JP2002288958A - Head-loading mechanism of disk apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a head-loading mechanism of a disk apparatus, which can correctly record and reproduce a magnetic disk even when an impact is applied to the apparatus. SOLUTION: In the head-loading mechanism, an elastic member 3 is provided astride a head-supporting part 23 which is a flat part fixing an upper head 1, another supporting part 21 which is a flat part fixing gimbals spring 2 to an upper carriage 4, and a middle frame 22 with which the head-supporting part 23 is coupled to the outer supporting part 21.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an impact resistance technique for a disk drive, and more particularly, to a technique for preventing a plastic deformation of a gimbal spring due to an impact.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A typical example of a conventional disk drive is described in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 5-198,075. This will be described below with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a head mounting mechanism of a conventional disk drive. Explaining the structure, the magnetic disk includes a magnetic head 101 for recording and reproducing data on and from a magnetic disk, and a gimbal spring 102 for supporting the magnetic head 101. The gimbal spring 102 is provided with the magnetic head 101 in circumferential directions A and A of the magnetic disk. Pairs of U-shaped notch grooves 12 for swinging in the directions perpendicular to the
Tie bars 124, 1 which are two pairs of swing shafts with 2, 123
25 are formed. A damping member 103 is attached to the swing end portion of the gimbal spring 102 so as to partially cover the U-shaped notch groove 122.

In the above-described disk drive, the vibration of the magnetic head 101 due to the attraction and slip of the magnetic disk is suppressed by the action of the vibration damping member 103, and as a result, the gimbal spring 102 resonates with the vibration of the magnetic head 101. Audible frequency vibration is suppressed, and the operation sound of the device is reduced. In addition, accurate recording / reproduction has become possible. However, although the initial purpose was achieved, the following drawbacks have been highlighted from recent technological trends.

[0004]

In recent years, electronic devices such as personal computers have been reduced in size and weight, and in addition to the conventional stationary type, easily portable models called a book type, a notebook type, a sub-note type, and the like. Has been developed, and electronic devices are being carried more frequently. Along with that, the danger of shocks being applied to electronic devices due to falls etc. increases, and the impact force is large,
Conventional impact resistance performance has become insufficient. Needless to say, it is necessary to similarly improve the impact resistance of a disk device mounted on an electronic device.

When a large impact is applied to the disk drive having the head mounting mechanism described in the section of the prior art, the tie bar 124 of the gimbal spring 102 is plastically deformed in a twisted manner as shown in FIG. Not only does the relative position with respect to move from the position at the time of adjustment, but also the contact between the magnetic head 101 and the magnetic disk becomes unstable, and normal recording and reproduction becomes impossible. Although not shown, the tie bar 125 or the intermediate frame 121 formed in the middle of the two pairs of tie bars may be plastically deformed, and the same problem occurs in these cases.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a head mounting mechanism for a disk drive which solves the above-mentioned problems.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A head mounting mechanism of a disk drive according to the present invention comprises at least a magnetic head for performing recording and reproduction on a magnetic disk, a mounting plate for supporting the magnetic head, and a mounting plate for mounting the mounting head. The mounting plate is composed of a flat part for fixing the magnetic head, a fixing part for the carriage, and a relay part connected to the flat part and the fixing part, respectively. The connecting portion forms a first axis parallel to the moving direction of the carriage, and a second axis substantially orthogonal to the first axis and parallel to the surface of the magnetic disk, and the relay portion includes the first and the second. In a head mounting mechanism of a disk device, which is connected around a second shaft with flexibility, at least a flat portion or a fixed portion connected to a relay portion by a connecting portion constituting a second shaft is relayed. The department is In portions other than the connection part, characterized by comprising coupled by disposing an elastic member.

In this case, the flat portion or the fixed portion connected to the relay portion by the connection portion forming the first shaft and the relay portion are connected to each other by disposing an elastic member at a portion other than the connection portion. It is desirable to do so.

In these cases, it is desirable that the elastic member has further viscosity.

According to the above construction of the present invention, the elastic member is provided on the mounting plate having the gimbal spring function for supporting the magnetic head, so that the elastic member can be used even when a large impact is applied to the disk drive. Since the amount of deformation is suppressed, the gimbal spring does not plastically deform.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 4 show a preferred embodiment of the head mounting mechanism of the disk drive according to the present invention. FIGS. 1 and 2 are perspective views, FIG. 3 is a side view, and FIG. FIG. In this embodiment, a 3.5-inch floppy (registered trademark) disk drive will be described as an example.

