Seagate Technology Incorporated

Mike James Darling

Iraj Jabbari

Choon Kiat Lim

Long Van Ngo

Narayanaswamy Pasupathy

A hard disk drive assembly having a pivoted arm that moves a read/write head over a hard disk from an inside diameter to an outside diameter, and an unadjustable, one-piece crash stop that limits the movement of the arm. A first version of the crash stop is an elongated member having a smooth bottom free of projections, and having first and second through holes. The hard disk drive assembly has a base having two threaded holes. The first and second through holes of the crash stop align with the two threaded holes when the crash stop is placed on the base. Screws are disposed in the first and second through holes and are threadably engaged with the two threaded holes in the base. The screws, when tightened, lock the crash stop in a precise location. In this version, one of the screws passes through a very closely-fitting precision round hole in the one-piece crash stop. That screw acts, in effect, like a locating pin. This version can be used without modifying the existing base of the hard disk drive assembly. In a second version of the invention, the fixed crash stop employs only a single mounting screw and two precision locating pins along with a modified base. One of the pins has a close fit in its locating hole. This locating pin ensures that the improved crash stop is correctly and accurately located.

Fixed crash stop

A flexible cable is supported within the sealed disc drive housing, with one end of the cable readily, automatically soldered to the end wires of the spindle motor leads. The opposite or outboard end of the cable terminates in a header comprising a plastic mounting piece to support a multi-pin electrical connector with the pins extending from both sides of the header. Two locating pins are provided on the plastic header outside of a channel for defining the location of a gasket. The conductors in the cable terminate at four connecting pins at one end of the header. With the pins extending both above and below the header piece, immediately upon installation of the printed cable, the conductors to the spindle motor may be accessed so that the spindle motor and other elements of the head disc assembly may be tested during assembly of the complete disc drive. The locating pins provided at opposite ends of the header allow the printed circuit cable and header to be quickly and automatically disposed on the base surface of the housing casting, with the locating pins being pushed into recesses in the base housing casting, and the connecting pins extending through an opening in the base housing casting so that wires may be attached thereto to interface the header to external circuits supported on the exterior of the housing. A gasket is located in the channel surrounding the pins on the header to seal the interior of the disc drive so that the contaminant-free nature of the interior of the housing is preserved.

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Soquel, CA, United States of America

Mike James Darling