Did You Know...
...that the Eveready Battery began as an invention called the "electric flowerpot," which was a tube with a battery and light bulb inside? The idea was to fasten this gizmo to the side of a flowerpot so it would illuminate the flowers from the bottom. The idea died on the vine and the businessman who licensed the flower pot, Conrad Huber, was left with a pile of useless tubes -- until he found a way to market them as batteries to light the world!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7609481 | Oppositely deflected suspension flexure providing increased dimple contact force Method and apparatus in which a disk drive suspension flexure tongue supports a slider. A flexure frame attached to a suspension supports the tongue in dimple engagement with the suspension. Spaced, separate biasing structures on the frame act oppositely on the tong... | 10/27/2009 |
| 7349184 | System and apparatus for continuous reference plane for wireless suspension A reference plane is added to the freestanding conductors of a wireless suspension to maintain a continuous reference plane therein. Post processing steps to the flexure are used after the underlying steel has been etched and prior to any forming or welding steps. T... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7347370 | Self-aligning magnetic read head incorporating lift-up detection Magnetic reading head assemblies are described that enable the alignment of a magnetic reading head to a track of magnetic information on a data card. In addition, embodiments of the present invention can enable the detection of misalignments in circumstances where ... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7312953 | Head suspension assembly and disk drive using the same A head suspension assembly includes a head, a load beam carrying the head at one end, a resilient member joining the load beam and a carriage, and a pivot bearing provided between the load beam and the carriage and structured so that the load beam is movable in a di... | 12/25/2007 |
| 7283330 | Method of manufacturing a suspension using coining A method of manufacturing a suspension member designed to carry a slider and read/write head elements in a magnetic data storage device. The method includes forming the suspension member into a desired length and width configuration with a nominal thickness dimensio... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7230800 | Microactuator for a hard disk drive with an integrated gimbal function A micro-fabricated chip having a stationary structure and a movable structure with a gimbal structure allows pitch and roll motion of the movable structure with respect to the stationary structure. One embodiment of the gimbal structure includes a dimple surface mak... | 06/12/2007 |
| 7221541 | Magnetic head supporting mechanism A magnetic head supporting mechanism includes a head positioning actuator having an arm, and a load beam connected to the arm. The load beam has a gimbal. The gimbal includes a magnetic head slider fixing portion on which a magnetic head slider having a magnetic hea... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7203033 | Head gimbal assembly with an integrated mechanical and electrical attachment and a stiff plate A low cost, flex head gimbal assembly has a substrate with an attachment region, a flexure region and an integrated gimbal. The flex head gimbal assembly is electrically and mechanically connected to an actuator arm via solder bumps in the attachment region. A stiff... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7170717 | Head suspension assembly and disk drive using the same A head suspension assembly includes (a) a slider having a head for recording into/reproducing from a record medium, mounted thereon, (b) a load beam having (i) the slider disposed via a flexure at one end, and (ii) a leaf-spring-like resilient member integrally form... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7170718 | Wiring body with flexure sheet connecting the head slider and the driving unit in a disk apparatus To provide a disk apparatus that can enhance reliability of a head wiring and a driving wiring, a disk apparatus includes a head slider, an arm, a driving unit, a wiring body provided for supplying a head mounted on the head slider with a head current used for signa... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7136260 | Method and apparatus reducing off track head motion due to disk vibration in a hard disk drive through the head gimbal assembly Improved head gimbal assemblies reducing TMR (Track Mis-Registration) in a hard disk drive are provided. These head gimbal assemblies are as mechanically simple as contemporary head gimbal assemblies, support parallel flying sliders over flat disk surfaces, and redu... | 11/14/2006 |
| 7095591 | Head slider having microactuator A pair of slits are defined in a slider body of a head slider so as to extend from a trailing end surface to the leading end on the slider body. A movable block is established in the slider body between the slits. The slits ensure the extent of movement for the mova... | 08/22/2006 |