First, the configuration of the head mounting mechanism of the disk drive according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, a magnetic disk 7 has recording surfaces on both sides, and an upper head 1 as an upper magnetic head and a lower head 11 as a lower magnetic head are in contact with both recording surfaces of the magnetic disk 7, respectively. . The upper head 1 is flexibly supported by an upper carriage 4 via a gimbal spring 2. Upper carriage 4
Is fixed to the lower carriage 5 via a thin leaf spring 4a so as to be rotatable in the vertical direction as indicated by an arrow B in the figure. Similarly, the lower head 11 is flexibly supported by the lower carriage 5 via a gimbal spring 12. The lower carriage 5 and the upper carriage 4 are connected by a spring 6,
The upper head 1 and the lower head 11 have a structure in which the magnetic disk 7 is held at an appropriate pressure by the force of the spring 6. The lower carriage 5 is connected to a carriage seek mechanism (not shown), and moves in the radial direction of the magnetic disk 7 indicated by an arrow C in the figure, so that recording and reproduction on a desired track of the magnetic disk 7 by the upper head 1 and the lower head 11 are performed. It becomes possible.

Next, the function of the gimbal spring will be described using a gimbal spring 2 that supports the upper head 1. The gimbal spring 2 is generally made of a copper alloy such as stainless steel or phosphor bronze, and is a thin plate having a thickness of about 0.05 mm to 0.2 mm, and is formed on the upper carriage 4 as shown in FIG. An outer supporting portion 21 which is a flat portion for fixing the gimbal spring 2, an intermediate frame 22, and a head supporting portion 23 which is a flat portion for fixing the upper head 1 are formed in a three-divided structure, and the outer supporting portion 21 is intermediate with the outer supporting portion 21. The frame 22 is connected by a pair of tie bars 24, and the intermediate frame 22 and the head support 23 are also connected by a pair of tie bars 2.
5 are connected. In FIG. 1, the upper head 1 is supported below the gimbal spring 2. Thus, the upper head 1 is supported by the gimbal spring 2 and the upper carriage 4
When the magnetic disk 7 is attached to the head 1 and the contact surface of the magnetic disk 7 with the head 1 fluctuates, the head support 2
The upper head 1 swings with respect to the upper carriage 4 to follow the fluctuation by tilting the outer support 21 with the tie bar 24 or the tie bar 25 as a fulcrum. The gimbal spring 12 supporting the lower head 11 has the same configuration and the same function. (Embodiment 1) As described above, the gimbal spring has a function of supporting the magnetic head so that it can follow the fluctuation of the surface of the magnetic disk. To obtain this function, two pairs of tie bars 24 and 25 are provided. Has to be set low in rigidity, and therefore has a very low impact resistance. As described in the section of the prior art, when a large impact is applied to the disk drive, the upper head 1
The tie bar 24 or the tie bar 25 is plastically deformed by the force generated by the mass. Therefore, the elastic member 3 whose elastic characteristic is known in advance is attached to the outer supporting portion 21 of the gimbal spring 2.
And the intermediate frame 22 and the head support portion 23, the gimbal spring 2 is deformed when an impact is applied, so that the deformation proceeds more than the elastic deformation region and reaches the plastic deformation region. In this case, the elastic member 3 can suppress the progress of the deformation and prevent the gimbal spring 2 from being plastically deformed.

The gimbal spring 2 in the present embodiment has a shaft 2
Since the spring constant is configured to be symmetric with respect to 5a, the elastic member 3 is also arranged so that its elastic force is symmetric with respect to the shaft 25a. Further, it is desirable that the elastic member 3 has an appropriate viscosity. As a result, a desired component can be selected from the frequency components of the impact to exert the above-described effect. For example, by appropriately setting the viscosity characteristics, a high frequency component included in the impact and a relatively low frequency component of the surface fluctuation of the magnetic disk are separated, and only the high frequency component included in the impact is selectively absorbed. Properties can be obtained. Furthermore, when viscosity is given to the elastic member 3, the effect of absorbing the impact energy due to the internal loss of the elastic member 3 to accelerate the damping of the vibration of the gimbal spring system is achieved. This effect is effective not only for the impact but also for the absorption of the vibration described in the section of the related art.

The elastic member 3 according to the present embodiment is formed by attaching an adhesive material to a polyester sheet having a thickness of about 0.2 mm and forming an adhesive tape. The elastic member 3 is attached to the left and right sides symmetrically with respect to the center line 25a at a position away from the center line 24a of the tie bar 24 of the gimbal spring 2. This is gimbal spring 2
Is to prevent the tie bar 24 from being plastically deformed so as to be twisted in the radial direction of the magnetic disk 7.
Since the relative displacement between the head support portion 23 and the outer support portion 21 is greater at a position further away from the center line 24a, the elastic member 3 is attached so as to regulate the displacement amount at this position. However, a greater effect can be expected.
When plastic deformation occurs in the gimbal spring 2 in this direction, the off-track amount related to the compatibility of recording and reproduction on the magnetic disk 7, that is, the magnetic head from the center of the track of the standard magnetic disk (correctly performs recording and reproduction). Since the amount of deviation of the gap portion is increased, slight plastic deformation must also be suppressed. Therefore, it is extremely important to suppress plastic deformation in this direction.

