JPS6364835B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a magnetic head assembly apparatus, and more particularly to a magnetic head assembly apparatus in which a plurality of thin plates are assembled by welding.

FIG. 1a shows a magnetic head assembly in which two magnetic heads 1 are mounted. This magnetic head assembly has multiple magnetic heads 1
, a flexible printed circuit section 5 that transmits data read and written by the magnetic head 1, and an amplifier 6 that amplifies these data.
It consists of a connector 7 provided at one end of the flexible printed circuit section 5, and a holding plate 8 on which each of these components is mounted. The magnetic head assembly constructed in this manner is provided at a position for accessing the magnetic disk 2 in the disk pack 100 in a magnetic disk storage device, as shown in FIG. 2, for example.

The magnetic head 1, as shown in FIG. 1b, is composed of a gimbal assembly section 4 and a core slider 3 mounted on one end of the assembly section 4.

This disk-type magnetic head has many different shapes depending on the storage capacity, but the assembly section 4 that holds the core slider 3 is used in common for all magnetic heads. 3 to 5 show details of the assembly section 4, FIG. 3 shows the components of the assembly section, FIG. 4 shows the assembled state, and FIG. 5 shows the assembled state of FIG. 4.
Shows the state seen from the viewing direction. First, referring to FIG. 3, the assembly section 4 includes a gimbal 9, a load arm 1
3. Consisting of a spacer 16, the gimbal 9 has a plate thickness of 50 μm, has a spring portion 10, and has a hole portion 11 in the longitudinal direction.
and 12. The load arm 13 is a complicated press-molded part and has a groove part 14 and a vane-shaped part 15. The spacer 16 is a machined product and has a round boss portion 17. These parts are assembled integrally as shown in Figures 4 and 5.
Despite the complex shape of thin plate parts, high accuracy of ±20 μm or less is required.

The method of joining these parts is shown in Fig. 5 Welding part 1.
This is done by welding at 14 locations shown in Figure 8.

Conventionally, the magnetic head 1 has been assembled using a precision jig shown in FIG. In this jig, a gimbal holding frame 53 that holds a gimbal 9 precisely positioned on a gimbal sheet 52 is arranged on a base 101 on which a load arm 13 and a spacer 16 are positioned, and an electrode 54 for resistance welding is placed on the base 101 on which a load arm 13 and a spacer 16 are positioned. Therefore, the welded portion 18 (see FIG. 5) is welded and assembled. Such conventional techniques have the following problems.

Because high-precision positioning and assembly work is done manually using jigs and tools, the quality varies widely depending on the skill level of the workers, making it difficult to obtain stable quality, and corrections were made during the head manufacturing process.

Since the three parts were joined by resistance welding, the electrodes had to be repaired frequently, and it took a lot of time to remove welding dust generated during welding.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to eliminate the problems caused by the above-mentioned prior art, and to provide a magnetic head manufacturing apparatus that can automatically assemble the gimbal, load arm, and spacer that constitute the magnetic head.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of an automatic assembly apparatus for a magnetic head according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 6 is an overall perspective view of the magnetic head manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the method of transporting the gimbal, and FIGS. 8 to 11 are diagrams for explaining the assembly process of each part. It is a diagram.

The automatic magnetic head assembly apparatus shown in FIG. 6 includes a spacer supply section 26 that supplies spacers conveyed from a spacer parts feeder 24 to a component alignment section 20, and a gimbal magazine 21 that sucks gimbals with a suction pad and positions them. A gimbal supply section 22 supplies the load arm to the alignment section 20; a load arm supply section 27 supplies the load arm from the load arm parts feeder 25 to the alignment section 20; It is comprised of a laser welding section 28 for laser welding spacers, a finished product take-out section 29 for conveying assembled magnetic heads to a conveyor 30, and a control section 100 for controlling these sections.

