Seagate Technology Incorporated

Ronald F Fasano

Michael Kenneth Andrews

Ernst W Ridinger

A shim mechanism interposed between the hub of a spindle motor, used to mount and rotate discs in a disc drive data storage device, and the disc clamp used to secure the discs to the hub, the shim serving to evenly distribute the clamping force applied to the disc clamp by a plurality of screws equally spaced about the periphery of the disc clamp. The shim includes alignment means for centering the shim relative to the disc clamp and spindle motor hub, and a plurality of radially extending arms, equal in number to the number of screws fastening the disc clamp to the spindle motor hub. The radially extending arms are centered between adjacent screws, and have a width selected to divide the angular displacement between adjacent screws into thirds. The thickness of the shim is selected to evenly distribute the clamping force of the screws about the circumference of the disc clamp.

Disc clamp shim for a rigid disc drive

A disc drive is disclosed including a base that includes a first section for mounting the motor that supports and spins the discs, and a second section for mounting the actuator and the carriage which is to carry the transducers toward and away from the discs. The voice coil motor itself consists of two halves. Each half is mounted to the base using a flange located between the carriage guide rods on which the carriage will ride. This mounting flange has two attachment points: a first mounting point at the end of the flange farthest from the discs, which is fixed in all axes, and a second mounting point at the end of the flange closest to the discs, which prevents relative movement between the base and the voice coil motor in the axes perpendicular to and tangential to the discs, but allows differential expansion along the axis radial to the discs. Since each voice coil motor half is independently mounted to the base, and since each motor half has only one fixed mounting point along any one axis, the base is free to thermally expand and contract around the voice coil motor without distorting.

Growing community of inventors

Saratoga, CA, United States of America

Ronald F Fasano