JP2002251856A - Head loading mechanism of inspection device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a head loading mechanism of an inspection device, which can efficiently load and unload a ramped loading system magnetic head. SOLUTION: The head loading mechanism is provided with a head assembly in which a projecting portion for ramped loading is formed at a tip part, a radial direction moving mechanism which moves the head assembly in the radial direction of a magnetic disk mounted on the inspection device, a vertical moving mechanism or rotating mechanism which moves a gimbals bar provided between the radial direction moving mechanism and a clamp part to clamp the base part of the gimbals bar in a vertical direction, and a stop plate which is fixed to the clamp part to stop the descent of the head assembly by bringing a tip part in contact with the rear surface of the projecting portion energized downward by elasticity at the ascending stage of the head assembly, The tip part of the stop plate is positioned between the rear surface of the projecting portion and the surface of the magnetic disk by floating from the surface of the magnetic disk of the magnetic head at the descending stage of the head assembly into which the magnetic head is loaded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a head loading mechanism of an inspection apparatus, and more particularly, to an inspection apparatus for a magnetic disk or a magnetic head, which is capable of efficiently loading and unloading a ramp load type magnetic head. It relates to a head loading mechanism.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A magnetic disk, which is frequently used as an information recording medium, a magnetic head for reading and writing data, and a magnetic disk are subjected to precise performance inspection by an inspection apparatus at a manufacturing stage. On the other hand, magnetic disk drives (HDD)
There are two types of carriage methods for magnetic heads: a linear method and an in-line method (or a rotary method), and a head assembly and a carriage mechanism corresponding to each method are used. Therefore, in the inspection apparatus for the magnetic disk or the magnetic head, a driver by a radial moving mechanism or a rotation mechanism is provided in the inspection apparatus according to the type of the head assembly, and the magnetic disk is mounted on the inspection apparatus, and the linear system and the in-line system are respectively installed. Inspections are being conducted according to

In recent years, the size of magnetic disks has been reduced,
High density is rapidly realized, and a small and lightweight GMR thin film head or the like is used as a magnetic head, and a head assembly suitable for this is manufactured. In this type of magnetic disk drive, the height of the base of the gimbal bar with respect to the surface of the magnetic disk becomes extremely small.
As shown in (a), in the inspection device, for example, a stop plate 5 is provided on the lower side of a small head assembly in which the height of the base of the gimbal bar is about 0.7 mm,
Holds the head assembly 2 during unloading, and when loading the magnetic head 21, the loading mechanism descends by ΔZ ′,
At this time, when the magnetic head slider 21a is in contact with the surface of the magnetic disk 1 as shown in FIG.
A head loading mechanism is used in which a small gap δz is maintained between the head and the lower surface of the head 2. Regarding this, Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 2-166081 (Patent No. 2934288)
No.) has been filed by this applicant.

Reference numeral 22 denotes a gimbal bar.
Is a radial moving mechanism (head carriage) that linearly moves in the direction of the radius R of the magnetic disk 1 and seeks a track, and a clamp unit 4 that clamps the base of the gimbal bar 22. Reference numeral 6 denotes a vertical moving mechanism attached to the radial moving mechanism 4, and the clamp unit 3
Is attached to the radial moving mechanism 4 via the vertical moving mechanism 6.

[0005] Recently, the density has been increasing,
HDDs of the order of tens of gigabytes have become mainstream. The head loading mechanism has also been improved, and instead of the contact start / stop (CSS) method, as shown in FIG.
A head loading mechanism 50 of a ramp loading type, in which a magnetic head 51 (head assembly 54) is held by a ramp (table on an inclined surface) 53 provided outside the outer periphery of a magnetic disk 52, has become mainstream. In the head assembly 54 of this type, when the magnetic head 51 is loaded, the distance between the surface of the magnetic disk 1 and the slider is further reduced, and the distance between the disk 1 and the slider surface is only about 0.2 mm even in a floating state. . The gimbal bar also extends substantially horizontally, and the gap between the gimbal bar and the disk surface is about 0.5 mm.

In this lamp loading method, as shown in FIG. 6B, the head assembly 54 has a projecting portion 55a called a load beam ramp portion which is slidably in contact with the inclined surface, formed at the tip of the gimbal bar 55. When the head assembly 54 rotates and the protruding portion 55a runs up the inclined surface of the ramp 53, the unloaded state is established. At the base of the rear end of the gimbal bar 55, a mount 55b is provided.
6 is fixed to the clamp portion 56a.

