Seagate Technology Incorporated

Magnetic Peripherals Inc.

Michael A Cain

David S Allsup

Steven S Eckerd

Apparatus for supporting transducer heads of a hard disk drive wherein the heads are mounted on transducer support arms that are, in turn, mounted on extensive fingers formed on an actuator that moves the heads across surfaces of data storage disks. Two holes are formed through each finger to form two coaxial sets of holes on the actuator body and one hole in each finger receives a tubular boss formed about one of two equally spaced holes formed through one end of each support arm each arm. Bosses inserted into coaxial holes in the fingers extend thereinto from the same direction and are swaged to fix the support arms to the actuator by passing a ball through the bosses from the opposite direction. The support arms are constructed by spot welding swage plates, each having two holes formed therethrough and having a boss about one hole, to leaf members, similarly having two holes formed therethrough, whereon the transducer heads are mounted.

Apparatus and method for mounting transducer heads in a hard disk drive

An apparatus for predicting twist out torque of a swage mount measures work done by a swage ram during a swaging operation. The apparatus includes a position sensor for sensing the position of the ram and a force sensor for sensing the force of the ram during the swaging operation. The apparatus gathers position and force information and calculates swaging work. Swaging work correlates with twist-out torque for a swage mount. Calculated swaging work is compared with a minimum acceptable swaging work value which is related to a minimum acceptable twist out torque level. If the swage work of a particular swage mount is below the minimum acceptable swage work level, an operator can reswage the mount and thereby strengthen the mount to avoid future failure due to rotation at the swage mount.

Apparatus for predicting twist out torque in a swage mount

Method for predicting twist out torque in a swage mount

A magnetic disk memory data storage device has a unitary arm assembly mounted for rotation by an actuator for carrying the tranducers and shifting them across the disk surfaces. The assembly is subjected to varying temperature during normal operation of the device which causes differential rotation of the individual arms and consequent misalignment of them. In a design of interest, the arm nearest the deck is most affected. At least some of this misalignment can be compensated for by placing a slot in the edge of at least one arm and placing a body with a different thermal coefficient into the slot with an interference fit. If the body has a smaller thermal coefficient than the arm assembly's, the slot should be on the edge opposite the direction in which the misalignment occurs.

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Oklahoma City, OK, United States of America

Michael A Cain