| 7072144 | Damping of vertical and offtrack dynamic modes gain at the slider in a disc drive The invention discloses an apparatus and method for passive damping of slider modes in a storage device. An exemplary apparatus comprises a cradle for supporting a slider and comprising two side members and a center member, where each of the side members are dispose... | 07/04/2006 |
| 7068449 | Slider fly control A disc drive data storage system is disclosed that includes a disc storage medium having a disc surface. The system also includes an armature and a slider coupled to the armature. The slider supports a transducer head that communicates with the disc storage medium. ... | 06/27/2006 |
| 7057856 | Gimbal strut shape to increase buckling load The present invention includes gimbal having an attachment portion and a head support structure spaced apart from the attachment portion. A first strut connects the attachment portion and the head support structure. The first strut has an increased center portion an... | 06/06/2006 |
| 7050266 | Write/read head supporting mechanism and write/read system having a flexible grounding member An object of the invention is to provide a write/read head supporting mechanism for a magnetic disk system or optical disk system having a microactuator for effecting a micro-displacement of a slider, wherein any electrostatic breakdown of an electromagnetic transdu... | 05/23/2006 |
| 7046482 | Magnetic head The magnetic head of the present invention is a small magnetic head capable of reducing inertia working thereto. The magnetic head of the present invention includes a suspension having a front end section and a rear end section, a slider mounting section formed in t... | 05/16/2006 |
| 7042816 | Optical pickup apparatus for optical disk drive and having a flexured floating slider An optical pickup apparatus for an optical disk drive records or reproduces data on or from an optical disk, includes an optical head section including an object lens focusing an incident light on the optical disk, a slider on which the object lens is mounted, where... | 05/09/2006 |
| 6996051 | Data storage module suspension system having primary and secondary flexures A micro-electro-mechanical device includes a moveable mass supported within a frame. To support the mass within the frame, a first flexure extends between the mass and the frame. An angle softening element is positioned between a first end of the first flexure and t... | 02/07/2006 |
| 6980400 | Limiter for integral flexible circuit suspension assembly A limiter used to limit the motion of a ring gimbal with attached slider relative to a load beam within a head suspension assembly of a disk drive. The ring gimbal includes a flexible substrate supporting at least one electrical lead and a limiter assembly joined to... | 12/27/2005 |
| 6967821 | Head gimbal assembly including dampening for air bearing vibration A gimbal assembly to dampen air bearing vibration to reduce interference with read-write operations. The gimbal assembly includes dampeners on coextending gimbal arms gimbally supporting an air bearing slider to dampen vibration of the air bearing slider excited by ... | 11/22/2005 |
| 6965501 | Integrated lead suspension for high density drive The integrated lead suspension assembly comprises several improvements. An oversized terminating pad for the electrical traces and a smaller adjacent insulation layer on the flexure assembly enable laser solder ball bonding of the pads to the read/write terminal con... | 11/15/2005 |
| 6958871 | Head-disk interaction sensor integrated with suspension A write-inhibit signal is generated by a head-disk interaction sensor during a write process that is integrated with a suspension of a hard disk drive (HDD) when fly-height modulation of the slider is detected during a write process The suspension load beam includes... | 10/25/2005 |
| 6958879 | Method and apparatus reducing off track head motion due to disk vibration in a hard disk drive using configuration of the disk drive servo controller An improved and distinctive servo-controller scheme resulting in an overall improvement in PES performance, particularly when applied to hard disk drives employing the invention's TMR reduction mechanisms. The servo-controllers trade off gain in the disk vibration f... | 10/25/2005 |
| 6920018 | Method and apparatus reducing off-track head motion due to disk vibration in a disk drive through flexure mounting and/or non-symmetric hinging within the head gimbal assembly Improved head gimbal assemblies reducing TMR (Track Mis-Registration) in a hard disk drive are provided. These head gimbal assemblies are as mechanically simple as contemporary head gimbal assemblies, support parallel flying sliders over flat disk surfaces, and redu... | 07/19/2005 |
