Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Mitsubishi Steel Mfg. Co., Ltd.

Kenichi Sakamoto

Hideki Kuwajima

Makoto Miyamoto

Kaoru Matsuoka

Satoru Fujii

Hitoshi Sato

Shinichi Yamamoto

Kazuo Yokoyama

Yoshihiro Ueno

Hiromi Kita

Yousuke N Irie

Yasuhiro Mitsui

Shigeo Obata

Isaku Kanno

Koichi Shinohara

Kiyotaka Uehira

Katsumasa Yamaguchi

Sakae Higano

Satoshi Suyama

Koichiro Nakagawa

Satoshi Kosugi

Kenji Sanpei

A biaxial hinge having a rotating mechanism that realizes durability, a good tactile feedback, smaller size and more lightweight is provided for use in a notebook computer or a portable telephone that needs to be smaller and more lightweight. The biaxial hinge is constituted such that a rotating shaft support member is fixed to a rotational shaft support member, a rotation-side member is inserted and attached to the outer periphery of the rotating shaft member, and an opening/closing torque unit mechanism for opening and closing operations is disposed at the rotation-side member, wherein sliding friction torque and click torque are generated by the load produced by a coil spring between pressing members and the rotating shaft support member or a sliding member attached to the rotating shaft member. The rotating mechanism of the biaxial hinge of the present invention affords good durability, a good tactile feedback, and a reduction in size and weight. And, this rotating mechanism is applied to a portable telephone.

Rotating mechanism of biaxial hinge and portable telephone with the same

To provide a disk apparatus that can enhance reliability of a head wiring and a driving wiring, a disk apparatus includes a head slider, an arm, a driving unit, a wiring body provided for supplying a head mounted on the head slider with a head current used for signal recording or reproduction with respect to a disk-like recording medium and supplying the driving unit with a driving current used to drive the arm to swing, and a lead-out terminal portion. The wiring body includes a flexure sheet provided in the arm so as to support the head slider, a head wiring provided so as to connect the head slider and the lead-out terminal portion by passing over the flexure sheet thereby to supply the head mounted on the head slider with the head current, and a driving wiring provided along the head wiring in an area ranging from a wiring connecting portion formed on a side of the flexure sheet opposite the head slider to the lead-out terminal portion thereby to supply the driving unit with the driving current.

Wiring body with flexure sheet connecting the head slider and the driving unit in a disk apparatus

A head supporting device with a loading/unloading mechanism and a disk drive unit using the head supporting device. The head supporting device and a voice coil motor (VCM) make up a head actuator of the drive system. The head actuator has i) a support arm rotatable on a bearing, moving in directions along the radius of a recording medium and vertical to the surface of the medium; ii) a magnetically levitating head on a slider facing the medium; and iii) resilient member for applying force to the arm in a direction close to the medium. The VCM has a pair of yokes, a magnet, and a coil. When the head is lead to a head retracting position, the other end of the arm is pulled by the interaction of a magnetic member and the magnet at the resting position and adjacencies. This eases the load on the VCM, contributing to a compact and slim disk drive unit with toughness and rapid data-access.

Head supporting device and disk drive unit using the same

A head support mechanism includes a head and a slider for carrying the head, the head being caused to track by main driver, wherein the head support mechanism further includes sub-driving device including a thin film and causing the head to have a micro-movement; and the sub-driving device causes the head to have a micro-movement by utilizing flexural deformation of the thin film.

Head support mechanism, information recording/reproducing apparatus, and method of manufacturing head support mechanism

Magnetic head suspension

A disk drive is rotatably disposed in a direction vertical to the recording surface of a recording medium. The disk drive comprises a support arm having a head at one side thereof, and a first member which abuts the other end of the support arm, generating a frictional force between the member and the support arm, when the support arm is moved in a direction along the recording surface of the recording medium.

Disk drive

A disk drive comprises a recording medium, spinning means, a head supporting device having a support arm disposed in a rotatable manner about a bearing unit in a radial direction as well as a perpendicular direction to a writing surface of the recording medium, and rotating means for rotating the support arm in the radial direction of the recording medium. A shape of the housing is defined based on a first straight line tangent to both an outermost rim of the rotating means and an outer periphery of the recording medium, and according to a quadrilateral comprised of the first straight line, a second straight line tangent to the outer periphery of the recording medium and perpendicular to the first straight line, a third straight line tangent to the outermost rim of the rotating means and perpendicular to the first straight line, and a fourth straight line tangent to the outer periphery of the recording medium and parallel with the first straight line, thereby realizing the disk drive that is compatible in external size with memory cards.

Disk drive with head supporting device

A head supporting device comprises a support arm and a head mounted to an underside surface at one end of the support arm. The support arm is disposed in a rotatable manner about a bearing unit in a radial direction of a recording medium as well as a perpendicular direction with respect to a writing surface of the recording medium, and the support arm is provided with resilient means for imposing upon itself with a thrusting force in a direction toward the recording medium. Because of this structure, a portion serving as the support arm can be formed with a material of high rigidity, the thrusting force of the resilient means upon the slider can be set freely as desired, and its resonance frequency can be increased, thereby providing the head supporting device with an extremely high resistance to shock, and high responsivity with capability of making a high speed access.

Head supporting device and disk drive using the same

A magnetic disk apparatus includes a slider for holding a magnetic head for scanning a magnetic disk and performing recording end reproduction of information; a flexure member for holding the slider, the flexure member having an elasticity in a direction substantially perpendicular to a surface of the magnetic disk; a head actuator arm for holding the flexure member and causing the magnetic head to scan the magnetic disk; and an elastic body provided on the head actuator arm for applying a load for pressing the slider toward the surface of the magnetic disk.

Magnetic disk apparatus

A voice coil motor capable of quickly and precisely positioning a magnetic head with high precision is provided with a bearing rotatably supporting a head carriage without being influenced by a radial load. Two coils having radial sections contributing to generate a torque are provided to be rotatable in a magnetic space formed by a permanent magnet and a pair of yokes, and are layered along a central rotating axis in such a manner that an extension angle of the radial sections of one coil differs in direction from that of the radial sections of the other coil. When electric current flows, no radial load works, and a resultant force generated in these coils can be a couple of forces in the direction vertical to the movement direction of the magnetic head, so that the magnetic head can be quickly positioned with high precision, realizing a small magnetic disk device.

Voice coil motor

A loading apparatus for a recording medium comprises a holder for holding a recording medium, a guide provided on the holder, a slide plate mounting thereon, and a raised member which supports the guide when the recording medium is not inserted into the holder and which releases the support when a recording medium is fully inserted into the holder. The holder is urged downward so that, when the guide is released from the raised member, the recording medium moves downward to a loading position. A discharging plate having a cam mounted thereon is also provided. When the discharging plate is pushed, the cam pushes up the guide, thereby returning the holder to an unloading position. Thus, each of the loading and unloading operations is completed only by one manual operation.

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Osaka, Japan

Kenichi Sakamoto