[0007]

In a magnetic disk inspection apparatus and a magnetic head inspection apparatus, a stop plate is provided below a gimbal bar when the ramp load type head assembly is unloaded.
Although the head assembly can be held by applying the technology of No. 166081, the distance between the gimbal bar and the disk surface is about 0.5 mm at the time of loading, so the technology of the earlier application cannot be applied. It's gone. Of course, it is easy to provide the lamp 53 in the inspection device, but in that case, sliding contact must be made every time the head is loaded or unloaded, thereby generating dust. In addition, the loading and unloading times are longer, and the inspection efficiency is reduced. In addition, if the inspection apparatus is provided with a lamp, there is a high risk that the inspection apparatus will obstruct the operation of the work handling mechanism and the like. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve such a problem of the prior art, and to provide a head loading mechanism of an inspection apparatus capable of efficiently loading and unloading a ramp load type magnetic head. .

[0008]

A feature of the head loading mechanism of the inspection apparatus according to the present invention for achieving the above object is that the head loading mechanism for an elastic lamp load having a protruding portion formed at its tip for the lamp load. A gimbal bar and a magnetic head fixed to the distal end of the gimbal bar, a radial moving mechanism for moving the head assembly in a radial direction of a magnetic disk mounted on the inspection device, a radial moving mechanism and a gimbal bar A vertical movement mechanism or a rotation mechanism that moves the gimbal bar vertically provided between the clamp part that clamps the base of the head assembly and a vertical movement mechanism or a rotation mechanism. The tip comes into contact with the back side of the urged projection, and the head assembly descends. When the head assembly on which the magnetic head was loaded was lowered, the tip of the magnetic head was positioned between the back surface of the protrusion and the surface of the magnetic disk by floating from the surface of the magnetic disk, and was fixed to the clamp portion. And a stop plate.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the head loading mechanism of the inspection apparatus having the above-described configuration, the head assembly at the tip of the stop plate fixed to the clamp is raised by a vertical movement mechanism or a rotation mechanism. In the unloaded state, the magnetic head is maintained at a fixed height because the lower surface of the gimbal bar is pressed downward by elasticity and comes into contact with the lower surface of the protrusion to prevent the gimbal bar from descending. When the disk is rotated and the magnetic head is loaded by moving the up / down moving mechanism or rotating mechanism to lower the head assembly, the magnetic head slightly floats from the disk surface and the gimbal bar moves upward against the elasticity. And the tip of the stop plate separates from the lower surface of the gimbal bar,
The protrusion of the gimbal bar is positioned at a position where the floating force of the magnetic head due to the viscosity of the air of the rotating magnetic disk and the elastic force of the gimbal bar are balanced, and the tip of the stop plate is located between the surface of the magnetic disk and the protrusion. Will be maintained. The above stop plate is 0.1m
A thin plate of about m to 0.2 mm has sufficient strength and can be manufactured.

More specifically, the stop plate has a tip portion made of ceramics or a member coated with ceramics, and a tip portion is supported by a crank-shaped support plate portion. The end is clamped to the clamp portion, the gimbal bar is oriented in the direction corresponding to the radial direction of the magnetic disk for the linear type head assembly, and the gimbal bar is appropriately bent for the in-line type head assembly. Connected via a connection plate,
The magnetic disk is clamped in a direction coinciding with the circumferential direction of the magnetic disk. In this case, each part of the head loading mechanism is substantially the same in the linear system and in-line system except for the connection plate in the linear system and the in-line system. It can be changed and commonly used.

[0011]

1A to 1D show the structure of an embodiment of a head loading mechanism of an inspection apparatus according to the present invention. The same components as those in FIGS. 5 and 6 are denoted by the same reference numerals,
I omit those explanations. In FIG. 1A, a linear head assembly 54 for ramp loading is clamped by a clamp unit 3, and the clamp unit 3 is attached to a radial moving mechanism (head carriage) 4 via a vertical moving mechanism 6. A crank-shaped stop plate 7 is fixed to the distal end side of the clamp portion 3, and the distal end portion 7a comes into contact with the lower surface of a projection portion (corner portion) 55a of a ramp-load type gimbal bar 55 that is urged downward by elasticity. The gimbal bar 55 is prevented from descending, and the slider surface on the lower surface of the magnetic head 51 is
Is maintained higher than the surface by ΔZ (about several mm).

