JPH09320210A - Carriage assembly for flexible disk driver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a carriage assembly effective in marking lightweight indispensable for high-speed access by fixing a lower carriage to the carriage assembly main body and making an upper carriage attachable to the main body with a piece of screw. SOLUTION: The lower carriage 152 is supported and guided by a pair of guide bars 16, extending in parallel to the prescribed radial direction on its both lateral lower ends. The upper carriage 151 and the lower carriage 152 are driven along the prescribed radial direction by a voice coil motor. The carriage 152 is manufactured integrally with the support block 150 at the rear of the carriage assembly 15. On the other hand, the carriage 151 is stuck to a spring plate 153, and the plate 153 is fixed to the upper surface of the block 150 through a press plate 154 by a piece of screw 155. In such a manner, by making the carriage 151 attachable with a piece of screw, the mass of one piece of screw can be reduced, compared with the case of the conventional two pieces, and the carriage assembly suitable for the high-speed access is obtained.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a carriage assembly used in a flexible disk driver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, a flexible disk driver is a kind of magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus for recording / reproducing data on / from a flexible disk inserted therein. In recent years, the capacity of a flexible disk has been increased, and a storage capacity of 1 M to 2 M bytes (hereinafter,
A memory having a storage capacity of 128 Mbytes (hereinafter referred to as a large capacity) has been developed in comparison with a memory having a normal capacity. Along with this, a flexible disk driver that can record and reproduce data on such a large-capacity flexible disk has been developed.

One of the mechanical differences between the normal capacity flexible disk driver and the large capacity flexible disk driver is that a carriage for swingably supporting a magnetic head is inserted in the driver. The drive means is configured to move in a predetermined radial direction with respect to the flexible disk. That is, while a normal capacity flexible disk driver uses a stepping motor as a driving means, a large capacity flexible disk driver may use a linear motor such as a voice coil motor (VCM) as a driving means. Will be needed.

Here, the driving means by the stepping motor will be described with reference to FIG. The carriage assembly 120 includes a lower carriage 121 and an upper carriage 122, and magnetic heads 123 (only the side of the lower carriage 121 is shown) are attached to the upper end surface of the lower carriage 121 and the lower end surface of the upper carriage 122, respectively. Lower carriage 12
1, the support block 124 is integrally formed at the rear end thereof, and one end side of the support block 124 is extended to the drive shaft 110 side to form a carriage arm 125. A pin 126 is planted at the tip of the carriage arm 125, and the pin 126 engages with a trough of a male screw provided on the drive shaft 110. The tip of the drive shaft 110 is a bearing 112 provided on a bent portion 111 that is formed by cutting and raising a part of the main frame of the flexible disk driver.
Supported by

The upper carriage 122 has a spring plate 127.
It can be rotated about the boundary with the support block 124, that is, can be opened upward. The spring plate 127 is fixed to the upper surface of the support block 124 by two screws 129. A flexible disk (not shown) has a lower carriage 121 and an upper carriage 1 when the upper carriage 122 is opened.
22 and each magnetic head is closed so as to be close to the flexible disk after the insertion.

A coil spring 128 is provided on a spring mounting portion 124-1 formed so as to project from the rear surface of the support block 124. By extending a part 128-1 of the coil spring 128 to the upper surface side of the upper carriage 122 and abutting it, the upper carriage 12 opened upward.
2 is returned to the original state and is used as a biasing means when the head is pressed against the flexible disk.

[0007]

On the other hand, a voice coil motor used as a driving means for a large-capacity flexible disk driver will be described. The voice coil motor is disposed behind the carriage assembly and is wound around a drive shaft parallel to a predetermined radial direction and flows through the voice coil, as will be described later with reference to the drawings. A magnetic circuit for generating a magnetic field that intersects the electric current. With such a configuration, a current is passed through the voice coil in a direction intersecting with the magnetic field generated by the magnetic circuit, and a driving force is generated in the extending direction of the drive shaft based on the interaction between the current and the magnetic field. . The driving force causes the voice coil motor to move the carriage assembly along a predetermined radial direction.

