This invention relates to apparatus and methods of maintaining a hard disk drive when in a non-operational mode, in particular to apparatus and methods improving non-operating shock robustness by preventing separation of sliders from media in Contact Start-Stop (CSS) hard disk drives. The invention improves the non-operating shock robustness of a contact start-stop hard disk drive without affecting recording performance. It can be implemented at minimal cost. As mentioned earlier, this invention relates only to contact start-stop hard disk drives, and from hereon in the summary and detailed description, a hard disk drive will be assumed to be a contact start-stop hard disk drive.
The invention's method of parking the sliders includes, for each head gimbal assembly 60 included in a hard disk drive 10, the head gimbal assembly interacts with a tab ramp 312 radially mounted about a spindle shaft center 42 as follows. A load tab 78 included in the head gimbal assembly contacts the tab ramp to engage the slider 90 into a secure contact with a disk surface 120, as shown in
The invention's head gimbal assembly 60, includes the load tab 78 coupling through a load beam 74 to engage the slider 90, where the load tab contacts the tab ramp away from the slider, as shown in
The invention includes a disk clamp 300 supporting this method of parking the sliders on disk surfaces by including a third tab ramp 312-3 as shown in
The invention includes a spindle motor 270 supporting this method of parking the sliders on disk surfaces by including a fourth tab ramp 312-4. The invention includes manufacturing the spindle motor by providing the fourth tab ramp, and the spindle motor as the product of this process.
The invention includes a disk spacer 310 supporting this method of parking the sliders on disk surfaces by including a third tab ramp 312-3 radially mounted to a fourth tab ramp 312-4, which form a radially symmetric triangular extension from the disk spacer about the spindle shaft center 42. The invention includes manufacturing the disk spacer, by providing the first tab ramp and second tab ramp to create the disk spacer. The disk spacer is a product of this process.
The invention includes the hard disk drive 10 implementing this method of parking the sliders on disk surfaces, by including at least one disk surface 120, for example a first disk surface 120-1 for access by at least one head gimbal assembly 60, for example a first head gimbal assembly 60-1 including the first load tab 78-1 for contact with the first tab ramp 312-1 near a far inside diameter ID of the disk surface as shown in
The hard disk drive 10 may further include a second disk surface 120-2 for access by a second head gimbal assembly 60-2 including a third load tab 78-3 for contact with a third tab ramp 312-3 near the far inside diameter ID of the second disk surface. The hard disk drive may further include a disk clamp 300 containing the first tab ramp 312-1 and a spindle motor 270 containing the second tab ramp 312-2.
Manufacturing the hard disk drive may include any combination of several processes. First, the hard disk drive 10 including the first disk 12-1, may preferably be manufactured by rotatably coupling the disk between the disk clamp 300 and the spindle motor 270 about the spindle shaft center 42, placing the first tab ramp 312-1 close to the first disk surface 120-1 and the second tab ramp 312-2 close to the second disk surface 120-2 and installing a head stack assembly 50 including the first head gimbal assembly 60-1 near the first disk surface 120-1 and further including the second head gimbal assembly 60-2 near the second disk surface 120-2 to create the hard disk drive.
The hard disk drive 10 may further include a disk spacer 310 including a third tab ramp 312-3 facing the second disk surface 120-2 and coupling to a fourth tab ramp 312-4 facing a third disk surface 120-3 included in a second disk 12-2, a third head gimbal assembly 60-3 including a third load tab 78-3 for contacting the third tab ramp to engage a third slider 60-3 into the secure contact of the second disk surface, and a fourth head gimbal assembly 60-4 including a fourth load tab 78-4 facing the third disk surface.
By way of example, consider
In further detail, the second load tab 78-2 is included in the second head gimbal assembly 60-2. The third load tab 78-3 is included in the third head gimbal assembly 60-3. The head stack assembly 50 includes a first actuator arm 52-1 coupling to a first head gimbal assembly 60-1 including a first load tab 78-1 for contacting a third tab ramp 78-3 included in a disk clamp 300 to engage the first slider 90-1 into secure contact with the first disk surface 120-1. The head stack assembly further includes a second actuator arm 52-2 coupling to a second head gimbal assembly 60-2 and to a third head gimbal assembly 60-3.
Manufacturing this hard disk drive 10 may preferably further include assembling the disk spacer 310 between the second disk surface 120-2 and the third disk surface 120-3 by rotatably coupling a spindle motor 270 to the first disk 12-1 and the second disk 12-2 through the spindle shaft center 42, and installing a head stack assembly 50 including the third head gimbal assembly 60-03 and the fourth head gimbal assembly 60-4 between the third disk surface and the fourth disk surface 120-4 to create the hard disk drive.
The hard disk drive 10 is a product of the invention's manufacturing processes. The hard disk drive may further include more than two disks and more than one disk spacer. By way of example, the invention's hard disk drive may include three disks separated by two disk spacers.
The hard disk drive 10 may further preferably operate as follows. Each slider 90 is moved a short distance away from its tab ramp 312 before starting the spindle motor 270 coupling to the disk(s) 12, and each of the sliders is moved the short distance away from the tab ramps before stopping the spindle motor. The short distance is at most one millimeter, and may preferably be about half a millimeter.
During starting and stopping of the hard disk drive 10, the sliders, such as the second slider 90-2 and the third slider 90-3 are preferably moved slightly away from the tab ramp 312 a short distance d to relieve the load applied by the load tabs contacting the tab ramps before the spindle motor 270 is turned on to rotate the disks, for example, the first disk 12-1 and the second disk 12-2. The short distance may preferably be about ½ millimeter. These operations prevent weakening the durability of the hard disk drive 10. This movement may be accomplished through biasing the voice coil motor 30 against an inside diameter crash stop 36 as shown in
In normal operation the head stack assembly 50 pivots through an actuator pivot 58 to position at least one read-write head 94, embedded in a slider 90, over a rotating disk surface 120. The data stored on the rotating disk surface is typically arranged in concentric tracks. To access the data of a track 122, a servo controller first positions the read-write head by electrically stimulating the voice coil motor 30, which couples through the voice coil 32 and an actuator arm 52 to move a head gimbal assembly 60 in lateral positioning the slider close to the track as shown in
In further detail,
The invention also includes a head stack assembly 50 containing at least one head gimbal assembly 60 coupled to a head stack 54 at least one actuator arm 52 as shown in
The preceding embodiments provide examples of the invention and are not meant to constrain the scope of the following claims.