Seagate Technology Incorporated

Lyle G Johnson

Gary L Heitkamp

Yoshiki Midori

Lee A Northouse

A head gimbal assembly includes a gimbal having a first strut and a second strut and a crossmember connected generally between the first and second struts. A gimbal bond tongue has a first end connected to the crossmember and a second end extending from the crossmember. The first and second struts are generally parallel to one another and define a suspension axis. The first end of the gimbal bond tongue is offset from the suspension axis along the crossmember. A slider is coupled to the gimbal bond tongue and a transducer is coupled to the slider.

Flexure having displaced gimbal bond tongue with end terminated heads

A flexure assembly for mounting and supporting a read/write head in a rigid disc drive data storage device. The flexure assembly includes a main flexure member which has a rigid beam and a gimbal portion integrally formed using the processes of etching and half-etching. A load transfer extension is fixedly attached to the rigid beam of the main flexure member, and is used to transfer a balancing force to counteract the self-acting hydrodynamic air bearing which is an integral part of the head. Application of the balancing force is through a load point button formed using the half-etching process on the tab used to adhesively mount the head. Attachment of the load transfer extension to the rigid beam is accomplished using either adhesives, or, preferably, an arrangement of tabs which are bent into cooperative arrangement with alignment features, thus eliminating the need to weld a separate gimbal member to a flexure load beam.

Flexure assembly for hard disc drive heads

A gimbal formed integral with a load beam by through etching a pattern at the end of the beam to define a pair of tabs connected by a pair of beams; half etching from the head direction one tab with an defined area masked to form a load button; and half etching the beam from the other direction to provide the proper gimbal stiffness. In practice, the head is glued to the other tab and load is applied through the button. The tabs are shaped to permit wire connections to top surface electrical contact terminals.

Gimbal for a flexure for top-terminated heads

A gimbal tubing capture supports a conductor sleeve as part of a head-gimbal assembly. The gimbal tubing capture includes a capture member extending outward from a side edge of the gimbal. The capture member supports the conductor sleeve in a plurality of directions.

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Minneapolis, MN, United States of America

Lyle G Johnson