JP2002015546A - Hard disk drive case and manufacturing method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a novel hard disk drive case which is easily produced and is inexpensive in production cost, and to provide a producing method thereof. SOLUTION: In this hard disk drive case 1, which is provided with an annular sealing member 4 along a superposing surface 3, which is formed on the marginal part of a case body 2, the sealing member 4 is formed by continuously extruding an elastic polymer material S directly or via an adhesive on the polymer surface 3. Thereby, the molding of the sealing member and the attachment thereof to the case body can be performed simultaneously, so that the production is facilitated, and at the same time, the drastic shortening of production process can be achieved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hard disk drive unit (HDD) used as a storage device for information equipment terminals such as personal computers, and more particularly to a hard disk drive case forming an outer shell thereof and a method of manufacturing the same. It is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, such a hard disk drive unit has a structure in which internal devices such as a hard disk and a pickup drive mechanism are housed in a pair of box-shaped hard disk drive cases. The surface is provided with a seal member for completely preventing intrusion of dust, moisture, corrosive gas and the like.

Conventionally, as this seal member, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, rubber a which annularly extends along an overlapped surface 3 formed on a peripheral portion of a case body 2, that is, a rubber band type is used. However, these are extremely narrow in width and the shape is indefinite, so high-precision molding is difficult, and
There is a drawback that a lot of labor is required for handling and mounting work.

For this reason, recently, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, an annular core plate b having a fixed shape is used.
A so-called gasket-like sealing member d in which a polymer elastic material c such as butyl rubber is integrated on both surfaces or around it, or an unvulcanized rubber or the like directly molded using a mold on the superposed surface of a hard disk drive case. A case-integrated type has been proposed.

[0005]

However, in the former gasket-shaped sealing member d, since the core plate b which hardly contributes to the sealing function itself is used, the number of manufacturing steps increases and the material cost increases. There is an inconvenience of becoming.

On the other hand, in the latter case-integrated type, when unvulcanized rubber is molded, extra rubber is generated as burrs, and this burring removal operation requires a great deal of labor and a high level of skill. There is an inconvenience of requiring technology.

In addition, in recent years, hard disk drive units for personal computers have been changed at a high pace, such as six months to one year. Therefore, each time the shape of the seal member is redesigned, the core plate required for manufacturing the seal member is changed. And the mold had to be remade, and it was difficult to respond quickly.

The present invention has been devised in order to effectively solve such problems, and its main object is to provide a novel hard disk drive case which is easy to manufacture and inexpensive to manufacture, and a new hard disk drive case therefor. It is intended to provide a manufacturing method.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention comprises an annular seal member along a superposed surface formed on a peripheral portion of a case main body. In the hard disk drive case described above, the seal member is provided with a polymer elastic material mainly composed of rubber or thermoplastic elastomer directly or with an adhesive in the groove formed on the polymerized surface or along the polymerized surface. This is a hard disk drive case that is continuously extruded.

[0010] As a method of manufacturing such a hard disk drive case, as described in claims 4 to 6, along the overlapping surface formed on the peripheral portion of the case body,
Or, after continuously extruding a flowable polymer elastic material, such as rubber or thermoplastic elastomer, directly or through an adhesive in a groove formed along the polymerized surface, this is cross-linked to form the polymerized surface. And an annular seal member is formed integrally along the line.

That is, according to the present invention, an annular seal member is integrally formed by continuously extruding a polymer elastic material mainly composed of rubber or thermoplastic elastomer along a polymerization surface of a case body. As a result, the molding of the seal member and the attachment of the seal member to the case body can be performed at the same time, and the manufacturing process can be greatly shortened. Further, a core plate for maintaining the shape as in the related art is not required, and a deburring operation or the like after molding is not required. Therefore, material cost can be reduced and the operation can be simplified. . Moreover, even if the shape of the case body is frequently changed, the cost can be increased quickly and easily by simply changing the movement of the extruder for extruding the polymer elastic material by changing the movement thereof. Can be suppressed.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a hard disk drive case 1 according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2 and 3 show an example of a manufacturing method thereof.

As shown in the figure, a hard disk drive case 1 according to the present invention has an annular sealing member 4 along an overlapping surface 3 formed on the peripheral edge of a box-shaped case main body 2.
After overlapping the overlapping surface (not shown) of the other hard disk drive case with the sealing member 4 interposed therebetween on the overlapping surface 3 side, a plurality of assemblies formed around the overlapping portion are formed. The two cases are integrally assembled by bolting or screwing through the through holes 5, 5,..., And the inside is completely sealed.

As a method of manufacturing the hard disk drive case 1 having such a structure, first, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, the case body 2 is fixed with its overlapping surface 3 facing upward, and an extruder 6 such as a dispenser filled with a polymer elastic material S is positioned on the overlapping surface 3.

Here, the polymer elastic material S is composed of a main material such as rubber or thermoplastic elastomer and a suitable amount of a vulcanizing agent or a filler added thereto. A type of material is used.