Now, the gimbal, load arm, and spacer are supplied to the component positioning section 20 on the XY table 19 by the respective supply sections. As for the supply method, the gimbals 9 stacked in the magazine 21 are
The sheets are vacuum-adsorbed one by one by the gimbal suction pad 23 and supplied to the positioning section 20 by the supply cylinder 22. Load arm 13 and spacer 16
are sorted by parts feeders 24 and 25, vacuum-sucked by supply parts 26 and 27, and supplied to part alignment part 20. As for the feeding method of the gimbal 9, since it is made of a thin plate, it is difficult to make corrections in the component positioning section, so it is necessary to improve the presetting accuracy during component feeding. This improvement in preset accuracy is achieved by the positioning mechanism shown in FIG. 7, which will be described later.

The gimbal, load arm, and spacer positioned by a positioning mechanism described later in the positioning section 20 are clamped and placed on the XY table 1.
9 moves back and forth to the left and right, each stop at a preset position (welding part 18 shown in FIG. 5), and a laser beam is irradiated from the laser welding part 28 to perform welding. The magnetic heads that have been welded are transferred onto the conveyor 30 by the finished product take-out section 29 as the XY table 19 moves. The above is an outline of one cycle of magnetic head assembly in this embodiment.

Next, the method for supplying the gimbal described above will be explained in detail with reference to FIG. Since the gimbal 9 is a thin plate and the position of the gimbal 9 is difficult to correct in the component positioning section 20, it is necessary to improve the presetting accuracy. For this reason, first, a plurality of gimbals 9 are positioned on the gimbal magazine 21 with high precision by positioning pins 31 and 32. First, when loading the gimbal 9 into the gimbal magazine 21, position it in the width direction with the positioning pin 31 and position the gimbal hole 11 in the longitudinal direction with the positioning pin 32, and then load it. On the other hand, to take out the gimbal, the gimbal suction pad 23 descends using the positioning pins 31 and 32 during stacking as guides to perform vacuum suction and take out the gimbal. Guide holes 33 and 34 for positioning pins that match the positioning pins 35 and 36 are drilled in the suction pad 23 when the parts are supplied in the component alignment section 20, and the suction pad is guided by these positioning pins 35 and 36. and supplies the gimbal to the component alignment section 20. The final positioning of the gimbal 9 in the component positioning section 20 is determined by a positioning pin 35 in the width direction and a positioning pin 37 in the gimbal hole 12 in the longitudinal direction.

FIG. 8 to FIG. 11 are diagrams for explaining the gimbal, the load arm, and the clamp of the spacer.

FIG. 8 shows details of the component positioning section 20 of the automatic assembly device shown in FIG.
Spacer pedestal 39 and load arm pedestal 40 on top of 8.
is fixed, and the spacer side push piece 41 and the load arm side push piece 42 are configured to slide on the jig base 38. Also, gimbal 9,
After the spacer 16 and the load arm 13 have been assembled and aligned, a close clamp arm 45 for tightly clamping the three components is configured to be able to pivot around a pivot support 46 attached to the jig base 38 as a fulcrum. Furthermore, a leaf spring 47 and a clamp piece 48 are attached to the close contact clamp arm 45, and a hole 49 through which a laser beam passes is formed. Also, clamp piece 48
is supported so as to be able to rotate by a minute amount relative to the tight clamp arm 45. In addition, the jig base 38
A shim pin 43 and a positioning pin 44 for positioning the gimbal are attached to the spacer pedestal 39.

Figure 9 shows the load arm 1 attached to the clamp jig.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the main parts positioned by the spacer 3 and the spacer 16. FIG. In FIG. 9, the load arm 13 is connected to the load arm groove 14 with respect to the load arm cradle 40.
After being aligned based on , the load arm blade portion 15 is pushed by the load arm lateral pusher piece 41 to be positioned at a position where it contacts the spacer pedestal 39 . The load arm 13 is positioned by driving the load arm side pushing piece 42 in this manner.

The spacer 16 to be positioned is
After the spacer round boss portion 17 of No. 6 is attached to the groove portion 60 of the spacer pedestal 39, the spacer horizontal push piece 41
By being pressed in the direction of the load arm 13 by the load arm 13, positioning is achieved.

FIG. 10 shows a state in which the gimbal 9 is placed on the clamp jig in which the load arm 13 and the spacer 16 are positioned in this manner.