In this case, the gimbal bar 55 is fixed to the clamp portion 3 so that, in the unloaded state, the gimbal bar 55 is supported by being inclined from the clamp portion 3 at a slight depression angle of a few degrees from the horizontal with respect to the surface of the magnetic disk 1. You. The stop plate 7 is horizontally supported from the clamp 3 in a direction substantially parallel to the surface of the magnetic disk 1, and the protrusion 5 of the gimbal bar 55 is provided.
5a, it is bent vertically in a crank shape at a position beyond the distal end portion, extends to a position where the distal end side contacts the lower surface of the projection portion 55a, and further the projection portion 55a moves in a direction in which the distal end portion 7a returns in the horizontal direction. It is bent and extended so as to be almost parallel. This stop plate 7 has a width of 0.
A thin plate having a thickness of about 3 mm to 0.8 mm and a thickness of about 0.1 mm to 0.2 mm has sufficient strength and can be manufactured. 1 (a) and 1 (b), the portion indicated by a circle at the upper left is a partially enlarged view of the tip side showing the contact state between the tip 7a of the stop plate 7 and the projection 55a.

The magnetic head 51 is moved by the radial moving mechanism 4.
Moves in the direction of the radius R of the magnetic disk 1 and the magnetic disk 1 rotates to load the magnetic head.
As shown in (b), the vertical movement mechanism 6 descends by ΔZ ′ (> ΔZ). At this time, the slider surface of the magnetic head 51 flies by Δh (≒ 0.2 mm) from the surface of the magnetic disk 1, and the gimbal bar 55 is bent upward by the pressing, and the tip of the stop plate 7 is moved from the lower surface of the gimbal bar by 0 °. The gimbal bar 55 (its protruding portion 55a) is located at a position where its own elastic force and levitation force are balanced (see a partially enlarged view). If a thin plate having sufficient strength is used as the stop plate 7, the stop plate 7 is arranged along the upper side of the gimbal bar 55 even in a very small case.
There is no possibility of contact with the magnetic disk 1 or the like. Then figure
(c) shows a case where a rotating mechanism 8 is provided between the clamp unit 3 and the radial moving mechanism 4 in order to move the head assembly up and down. As shown in FIG. 4D, when the rotation mechanism 8 is rotated by .DELTA..theta. And stopped by the stopper 81, the magnetic head 51 is lowered and the same floating operation as described above is performed.

FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged view of another supporting mechanism of the stop plate 7. In FIG. 2, the base of the stop plate 7 is attached to the lower surface of the clamp part 3 similarly to the gimbal bar 55 of FIG. 1, extends laterally, cranks in the horizontal direction, and extends substantially parallel to the gimbal bar 55. Tip 7a that contacts the lower surface of projection 55a
Is formed of a support plate 7c coated with ceramics 7b, which is fixed to the tip of a horizontal plate portion 7d. Thereby, dust generation due to contact abrasion can be prevented. In this case, it is a matter of course that the entire tip portion 7a may be made of ceramics.

FIGS. 3 (a) and 3 (b) show perspective external views in which the above-described head loading mechanism is applied to a linear type and an in-line type driver. FIG.
5 is a direction of the radius R of the magnetic disk, and a vertical moving mechanism 6
The operation is shown in FIGS. 1 (a) and 1 (b). FIG. 2B shows the rotation mechanism 8. When the drive arm 82 is rotated by .DELTA..theta. By an appropriate drive mechanism, the rotation unit 8 rotates and the magnetic head descends. FIG. 4 shows a case of an in-line type head assembly 2 '. In this case, the head assembly 54a is placed in the circumferential direction of the magnetic disk,
The clamp unit 3 is fixed to the vertical movement mechanism 6 by a connection plate 9 having the illustrated shape, and the magnetic head 51 performs inline seek by moving the radial movement mechanism 4 in the direction of the radius R. Although not shown, the rotation mechanism 8 of FIG. 1C can be used in this case as well. In the above, if the connection plate 9 is added to the linear system of FIG. 3A, the system is changed to the in-line system of FIG. 4, and the driver can be used for both.

