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:
Feb. 16, 1993
Filed:
Nov. 09, 1990
Thomas A Hickox, Santa Clara County, CA (US);
Jeffrey P Stram, Santa Cruz County, CA (US);
Seagate Technology, Inc., Scotts Valley, CA (US);
Abstract
A magnetic latching mechanism is provided including a permanent magnet imbedded in and completely surrounded by rubber or other resilient material. This combination is fixedly mounted to the housing or other non-moving portion of the disc drive and a small metal plate of magnetizable material is mounted to the moving actuator mechanism at a position such that it will come into contact with the crash stop and latch mechanism when the actuator is at its desired park position. The rubber or other resilient material provides the desired 'soft' contact for the crash stop and the thickness of the rubber at the contact point controls the amount of latching force applied by the magnet to the metal plate. Since the latching action is purely magnetic, there is no solenoid needed to release the latch. When power is applied and the disc has attained the speed necessary to 'fly' the heads, the actuator motor is used to overcome the magnetic force of the latch. Since the amount of latching force is controlled by the thickness of the rubber or other resilient material between the permanent magnet and the moving plate, it is a simple matter to select a latching force sufficient to hold the heads in the park position over the specified range of shock load of the disc drive and yet small enough to be overcome by the actuator motor.