Storage Technology Corporation Partners Ii

Paul Kummli

Edward M White

John W Woods

An apparatus for clamping and unclamping an optical disk in an information storage and retrieval device having removabe media. The apparatus has rotating and a non-rotating disk support assemblies, the non-rotating disk support assembly being attached to an elevator which reciprocatively raises and lowers the rotating and non-rotating disk support assemblies. The rotating disk support assembly is magnetically clamped to the non-rotating disk support assembly by an electromagnet during the loading and centering operation. The rotating disc support assembly has a centering stem which cooperates with a hole in the device spindle to center the rotating disk support assembly relative to the device spindle. In the preferred embodiment, the disk has a flexure and a tapered disk centering hub which cooperates with a taper on the hole in the device spindle to center the disk relative to the device spindle. After the disk is centered relative to the device spindle, a shunt plate on the mating face of the device spindle cooperates with a set of permanent magnets in the rotating disk support assembly to magnetically clamp the disk to be rotated between the device spindle and the rotating disk support means. To unload, the above described procedures are reversed.

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Boulder County, CO, United States of America

Paul Kummli