[0016]

As is apparent from the above description, in the head loading mechanism of the inspection apparatus according to the present invention, the tip of the stop plate fixed to the clamp portion is moved by the vertical movement mechanism or the rotation mechanism. When the assembly is in the unloading state, the magnetic head is maintained at a certain height because the lower part of the gimbal bar is urged downward by elasticity to contact the lower surface of the protrusion and prevent the lowering. . When the disk is rotated and the magnetic head is loaded by moving the up / down moving mechanism or rotating mechanism to lower the head assembly, the magnetic head slightly floats from the disk surface and the gimbal bar moves upward against the elasticity. And the tip of the stop plate is separated from the lower surface of the gimbal bar, and the protrusion of the gimbal bar is positioned at a position where the floating force of the magnetic head due to the viscosity of the air of the rotating magnetic disk and the elastic force of the gimbal bar are balanced. Is maintained between the surface of the magnetic disk and the projection. As a result, it is not necessary to slide the ramp-load type magnetic head on the ramp, so that loading / unloading does not take much time,
Can be loaded and unloaded.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a structural sectional view of an embodiment of a head loading mechanism of an inspection device according to the present invention,
(a) is an explanatory view of an unload-like body, (b) is an explanatory view of a load-like body, and (c) and (d) are explanatory views of a moving mechanism for vertically moving a head assembly. .

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of another supporting structure of the head assembly in the embodiment of the head loading mechanism of the inspection apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective external view of an embodiment of a head loading mechanism of the inspection device according to the present invention, wherein (a) is
FIG. 3B is an explanatory diagram of a vertical moving mechanism that performs head loading and unloading, and FIG. 4B is an explanatory diagram of a rotating mechanism that performs head loading and unloading.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a vertical moving mechanism that performs head loading / unloading in an in-line system.

FIGS. 5A and 5B are explanatory diagrams of a linear system and an inline system of a magnetic disk driver. FIG. 5A is an explanatory diagram of a linear system, and FIG. 5B is an explanatory diagram of an inline system.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are explanatory diagrams of a head loading mechanism of the inspection device of the prior application, wherein FIG. 6A is an explanatory diagram of an unloaded body, and FIG. 6B is an explanatory diagram of a loaded body. .

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Magnetic disk, 1a ... Track, 2, 54, 54a
... Head assembly, 21, 51 ... Magnetic head, 2
2, 55: gimbal bar, 21a: slider, 3: clamp part, 4: radial moving mechanism (head carriage), 5, 7: stop plate, 6: vertical moving mechanism,
8 ... Rotating mechanism, 50 ... Ramp loading type head loading mechanism, 55a ... Protrusion.

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Akiyoshi Shibuya 3-16-3 Higashi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo F-term in Hitachi Electronics Engineering Co., Ltd. 5D076 AA01 BB01 CC01 CC04 DD08 FF04 GG20

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A head assembly comprising an elastic ramp-load gimbal bar having a protruding portion for a ramp load formed at a tip thereof, a magnetic head fixed to the tip side of the gimbal bar, and an inspection device. A radial moving mechanism for moving the head assembly in the radial direction of the magnetic disk, and a gimbal bar provided vertically between the radial moving mechanism and a clamp portion for clamping a base of the gimbal bar. An up-and-down moving mechanism or a rotating mechanism that moves, and the head assembly having a front end portion contacting the back surface of the protrusion that is urged downward by the elasticity when the head assembly is raised by the up-and-down moving mechanism or the rotating mechanism; The head assembly loaded with the magnetic head. A stop plate fixed to the clamp portion, wherein the tip portion is positioned between the back surface of the protrusion and the surface of the magnetic disk by floating of the magnetic head from the surface of the magnetic disk when descending; A head loading mechanism for an inspection apparatus. 2. The stop plate according to claim 1, wherein the tip portion is a ceramic or a member coated with ceramics, and the tip portion is supported by a plate portion bent in a crank shape. The gimbal bar is clamped by a clamp portion and has a direction in which the gimbal bar coincides with the radial direction of the magnetic disk for the linear type head assembly, and the gimbal bar for the in-line type head assembly. 2. The head loading mechanism for an inspection device according to claim 1, wherein the direction corresponds to a circumferential direction of the head.