Alps Electric Co., Ltd.

Takamichi Fuke

Kunihiko Gunji

Osamu Shigenai

Atsushi Masuda

Masao Ohkita

Tadami Sugawara

Kazuo Kobayashi

Yuichi Hishi

Chiaki Aikawa

Naoki Unjo

Kazuyoshi Ozawa

Takashi Watanabe

There is disclosed a magnetic head assembly for use in a disk drive that can store and retrieve data from a magnetic disk. The assembly has a carriage and an arm on which a lower magnetic head and an upper magnetic head are carried, respectively. A hinged leaf spring is located on the carriage remotely from the heads. The arm can swing about the spring which is welded to the spring mount portion of the carriage.

Welded leaf spring mounting for magnetic head assembly of disk drive

A bearing device for rotatably supporting the end of a rotational shaft through a slide bearing to a base comprising a through opening perforated at a part of the base for press-fitting the slide bearing, and a retainer containing opening formed at the base to substantially perpendicularly cross the through opening, and a retainer disposed in the retainer containing opening of the base for bearing the axial force of the rotational shaft, thereby reducing the manufacturing cost and improving its accuracy.

Bearing device

A disk recording-reproducing device having a carriage with a read/write head, a screw shaft to shift the carriage with an engaging element through coupling between a spiral groove of the screw shaft and the engaging element, and a stepping motor to rotate the screw shaft. The spiral groove is composed of a number of groove portions each with a straight bottom whose angle of lead is substantially zero degree that are displaced successively, circumferentially and axially. Preferably, the screw shaft has plane portions for its positioning, and a rotor of the stepping motor has magnetization points being set correspondingly to the lines of the groove portions.

Head carriage moving mechanism of disk recording reproducing device

A device for shifting a carriage on which the magnetic head of a disk drive is carried, the disk drive being used with magnetic disks. A mating element mounted to the carriage is in resilient contact with a helical groove formed on a threaded shaft. A retaining member having a retaining portion is mounted on the carriage. The retaining portion is usually not in contact with the wall defining the helical groove, but bears against the wall when the shaft stops abruptly or a strong external force is applied, for example. Thus, the mating element is prevented from disengaging from the groove.

Device for shifting carriage

In a stepping motor comprising a stator including a plurality of stator plates, and a rotor made of a permanent magnet, a coating layer made of a nonmagnetic material is applied to the stator plates, and the rotor is rotated within the stator plates while the rotor is maintained in a closely adjacent relation contactable with the coating layer of the stator plates.

Motor air gap bearing arrangement

In a recording and reproducing device for a magnetic disc, including a carriage supporting a magnetic head, an engaging piece secured to the carriage, and a screw threaded shaft engaging with the engaging piece for causing a linear shift of the carriage, the screw threaded shaft is formed with a plurality of groove portions. Each of the groove portions has a substantially linear groove bottom of a leading angle substantially equal to 0.degree.. The groove portions are arranged in an equally spaced apart relation around the surface of the shaft so that the portions are mutually displaced in the axial direction of the shaft by a predetermined distance, and that when these are connected together, a kind of helical groove is formed around the surface of the shaft. To be cooperative with the helical groove, the engaging piece is provided with a linear projecting end portion engageable with each of the groove portions.

Carriage moving mechanism for recording and reproducing device

An intermittent drive member comprises a shaft with a spiral groove formed in the outer periphery of the shaft. The spiral groove includes a plurality of groove portions each having a linear bottom portion with a lead angle of zero degrees and a plurality of chamfered portions. The groove portions are successively formed by being axially shifted one after one along the shaft, and each of the chamfered portions forms the connection between adjacent groove portions. The intermittent drive member is employed in a mechanism which includes an electric motor for driving the shaft and a movable member having a tip end portion slidably fitted in the spiral groove so that the movable member is displaced when the shaft is rotated. The shaft is rotated to move the movable member in a predetermined direction when the tip end portion is in each of the chamfered portions, while the motor is deenergized to stop the movement of the shaft when the tip end portion is in each of the groove portions.

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Furukawa, Japan

Takamichi Fuke