided with a circumferential angular groove on an interior portion having a depth slightly greater than half the thickness of the mounting base of the head and disk assembly of the drive. A circumferential angular ridge is formed on an exterior portion of the seal to conform to the mating edge of the covers of the drive enclosure. The frame is externally dimensioned to fit inside the covers of the drive enclosure. In use, a frame is placed inside a top and bottom cover of the drive enclosure. The mounting base is compressively held in the grooves of the seals of each of the two frames to provide shock resistance to the head and disk assembly and the ridge is compressively held between the mating edges of the covers to hermetically the drive enclosure.

Combined shock mount frame and seal for a rigid disk drive

An gasket is disclosed for environmentally sealing an enclosure of a disk storage device. The gasket, which is disposed between a base and cover portion of the enclosure is designed to accommodate a flat flexible wiring cable (flexcircuit) protruding therethrough. The gasket includes a compressible seal portion attached to the inner edge of a rigid plastic frame. The thickness of the seal is made slightly greater than the thickness of the frame. The width of the seal is substantially smaller than the width of the frame. A relief is formed on one surface of the gasket to receive the flexcircuit. The relief includes a groove extending across the width of the gasket. The groove has a depth essentially the same as the thickness of the flexcircuit, and a width slight larger than the width of the flexcircuit. Two ridges are formed across the entire width of the compressible seal portion of the gasket in the area immediately adjacent to the groove. During assembly, the excess compressible material in the ridges of the seal is deformed and displaced to fill the voids between the walls of the groove and the edges of the flexcircuit to ensure a continuity of the seal of the disk storage device enclosure.

Gasket for sealing a flat cable

A balance-moment head positioner includes a rotor assembly which rotates about a central shaft. The rotor assembly supports at the same axial location a current-carrying coil, arms for the heads, and a counterweight such that the positioner is dynamically balanced with its center of gravity at the center of rotation. The coils are arranged with legs parallel to the central shaft on diametrically opposite sides of the assembly. In addition, the positioner includes magnets and an elongated U-shaped magnetic pole member with ends facing the coils at the same axial location at the arms. Thus the torque developed when current flows through the coil, and a reactive counter-torque developed by the rotating mass coincide, substantially eliminating all torsion in the shaft, and there is no net force on the shaft.

Integral balanced-moment head positioner

A housing (1-10) for a disk (1-12) used in a 'Winchester'-type disk mass information storage unit in a data processing system. The housing is symmetrical about the plane of the disk, and supports the disk spindle (2-33) on both sides of the disk. The housing includes two substantially identical members (1-16, 17) fitted together in a clamshell-type arrangement. The housing includes a housing extension (1-26) for receiving and supporting the read/write heads (1-14) and actuator (1-15) therefor from both ends thereof. The members forming the housing are preferably thin walled castings, and may include fins (1-104) to dissipate heat or to enhance the housing's mechanical rigidity.

Disk housing for disk drive mass storage unit

A rotary actuator assembly for positioning read/write heads in disk drive mass storage systems. The actuator assembly includes an actuator motor and one or more actuator arms secured thereto. The motor provides rotary motion of the arms, to move the heads. The stator magnet of the motor is an electromagnet wound on an arcuate core; a pair of elongate permanent magnets are attached to the rotor member, for coaction with the stator magnet. The rotor member has a U-shaped cross sectional area in a plane perpendicular to its axis of rotation; the permanent magnets are fixed to the outside, bottom corners of the U and the actuator arms are mounted across the open end of the U. The rotor is of a very small radius, to minimize inertia. The permanent magnets have a flat face facing the stator, with a channel running longitudinally down the middle, to minimize flux density variations in the permanent magnet-coil gap. The rotor balances the arm relative to the rotor's axis. The arms are of a substantially symmetrical tapered truss design, presenting low inertia; each is cantilevered to the rotor by one bolt which is passed through and pulls the arm against the rotors. Additionally, a spirol-type cylindrical spiral spring, received in a slot in the arm, prevents lateral slippage of the arm relative to the rotor. A pair of cantilevered leaf spring crash stops fixed to the stator decelerate the rotor at the ends of its range of travel.

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Monument, CO, United States of America

John D Read