This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-086237, filed Mar. 31, 2009, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to a storage device configured to store information into a rotating disk recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In modern storage devices, such as magnetic disk drives, the flying height of a head has been reduced with the increase of recording density. In order to improve the reliability of the storage devices, therefore, it is essential to prevent a head crash that may be caused if dust enters the gap between the head and a disk medium.
To overcome this problem, there is a known technique for dust collection. According to this technique, a disk medium is contained in a sealed housing, and a dust collection filter is mounted in an arbitrary position on the outer periphery of the disk medium that produces airflow as it rotates. Further, the dust collection capacity of the filter depends greatly on the rate at which air passes through the filter. In order to allow more air to pass through the filter (or to increase the flow rate), therefore, some contrivances, such as the use of an air guiding member, have been tried, but with no satisfactory results.
A general architecture that implements the various features of the invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. The drawings and the associated descriptions are provided to illustrate embodiments of the invention and not to limit the scope of the invention.
Various embodiments according to the invention will be described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. In general, according to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a storage device comprising: a housing configured to contain a magnetic disk storage medium; a drive section configured to rotate the storage medium to store information into the storage medium; an air passage which is defined along an outer peripheral edge of the storage medium between the outer peripheral edge and a wall portion of the housing which faces the outer peripheral edge, receives air produced as the storage medium rotates, and discharges the received air toward an outer peripheral surface of the storage medium; a filter for dust collection in the air passage; and a spoiler located close to at least an air exhaust side of the air passage and extending from the outer peripheral edge side of the storage medium to a region above a recording surface of the storage medium.
A magnetic disk drive according to one embodiment of the invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The magnetic disk drive 10 comprises an arm 13, which is mounted, on its distal end, with a magnetic head (not shown) that writes and reads information to and from each magnetic storage medium 20. On receipt of a driving force from the suspension flexure 14, the arm 13 pivots in the direction of arrow B around a shaft 13a between an unloading position and loading position. In the unloading position, the distal end of the arm 13 is supported by a ramp 15. In the loading position, the magnetic head faces the storage medium 20. When the magnetic head is in the loading position, it writes or reads information to or from the storage medium 20.
The housing 11 of the magnetic disk drive 10 comprises a wall surface 16 that extends along the respective outer peripheral surfaces of the magnetic storage media 20. The wall surface 16, extending along the outer peripheral surfaces of the storage media 20, serves to prevent airflow from being disturbed by the rotation of the media 20.
A part 16a of the wall surface 16 extends away from the respective outer peripheral surfaces of the magnetic storage media 20. A space 17 is defined between the outer peripheral surfaces of the storage media 20 and the wall surface 16 that is spaced apart from the media surfaces. The space 17 accommodates a circulation filter 31. A shroud 33 for circulating air through the circulation filter 31 is located together with the filter 31 in the space 17. The shroud 33 comprises a spoiler 32 that is inserted between the magnetic storage media 20 that are adjacently superposed.
As shown in
The opposite end portions of the circulation filter 31 is held in engagement with the support groove 33a of the shroud 33 and a support groove 16b in the wall surface 16 of the housing 11, individually. Thus, the circulation filter 31 is supported so as to block the space 17. Some of air that flows as the magnetic storage medium 20 rotates flows to the backside of the shroud 33 through the air inlet 18, passes through the circulation filter 31, and then flows out through the air outlet 19.
The spoiler 32 is provided on that surface of the shroud 33 which faces the outer peripheral surfaces of the magnetic storage media 20 and is partially located just upstream of the air outlet 19 in the direction of rotation A of the storage media 20. The spoiler 32 extends from the shroud 33, penetrates a gap between the adjacent storage media 20, and is located to face the respective recording surfaces of the storage media.
In this case, the stacked magnetic storage media 20 are two in number. Of these two storage media 20, a lower storage medium 21 is located so close to a bottom surface 16c of the housing 11 that only a slight gap exists between the medium 21 and bottom surface 16c. Further, an upper storage medium 22 of the two media 20 is located so close to the cover 30 that only a small gap exists between the medium 22 and cover 30.
On the other hand, a relatively large gap exists between the two magnetic storage media 21 and 22, and the spoiler 32 penetrates this gap. The shroud 33 extends along respective outer peripheral surfaces 21a and 22a of the storage media 21 and 22 and defines the space 17 on its backside.
In the present embodiment, on the other hand, the shroud 33 comprises the spoiler 32, as shown in
All the constituent elements of this assembly except the circulation filter 31, that is, the spoiler 32, shroud 33, rear-wall block 34, and junction 35, form a single integral part of a resin material.
As shown in
In the first example shown in
The following is a description of results of simulations of operations of the shroud 33 and spoiler 32 for a plurality of comparative examples.
In the simulations, the magnetic storage media 20 were rotated at a speed of 10,000 rpm. Further, a length of projection E of the shroud 33 was adjusted to ⅓ of the radial length of the recording surface of each magnetic storage medium 20, and a width G in the direction of flow to 12.5% of the length of the shroud 33 from the air inlet 18 to the air outlet 19. Furthermore, a thickness F of the shroud 33 was adjusted to 55% of the distance between the respective surfaces of the adjacent magnetic storage media 20.
Pressure differences between the sides of the air inlet 18 and outlet 19 in Examples 1 and 2 are greater than those in Comparative Examples 1 and 2. Specifically, in Comparative Example 2 shown in
As seen from
While certain embodiments of the invention have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Indeed, the novel methods and systems described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms. Furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the methods and systems described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the invention.
In the embodiments described above, the spoiler 32 penetrates the gap between the two magnetic storage media. Alternatively, however, the spoiler 32 may be arranged so as to extend overlapping the bottom side of the lower storage medium (that faces the housing) and the topside of the upper storage medium (that faces the cover). The same functions and effects as those of the above-described embodiments can also be obtained in this case.
Although the magnetic disk drive has been illustrated in connection with the embodiments described herein, moreover, this invention is not limited to the magnetic disk drive, and is widely applicable to any storage devices configured so that a plurality of magnetic disk storage media are rotated in layers.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2009-086237 | Mar 2009 | JP | national |