Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.v.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Japan, Ltd.

Shin Nagahiro

Masahiko Sega

Gentarou Nakamura

Toshihiko Shimizu

Tetsuya Hamaguchi

Toshihiro Arisaka

Hiromitsu Masuda

Jiro Kaneko

Gentaro Nakamura

Atsushi Katsuta

Takenori Atumi

Ohno Makoto

In one embodiment, a disk drive has a solenoid and spring for turning a ramp mechanism about a rotating shaft. When the drive operates, since the ramp mechanism moves out from the magnetic disk by the force of the solenoid, the outer peripheral edge of a magnetic head that has formerly been unusable can be used as a data read/write region, without the magnetic head interfering with the fins of the ramp mechanism. During a non-operating state of the drive and in case of a power interruption, the force of the spring returns the ramp mechanism to a position at which the magnetic head can be unloaded. This construction allows the storage capacity of the drive to be easily increased without sacrificing the shock resistance of the ramp mechanism.

Magnetic disk drive with load/unload mechanism having first and second protrusions

The positioning accuracy of a magnetic head decreases due to vibrations in the in-plane rotation mode of an HDD, which are caused by couple or disturbance occurring in seek operation, due to vibrations in the thrust mode, and the conical mode, of the spindle, which are caused by disturbance, and due to vibrations in the case thrust mode, the spindle fall mode, and the like. In one embodiment, an elastic support member includes a pillar-shaped part. The elastic support member is provided with a recess on a surface opposite to a corner of a base, and longitudinal fin projections on the upper and lower sides with respect to the recess. The base is provided at its corner with a horizontal fin that is parallel to a disk surface. The horizontal fin is inserted into the recess of the elastic support member. The longitudinal fin projections come into contact with the base, and control basic vibrational characteristics on both the upper and lower sides with respect to the horizontal fin. The pillar-shaped part is provided with a zigzag-shaped part so that the pillar-shaped part may come into contact with a frame.

Magnetic disk drive with elastic support member

A magnetic disk drive having a high recording density and enabling high speed transfer is achieved by reducing vibration of a carriage arm assembly to reduce a positioning error. The disk drive is configured so that a carriage arm is configured by two arm portions, the arm portions being coupled to each other by a restraint member through a viscoelastic material, the restraint member being supported on a carriage body or an area of the carriage arm in the vicinity of the body by means of adhesion or a viscoelastic material. By providing a high damping effect against various vibration modes in which in-plane bending and out-plane bending of the carriage arm are generated, vibration of the carriage arm assembly is suppressed, so that the positioning error is reduced, thereby the magnetic disk drive having a high recording density can be achieved.

Carriage arm assembly for magnetic disk drive

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Shin Nagahiro