The rubber and the thermoplastic elastomer include:
For example, natural rubber, acrylic rubber, acrylonitrile
Butadiene rubber, styrene / butadiene rubber, butadiene rubber, butyl rubber, ethylene propylene rubber, chloroprene rubber, chlorosulfonated polyethylene, nitrile rubber, silicone rubber, urethane rubber, urethane-based thermoplastic elastomer, styrene-based thermoplastic elastomer, olefin-based thermoplastic Elastomers, ester-based thermoplastic elastomers, amide-based thermoplastic elastomers, chlorine-based thermoplastic elastomers, and fluorine-based thermoplastic elastomers can be used alone or in combination (blended). Among them, silicone rubber and urethane are particularly preferable. Rubber is best.

The vulcanizing agents include sulfur, sulfur oxides, inorganic vulcanizing agents other than sulfur, polyamines, resin vulcanizing agents,
Oximes, nitroso compounds, triazines, peroxides and the like can be used alone or in combination of two or more. In addition, vulcanization aids such as metal oxides, metal carbonates, amines, guanidines, aldehyde amines ,
Aldehyde ammonia-based, thiazole-based, sulfenamide-based, thiourea-based, thiuram-based, dithiocarbamate-based, xanthate-based, allyl compounds, maleimides, methacrylates, divinyl compounds, etc., alone or in combination. good.

As the filler, any of inorganic and organic fillers may be used, and these may be used alone or in combination. Examples of the inorganic filler that can be used include carbon, silica, magnesium carbonate, calcium carbonate, magnesium silicate, aluminum silicate, aluminum oxide, aluminum hydroxide, silicon carbide, and glass. And high-strength fibers can be used. As the organic filler,
Polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, ABS
Resin, polycarbonate, polyacetal, polyoxymethylene, polyester, polyamide, polyamideimide, polyphenylene ether, polyphenylene sulfide, polyether ketone, polyether ether ketone, polyarylate, polyimide, engineering plastics resin such as liquid crystal polymer, polyvinyl chloride, chlorine Chlorinated resins such as fluorinated polyethylene, polyvinylidene fluoride, ethylene
Fluorinated resins such as tetrafluoroethylene and polytetrafluoroethylene, silicone resins, high-strength fibers, and the like can be used.

Further, the polymer elastic material S used in the present invention may contain other rubbers, other thermoplastic elastomers, resins, stabilizers, coloring agents, antioxidants, lubricants and the like, if necessary, in addition to the above components. You may mix.

Next, when the extruder 6 such as a dispenser filled with the polymer elastic material S is positioned on the superposed surface 3, the extruder 6 is moved horizontally along the superposed surface 3. While continuously extruding the polymer elastic material S from the extruding tip of the extruding device 6 onto the polymerization surface 3 in a ring shape, the polymer elastic material S is transferred to a crosslinking device such as a thermostat, and inside the device, under the optimal conditions for each material. As described above, the hard disk drive case 1 of the present invention integrally provided with the annular seal member 4 on the overlapped surface 3 is obtained. The operation of the extrusion device 6 can be easily performed automatically or manually by inputting the shape of the case main body 2 into an operation program.

According to such a manufacturing method, since the molding of the seal member 4 and its attachment to the case main body 2 are performed simultaneously, the seal members are separately manufactured as in the prior art, and this is The manufacturing process can be greatly shortened compared to the method of assembling to the case main body, and the core plate for maintaining the shape of the seal member as well as the deburring work after molding etc. Since it is completely unnecessary, it is possible to simultaneously reduce the material cost and greatly simplify the operation.

In addition, even when the shape of the case body 2 is frequently changed, the shape can be quickly and easily responded to by simply changing the operation program or manually changing the movement of the extrusion device 6. Therefore, it is possible to suppress an increase in cost due to a shape change, and it is possible to quickly and accurately respond to a request for a large number of varieties in small quantities.

In this embodiment, the case body 2 is fixed and the extruding device 6 is moved to form the annular seal member 4 in an extruded manner. Is fixed, and the case body 2 is moved, so that the annular seal member 4 can be formed with high precision as in the above embodiment. Further, in the present embodiment, the sealing member 4 is formed by directly extruding the polymer elastic material S onto the polymerized surface 3, but an adhesive is applied in advance to the extruded position and the adhesive is applied on the adhesive. The sealing member 4 may be formed by extruding the polymer elastic material S.

Further, as shown in FIG.
A groove 7 that is previously continuous along the formation position of the seal member 4
The sealing member 4 may be formed by extruding the polymer elastic material S directly into the groove 7 or via an adhesive as described above.

[0026]

Examples (Examples 1 to 8) As shown in the left column of Table 1,
Silicone rubber, ethylene propylene rubber, urethane-based thermoplastic elastomer, ester-based thermoplastic elastomer (TP) as the polymer elastic material (main material) constituting the seal member
E), a seal member was formed on the overlapped surface of the case body by the above-described manufacturing method of the present invention, and the processing time, manufacturing cost, and sealability were examined.