The elastic member 3 includes an outer support 21 and an intermediate frame 22.
Since the head support portion 23 is disposed over the head support portion 23, it is of course possible to prevent the magnetic disk 7 from being inclined in the circumferential direction due to the plastic deformation of the head support portion 23 so that the tie bar 25 is twisted. At the same time, the intermediate frame 22
Can also be prevented from plastic deformation. (Mode 2) When the torsion rigidity of the tie bar 25 is relatively strong against impact, a case where only the tie bar 24 is plastically deformed so as to be twisted may be considered. As mentioned above, plastic deformation in this direction can cause significant damage to device performance, especially compatibility. Therefore, in such a case, as shown in FIG. 2, the effect can be obtained by attaching the elastic member 3 so as to straddle only the outer support portion 21 of the gimbal spring 2 and the intermediate frame 22. (Embodiment 3) In the embodiments described above, the elastic member 3 is attached to the opposite side of the head mounting surface of the gimbal spring 2, but may be attached to the head mounting surface side as shown in FIG.

The shape of the gimbal spring, the shape of the elastic member, the position of the gimbal spring, the amount of the gimbal spring, and the number of the gimbal springs are not limited to those illustrated in the embodiment, but can be changed in a manner that achieves the above effects. In the above embodiment, the gimbal spring 2 that supports the upper head 1 has been described. However, it goes without saying that the gimbal spring 12 that supports the lower head 11 can be similarly applied. Lastly, in the above embodiment, the disk device having the head mounting mechanism of the upper and lower gimbal spring structures has been described as an example, but the lower head is fixed and the upper head is a gimbal spring structure, or the lower head is a gimbal spring structure and the upper head is a fixed structure. It goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to the gimbal spring portion of each disk device.

In the above example, the tie bar is 2
Although provided in pairs, the present invention is not limited to this, and one or three or more pairs may be provided.

Furthermore, in the above example, the magnetic head performs recording and reproduction by contacting with a magnetic recording medium. However, the present invention is not limited to this. The magnetic head may perform recording and reproduction while flying above the recording medium.
In this case, it is necessary to follow the inclination of the magnetic head to the magnetic recording medium in order to stabilize the flying height, so that a gimbal structure similar to the above is required. Because it has. In this case, it is necessary to change the specification of the elastic member according to the weight of the magnetic head. However, from the above description, a person skilled in the art can easily change the design.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, the elastic member is provided on the mounting plate having the gimbal spring function for supporting the magnetic head, so that even when a large impact is applied to the disk drive, the elastic member is provided. However, since the amount of deformation of the gimbal spring is suppressed, the gimbal spring is not plastically deformed. According to the invention, the practical effect of the present invention is extremely large, for example, the impact resistance of the disk drive can be greatly improved by a cheap means without largely changing the conventional magnetic head support structure.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a main part showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic side view for explaining the configuration of the disk device.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing still another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a main part showing a head mounting mechanism of a conventional disk drive.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a state after an impact is applied to a head mounting mechanism of a conventional disk drive.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Upper head 2 ... Gimbal spring 3 ... Elastic member 4 ... Upper carriage

Claims (4)

[Claims] At least a magnetic head for performing recording and reproduction on a magnetic disk, a mounting plate for supporting the magnetic head,
A carriage on which the mounting plate is mounted and which can move in a radial direction of the magnetic disk, wherein the mounting plate has a flat portion for fixing the magnetic head, a fixing portion for the carriage, and the flat portion. And a relay section connected to the fixed section, wherein the connection section is a first section parallel to the moving direction of the carriage.
And a second axis substantially perpendicular to the first axis and parallel to the surface of the magnetic disk, wherein the relay section has flexibility around the first and second axes. In the head mounting mechanism of the disk device having and connected, at least the flat portion or the fixed portion and the relay portion connected to the relay portion by the connection portion forming the second shaft, A head mounting mechanism for a disk drive, wherein an elastic member is arranged and connected at a portion other than the connection portion. 2. The head mounting mechanism for a disk drive according to claim 1, wherein the flat portion or the fixed portion connected to the relay portion by the connection portion forming the first shaft, and the relay portion include: A head mounting mechanism for a disk drive, characterized in that an elastic member is arranged and connected at a portion other than the connection portion. 3. The head mounting mechanism for a disk drive according to claim 1, wherein said elastic member further has a viscosity. 4. A head mounting mechanism for a disk drive according to claim 1, wherein said elastic member has an elastic force symmetric with respect to said first axis or said second axis. A head mounting mechanism for a disk drive, wherein the head mounting mechanism is arranged in a pair or a plurality.