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:
Sep. 29, 1998
Filed:
Feb. 12, 1997
Norman Kermit Frater, San Jose, CA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A suspension is provided with a load beam which has a forward end portion which has a curved edge. Low profile wires from a slider of a head gimbal assembly (HGA) of the suspension extend across a top surface of the load beam in contact or in close proximity to the curved edge. When the slider pitches and rolls over the surface of a rotating magnetic disk, when the head element is accessed to read and write information from tracks on the disk, and when there are air flow forces, the wires move across the curved edge without any damage due to fretting. The forward end portion of the load beam is bent downwardly toward the HGA to provide the desired curved edge. When the slider pitches and rolls a flexure to which it is attached requires space for flexing, the space being located between the flexure and the load beam. In order to prevent intrusion into this space the forward end portion of the load beam is provided with a reduced thickness relative to the remainder of the load beam so that when the forward portion is bent downwardly to provide the curved edge it does not extend below a bottom surface of the load beam. The forward end portion can be provided with a reduced thickness by offset masking the top and bottom surfaces of thin metal stock followed by double etching. The double etching results in a thickness of the forward end portion which is substantially 50% the thickness of the remainder of the load beam. The forward end portion can then be bent to provide the curved edge by a die stamping process.