Here, the processing time is derived from the total operation time of the basic operation when operating the manufacturing apparatus, the cleaning time of the manufacturing apparatus, the crosslinking time, the adhesive application time, the drying time, the HDD unit assembling time, and the like. The manufacturing cost is derived from the total amount of material cost, adhesive cost, case body cost, groove forming cost, manufacturing equipment maintenance cost, processing cost, and the like. When an adhesive is used, an appropriate amount of an adhesive is applied in advance to the overlapped surface of the case body before forming the seal member, and the air-dried one is used.When a groove is provided, the case body is It was formed simultaneously with the fabrication.

(Comparative Example 1) As shown in the right column of Table 1, a rubber ring-shaped seal member made of ethylene propylene rubber was used as a conventional seal member, and the seal member was pressed onto the overlapped surface of the case body by pressing with a mold. After being integrally mounted, the processing time, the production cost, and the sealing property were examined according to the same criteria as in the examples.

(Comparative Example 2) As shown in the right column of Table 1, as the sealing member, a core plate integrated type was used as in the prior art.
After this was integrally attached to the overlapping surface of the case main body by die pressing, the processing time, manufacturing cost, and sealing property were examined according to the same criteria as in the examples.

(Comparative Example 3) As shown in the right column of Table 1, a case integral type made of ethylene propylene rubber was used as a conventional sealing member, that is, it was directly molded on the overlapping surface of the case body using a mold. After a seal member was integrally formed on the overlapped surface of the case body by a known method, the processing time, the production cost, and the sealability were examined based on the same criteria as in the examples.

(Comparative Example 4) As shown in the right column of Table 1, except that the seal member was attached via an adhesive, the seal member was integrally formed on the overlapping surface of the case body by the same method as in Comparative Example 3. After the attachment, the working time, the manufacturing cost, and the sealing property were examined according to the same criteria as in the examples.

[0032]

[Table 1]

As a result, as shown in the lower column of Table 1, all of the samples of Comparative Examples 1 to 4 exhibited good sealing properties, but in particular, a comparative example using a rubber ring type sealing member was obtained. In Example 1, not only the processing time became longer,
The cost has also increased. Also, in the core plate integrated type comparative example 2, although the processing time was slightly shortened as compared with the comparative example 1, it was disadvantageous in cost. Further, in the case integrated type comparative example 3, although the cost was good, the processing time was long. Further, in Comparative Example 4, as in Comparative Example 3, not only the processing time was prolonged, but also the use of the adhesive was disadvantageous in cost.

On the other hand, in each of the samples of Examples 1 to 8 according to the present invention, not only good results were obtained with respect to the sealing property, but also However, the processing time was short and the manufacturing cost was low.
In particular, in Example 1 using a sealing member made of silicone rubber and Example 5 using a urethane-based thermoplastic elastomer, excellent results were obtained in both the processing time and the manufacturing cost. It was found that the best one could be obtained.

[0035]

In summary, according to the present invention, the molding of the seal member and the attachment to the case body can be performed simultaneously, so that the manufacturing process can be greatly shortened. Further, a core plate for maintaining the shape as in the related art is not required, and a deburring operation or the like after molding is not required. Therefore, material cost can be reduced and the operation can be simplified. . Furthermore, even if the shape of the case body is frequently changed, it is possible to respond quickly and easily only by changing the movement of the extruder, so that an increase in cost due to the shape change can be suppressed. The effect can be exhibited.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a hard disk drive case according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of a method for manufacturing a hard disk drive case according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing another embodiment of the case body.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an example of a hard disk drive case using a conventional rubber seal member.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing an example of a hard disk drive case using a conventional core material-integrated seal member.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG. 6;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Hard disk drive case 2 Case main body 3 Overlapping surface 4 Sealing member 5 Assembly through hole 6 Extrusion device 7 Groove S Polymer elastic material

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A hard disk drive case provided with an annular seal member along an overlapped surface formed on a peripheral portion of a case body, wherein the seal member is formed by applying a polymer elastic material directly on the overlapped surface or by using an adhesive. Hard disk drive case characterized by being continuously extruded through the 2. A hard disk drive case having an annular seal member along an overlapped surface formed on a peripheral portion of a case body, wherein the seal member is inserted into an annular groove formed along the overlapped surface. A hard disk drive case obtained by extruding a polymer elastic material directly or continuously through an adhesive. 3. The hard disk drive case according to claim 1, wherein the polymer elastic material is mainly composed of rubber or a thermoplastic elastomer. 4. A flowable polymer elastic material is continuously or directly extruded along an overlapping surface formed on a peripheral portion of the case main body through an adhesive, and then is crosslinked to form an adhesive on the overlapping surface. A method of manufacturing a hard disk drive case, wherein an annular seal member is formed integrally along the case. 5. A groove is formed along the overlapped surface formed on the peripheral portion of the case body, and after a fluid polymer elastic material is continuously or directly extruded into the groove via an adhesive, A method for manufacturing a hard disk drive case, characterized in that an annular seal member is formed along the overlapping surface by bridging this. 6. The method for manufacturing a hard disk drive case according to claim 4, wherein a material mainly composed of rubber or a thermoplastic elastomer is used as said high molecular elastic material.