Claims
- 1. An actuator for a disk drive having a rotating recording medium, said actuator comprising the combination of
- a head/carriage assembly;
- a rolling suspension means for supporting said head/carriage assembly and for guiding said head/carriage assembly for translational movement radially relative to said recording medium; said suspension means including a capstan, a fixed precision positioning bearing, and a spring biased preload bearing; said preload bearing being biased against a substantially flat surface on one side of said said head/carriage assembly to load a parallel surface on the opposite said of said head/carriage assembly against said capstan and said positioning bearing, whereby said suspension means constrains said head/carriage assembly against movement toward and away from said recording medium;
- a precision bearing motor coupled to said capstan;
- a nonextensible, tensioned band wrapped around said capstan, said band being secured at an intermediate point along its length to said capstan and having a pair of ends extending substantially tangentially in opposite directions from said capstan, the ends of said band being secured to spaced apart points on said head/carriage assembly, whereby said head/carriage assembly moves radially of said recording medium under the control of said motor, and
- wherein said preload bearing is disposed between said capstan and said positioning bearing lengthwise of said head/carriage assembly whereby the load forced applied to said capstan and said positioning bearing are substantially independent of the position of said head/carriage assembly radially relative to said recording medium.
- 2. The actuator of claim 1 wherein said preload bearing is journalled for rotation in a bracket having an elongated flexible support arm, whereby said preload bearing is self aligning about its yawl axis under the influence of the spring bias applied thereto.
- 3. The actuator of claim 1 wherein said capstan is configured to provide a clearance between said band and said head/carriage assembly.
- 4. The actuator of claim 3 wherein
- said band is a thin, flexible member which is wrapped once around said capstan; and
- said band is secured to said head/carriage assembly in a plane parallel to said recording medium and has sufficient shear strength to constrain said head/carriage assembly against movement tangentially of said recording medium.
- 5. The actuator of claim 1 wherein said preload bearing is approximately midway between said capstan and said positioning bearing, whereby said load forces are substantially equal.
- 6. The actuator of claim 1 wherein
- said disk drive is a rigid disk having at least one recording platter; and
- said head/carriage assembly includes at least one read/write head; and further including
- a flexure secured to the reference surface of said head/carriage assembly for supporting said head.
- 7. The actuator of claim 6 wherein
- said band is secured to said head/carriage assembly in a plane parallel to said recording medium and has sufficient shear strength to constrain said head/carriage assembly against movement in a direction tangential to said recording medium; and
- said motor is a stepping motor.
Parent Case Info
This is a contination of application Ser. No. 100,580 filed Dec. 5, 1979, and now abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (5)
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
100580 |
Dec 1979 |
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