Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Becton Dickinson and Company Limited

Jorge Haro

Raffi Codilian

Shawn E Casey

Roger G Davis

Kamran Oveyssi

John J Carrino

Scott E Castanon

Brian Patrick Dwyer

Richard R Anderson

Bryan G Towns

Martin J Bouliane

Gregory K Bond

Cassette for a medical device

A disk drive is disclosed employing a constant contact inertial latch for latching an actuator arm assembly while the disk drive is powered down to protect against physical shocks. The inertial latch comprises a body having a protruding arm and a pivot surface. When the actuator arm assembly is in the latched position, the protruding arm is in constant contact with the actuator arm assembly applying a latching force to the actuator arm assembly. During a physical shock, an inertia of the body biases the body rotationally about the pivot surface in a first direction to increase the latching force applied to the actuator arm assembly by the protruding

Disk drive employing a constant contact inertial latch

A disk drive includes a base, a cover, a spindle motor attached to the base, a disk supported by the spindle motor, a subassembly for attachment to the base, and a compressible element positioned between the cover and the subassembly. The compressible element is in compression for attaching the subassembly to the base.

Disk drive with coil spring attaching flex bracket to base

An aspect of the invention can be regarded as a method of balancing a rotary actuator for use in a rotatable head stack assembly (HSA) portion in a disk drive. The rotary actuator has a pivot axis, and the rotatable HSA portion has an installed HSA portion center-of-gravity. The method provides for determining a desired rotary actuator center-of-gravity location for locating the installed HSA portion center-of-gravity along the pivot axis for mitigating acceleration of the rotary actuator about the pivot axis due to external linear acceleration experienced by the disk drive during a track-follow operation. The method further provides for measuring weight distribution characteristics of the rotary actuator to determine an actual rotary actuator center-of-gravity. The method further provides for selectively modifying weight distribution characteristics of the rotary actuator to locate the actual rotary actuator center-of-gravity at the desired rotary actuator center-of-gravity location.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR BALANCING A ROTARY ACTUATOR BY MODIFYING WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ROTARY ACTUATOR FOR LOCATING AN INSTALLED HEAD STACK ASSEMBLY PORTION CENTER-OF-GRAVITY ALONG A PIVOT AXIS

An aspect of the invention can be regarded as a method of balancing a rotary actuator for use in a rotatable head stack assembly (HSA) portion in a disk drive. The rotary actuator has a pivot axis, and the rotatable HSA portion has an installed HSA portion center-of-gravity. The method provides for deetermining a desired rotary actuator center-of-gravity location for locating the installed HSA portion center-of-gravity along the pivot axis for mitigating acceleration of the rotary actuator about the pivot axis due to external linear acceleration experienced by the disk drive during a track-follow operation. The method further provides for measuring weight distribution characteristics of the rotary actuator to determine an actual rotary actuator center-of-gravity. The method further provides for selectively modifying weight distribution characteristics of the rotary actuator to locate the actual rotary actuator center-of-gravity at the desired rotary actuator center-of-gravity location.

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Stockton, CA, United States of America

Jorge Haro