As is well known, the flexible disk is
A case having an opening and a magnetic disk medium housed in the case and accessed by a magnetic head through the opening are provided on the surface of the magnetic disk medium as passages for recording data. A plurality of circular tracks are formed along the radial direction. Naturally, the track width of a large-capacity flexible disk is smaller than that of a normal-capacity flexible disk.

By the way, in a large-capacity flexible disk driver, it is necessary to increase the seek speed for high-speed access. However, the structure of the conventional carriage assembly shown in FIG. 5 is not suitable for high-speed access because the overall shape is large and the weight reduction is limited. For this reason, in a large-capacity flexible disk driver, it is necessary to use a voice coil motor to reduce the number of parts as much as possible, and to reduce the size and weight.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, in view of the above-mentioned demands, an object of the present invention is to provide a carriage assembly for a flexible disk driver, which is essential for high-speed access and effective for weight reduction.

[0011]

According to the present invention, a pair of magnetic heads for writing / reading data to / from a flexible disk inserted in a flexible disk driver is swingably supported at one end side. A carriage assembly having an upper carriage and a lower carriage, wherein the lower carriage is fixed to a carriage assembly body, and the upper carriage is attachable to the carriage assembly body with one screw. To do.

The carriage assembly has a support block for mounting the upper carriage, the lower carriage is integrated with the support block on the other end side, and the upper carriage is spring-loaded on the other end side. A plate is fixed and adapted to be screwed to the upper surface of the support block.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. A flexible disk driver to which the voice coil motor according to the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. 2 is a plan view of the flexible disk driver, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a part of the voice coil motor in FIG.

The illustrated flexible disk driver is
This is a device for recording / reproducing a flexible disk (not shown). The flexible disk is inserted into the flexible disk driver from the direction indicated by arrow A in FIG. The inserted flexible disk is held on the disk table assembly 12 rotatably supported on the surface of the main frame 11 with their central axes aligned with each other. The disk table assembly 12 is a motor (not shown) provided on the back surface of the main frame 11.
The flexible disk is rotated by the drive. A substrate (not shown) on which a number of electronic components are mounted is attached to the back surface of the main frame 11.

The flexible disk driver has a magnetic head for reading / writing data from / to the flexible disk. The magnetic head is held by the carriage assembly 15. The carriage assembly 15 is composed of a combination of a magnetic head, a gimbal, and a carriage, as will be described later. The carriage assembly 15 is arranged on the surface of the main frame 11 so as to be separated from the main frame 11, and the magnetic head can be moved in a predetermined radial direction (direction shown by arrow B in FIG. 2) with respect to the flexible disk. Hold on. The carriage assembly 15 is supported and guided at a lower end on both sides by a pair of guide bars 16 extending parallel to a predetermined radial direction B.

The carriage assembly 15 is driven along a predetermined radial direction B by a voice coil motor. More specifically, the voice coil motor is disposed behind the carriage assembly 15, and has a pair of voice coils 17 wound around a drive shaft parallel to a predetermined radial direction B, and a current flowing through the voice coil 17. And a magnetic circuit 20 for generating intersecting magnetic fields.

Referring also to FIG. 3, the magnetic circuit 20 has a magnet 21 magnetized in the plate thickness direction and a yoke portion. The yoke portion includes a center yoke 22 extending along the drive shaft and penetrating through the voice coil 17, and a back yoke 23. The back yoke 23 has a main surface 23 that is arranged in parallel with and spaced from the center yoke 22.
a, and both ends 23b are bent at substantially right angles to the main surface 23a by press working. Both ends 23 b bent at right angles are in contact with both ends of the center yoke 22. The magnet 21 is in contact with the main surface 23a of the back yoke 23. Center yoke 2
2 and the back yoke 23 are each formed of a steel plate having a plate thickness of 3 mm or more.

