The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 22, 1991
Filed:
Apr. 05, 1990
John R Yaeger, Santa Clara County, CA (US);
Ramgopal Battu, Los Angeles County, CA (US);
Seagate Technology, Inc., Scotts Valley, CA (US);
Abstract
A slider lifter arrangement is provided for conventional disc drive assemblies. The slider lifter includes a wire support having a pair of wire support arms extending outward from a head positioning assembly adjacent opposite sides of a flexure arm that carries a slider. A lifting wire is strung between the opposing wire support arms in the space between the flexure arm and the disc surface. The lifting wire is formed from a shape memory alloy having martensitic and austenitic phase conditions. The wire is arranged to lift the flexure arm sufficiently to lift the slider off of the disc surface when the wire is in a first phase condition while allowing the slider to rest on the disc surface when the wire is in a second phase condition. The wire is selectively electrically heated to change its state from one phase condition to the other. The wire support is preferably formed integrally with the flexure assembly. The lifting wire is also preferably coated with an insulating material.