| 6826017 | Magnetic head assembly having damping part integral with gimbal A magnetic head assembly that lessens undesired or harmful vibration is provided. A gimbal 2 of a magnetic head assembly 1 has an outskirt part 4, an intermediate part 7, and an inland part 10. The intermediate part 7 is arr... | 11/30/2004 |
| 6801398 | Magnetic head suspension assembly with adhesion limiting structure A magnetic head assembly equipped with a slider and a gimbal spring to which the slider is secured with an adhesive agent. According to one aspect, at least one slit is formed in the gimbal spring opposing the adhesion surface of the slider, so that expansion and co... | 10/05/2004 |
| 6788498 | Low stiffness gimbal for disk drive head suspensions A gimbal and load beam apparatus for a head suspension for a disk drive having lateral arms with dielectric and conductor layers without metal backing to provide for low pitch and roll stiffness while also having a structural layer attached to the gimbal at proximal... | 09/07/2004 |
| 6744603 | Write/read head supporting mechanism, and write/read system The object of the present invention is to provide a write/read head supporting mechanism for a magnetic or optical disk system having a micro-displacement actuator, by which any impediment to the displacement capability of the actuator is eliminated. A write/read he... | 06/01/2004 |
| 6624981 | Micrometric actuation, hard disk read/write unit with a flexure and microactuator formed in a monolithic body of semiconductor material A hard disk read/write unit is formed in a monolithic body of semiconductor material, including a suspension structure, a coupling or flexure element integral with the suspension structure, and a microactuator, integral with the coupling. The monolithic b... | 09/23/2003 |
| 6560073 | Magnetic head supporting mechanism A magnetic head supporting mechanism includes a head positioning actuator having an arm, and a load beam connected to the arm. The load beam has a gimbal. The gimbal includes a magnetic head slider fixing portion on which a magnetic head slider having a m... | 05/06/2003 |
| 6373662 | Partially etched flexure arms in an integrated gimbal suspension A head suspension including a one-piece load beam and flexure structure wherein the flexure structure includes partially etched connecting bars. The load beam and flexure structure is fabricated from a single piece of spring steel, and the structure compr... | 04/16/2002 |
| 6215627 | Suspension assembly gimbal load beam stiffener A disc drive includes a spindle motor, a spindle, a disc, control circuitry, an actuator, and an armature. The spindle motor is coupled to the spindle to which the disc is also coupled. The control circuitry is coupled to the actuator and provides the act... | 04/10/2001 |
| 6043955 | Three piece suspension with framed gimbal flexure A disk drive suspension has a noncantilevered flexure adapted to rotate about a dimple, the flexure comprising an open frame fastened by opposed tabs to a load beam, the flexure having a gimbal panel carrying the slider and connected fore and aft to the o... | 03/28/2000 |
| 6028743 | Magnetic head and magnetic head support structure having a support member biasing a gimbal spring positioned downstream of magnetic head main body Disclosed are a magnetic head and a magnetic head support structure in which the slider is reliably held on the magnetic disc even when the magnetic disc is rotated at high speed, whereby a satisfactory read/write characteristic is obtained. For this purp... | 02/22/2000 |
| 6021021 | Air bearing slider and head gimbal assembly In accordance with this invention, an air bearing slider has a mounting side which has a relieved portion formed by a stepped-contour or a tapered contour. The stepped-contour includes an adherent surface adjacent the rear face of the air bearing slider a... | 02/01/2000 |
| 6002548 | Magnetic head supporting mechanism A magnetic head supporting mechanism includes a head positioning actuator having an arm, and a load beam connected to the arm. The load beam has a gimbal. The gimbal includes a magnetic head slider fixing portion on which a magnetic head slider having a m... | 12/14/1999 |
| 5973882 | Moment-flex head suspension A moment-flex head suspension has a construction that reduces the pitch and roll stiffness of the read/write head support while maintaining the lateral stiffness of the flexure or gimbal of the head suspension sufficiently high.... | 10/26/1999 |
| 5864445 | Hygrothermal load compensating structures in an integrated lead suspension An integrated lead disk drive suspension including a load beam and one or more conductive leads. The load beam has a mounting region on a proximal end, a head bonding platform on a distal end, and one or more spring regions connecting the head bonding pla... | 01/26/1999 |
| 5862017 | Rotary disk storage unit and head suspension therefor In a head suspension, a gimbal spring is constituted by a flexible sheet having an electrical circuit formed on its surface, and a through hole is formed through that portion of a load beam of metal overlapping the gimbal spring. The load beam is bonded i... | 01/19/1999 |