As shown in FIG. 4, the main frame 1
The reference numeral 1 designates the magnetic circuit 20 on the main surface 1 of the main frame 11.
It has four pedestals 30 (only two are shown) to be placed apart from 1a. Each pedestal 30 has a protrusion 31 projecting upward. The height of each protrusion 31 is equal to that of the center yoke 2.
It is lower than the plate thickness of 2. The center yoke 22 has cutouts 22a at both ends into which the projections 31 are fitted. Therefore, the protrusion 31 of the pedestal 30 functions as a positioning means for positioning the center yoke 22. Further, both end portions 23b of the back yoke 23 have a convex portion 23c fitted in the cutout portion 22a. The height of the projection 23c is defined to be substantially equal to a value obtained by subtracting the height of the projection 31 of the pedestal 30 from the thickness of the center yoke 22. That is,
The notch 22a of the center yoke 22 is the back yoke 2.
It functions as a positioning means for positioning 3.

As shown in FIG. 1, the carriage assembly 15 includes an upper magnetic head 131 and a lower magnetic head 132, and an upper gimbal plate 141 and a lower gimbal plate 1 which hold the upper magnetic head 131 and the lower magnetic head 132 swingably.
42, and an upper carriage 151 and a lower carriage 152 holding these at the tip side. The carriage assembly 15 is arranged on the surface of the main frame 11 so as to be separated from the main frame 11, and moves the upper magnetic head 131 and the lower magnetic head 132 in a predetermined radial direction (indicated by an arrow B in FIG. 2) with respect to the flexible disk. It is movably held along the direction shown.

The lower carriage 152 is supported and guided at its lower ends by a pair of guide bars 16 extending parallel to a predetermined radial direction B. The upper carriage 151 and the lower carriage 152 are driven along the predetermined radial direction B by the voice coil motor as described above.

Next, features of the present invention will be described. As shown in detail in FIG. 1B, the lower carriage 152 is integrally formed with the support block 150 at the rear of the carriage assembly 15. On the other hand, the upper carriage 151 is adhered to the spring plate 153, and the spring plate 153 is supported by the support block 1 via a metal holding plate 154.
It is characterized in that it is fixed to the upper surface of 50 with one screw 155. The coil spring 156 is supported by an inverted L-shaped support piece 154-1 which is formed by cutting and raising a part of the pressing plate 154.

As described above, by making it possible to attach the upper carriage 151 with the single screw 155, the following effects can be obtained.

(1) Since the mass of one screw can be reduced as compared with the conventional two screws as shown in FIG. 5, a carriage assembly suitable for high-speed access can be provided.

(2) When assembling the carriage assembly, the position of the lower magnetic head 132 in the fixed state is finely adjusted before fixing the upper carriage 151 with the screw 155, so that the lower magnetic head 132,
The upper magnetic head 131 can be easily aligned.

(3) The number of screws can be reduced as compared with the conventional case of two screws.

[0026]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, by improving the mounting structure of the upper carriage in the carriage assembly, it is easy to adjust the position of the magnetic head during assembly and the number of parts is small. Therefore, it is possible to provide a carriage assembly that is suitable for high-speed access because it is lightweight, has a higher seek speed, and is faster.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a carriage assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention, (a) is a plan view, (b) is a right side view,
(C) is a rear view.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a flexible disk driver including the carriage assembly shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view partially showing a magnetic circuit of a voice coil motor as a drive source of the carriage assembly.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a mounting structure of the magnetic circuit shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a main part of a conventional carriage assembly.

[Explanation of symbols]

 15 Carriage Assembly 131 Upper Magnetic Head 132 Lower Magnetic Head 141 Upper Gimbal Plate 142 Lower Gimbal Plate 150 Support Block 151 Upper Carriage 152 Lower Carriage 153 Spring Plate

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Yoshinori Tanki 1601 Sakai, Atsugi, Kanagawa Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd. Atsugi Plant

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An upper carriage and a lower carriage which swingably support a pair of magnetic heads for writing / reading data to / from a flexible disk inserted in a flexible disk driver at one end side. In the carriage assembly having
A carriage assembly for a flexible disk driver, wherein the lower carriage is fixed to a carriage assembly body, and the upper carriage is attachable to the carriage assembly body with one screw. 2. The carriage assembly has a support block for mounting the upper carriage, the lower carriage is integrated with the support block on the other end side, and the upper carriage is spring-loaded on the other end side. The carriage assembly for a flexible disk driver according to claim 1, wherein a plate is fixed and the spring plate is screwed to the upper surface of the support block.