In the figure, the gimbal 9 pushes the gimbal tip hole 12 into the sizumi pin 43 and the spacer holder 3.
Positioning is performed using a positioning pin 44 attached to 9.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a state in which three parts are aligned with the clamp jig shown in FIG. 8 and tightly clamped. In the figure, a leaf spring 47 is attached to a close clamp arm 45 for the purpose of preventing displacement during gimbal clamping.
, and before the gimbal spring part 10 and the clamp piece 48 come into contact, push the gimbal tip hole 12 into the Shizumi pin 43 with the tip of the leaf spring 47, and use the spring force of the Shizumi pin up and down spring 50 and the spring force of the leaf spring 47. It is designed to fix the gimbal 9. After fixing gimbal 9 with plate spring 47, load arm 1
Gimbal spring part 1 which is the joint part between 3 and gimbal 9
0 with the clamp piece 48, and at the same time, the gimbal portion corresponding to the welded part with the spacer 16 is pushed in by the pushing piece 51 incorporated in the close clamp arm 45, completing close clamping of the three parts. This clamping order can prevent displacement of the gimbal spring portion 10 due to pushing.

In this way, the gimbal spring part 10 of the gimbal 9 and the load arm 13 are clamped by the clamp piece having the laser hole 49, and the gimbal 9 and the spacer 16 are clamped by the push piece 51 pressed by the spring. be done. In this clamped state, the magnetic head is welded by irradiating laser from the laser hole 49.

As described above, the magnetic head assembly apparatus according to the present invention automatically transports each component of the magnetic head, clamps it, and then laser welds it, thereby greatly saving labor and reducing costs. Furthermore, since there is no need for procurement intervention, magnetic heads of uniform quality can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1A and 1B are views showing a magnetic head assembly and a magnetic head, and FIG. 2 is a view showing a disk pack equipped with a magnetic head. FIG. 3 is an exploded view of the magnetic head, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are perspective views of the magnetic head. FIG. 6 is an overall perspective view showing an embodiment of a magnetic head assembly apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 7 is a view showing a gimbal transport mechanism, and FIG.
1 to 11 are diagrams for explaining the assembly process of the magnetic head. FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining the assembly process of a magnetic head according to the prior art. Explanation of symbols: 1...Magnetic head, 9...Gimbal, 13...Load arm, 16...Spacer,
21... Gimbal magazine, 22... Gimbal supply section, 26... Spacer supply section, 27... Load arm supply section, 30... Conveyor, 31, 35,
36, 37...Positioning pin, 38...Jig base, 39...Spacer pedestal, 40...Load arm pedestal, 44...Positioning pin, 48...Clamp piece, laser hole, 41 and 42 ...Push piece.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A gimbal having a core slider mounted on one end and having a leaf spring portion having elastic properties, a load arm connected to the leaf spring portion of the gimbal and pressing the core slider, and the gimbal. A magnetic head assembly device comprising: a spacer connected to the other end; a load arm supply section that stores a plurality of the load arms and supplies the load arms one by one; a spacer supply section that stores a plurality of gimbals and supplies them one by one; a gimbal supply section that places the load arm supplied from the load arm supply section and is welded to the leaf spring section of the gimbal. A load arm cradle for positioning the
a jig base having a spacer pedestal on which a spacer supplied from the spacer supply unit is placed and positioned at a position to be welded to the other end of the gimbal; and a jig base rotatably supported at the end of the jig base. The clamp arm is configured such that the gimbal supplied from the gimbal supply unit is placed on the load arm and spacer positioned on the jig base, and the clamp arm is rotated by the gimbal supplied from the gimbal supply unit. At the same time, a leaf spring that first presses the core slider attachment part of the gimbal, a push piece that pushes the other end of the gimbal and the spacer into tight contact, and a clamp that pushes the leaf spring part of the gimbal and the load arm into tight contact. a magnetic head assembly device, comprising: the gimbal tightly clamped on the jig base by the clamp arm; a spacer; and a laser light source for welding the load arm. .