Did You Know...
...that in the early 1940s GE engineer James Wright was charged with a task of utmost importance to the war effort: develop a cheap substitute for rubber that could be used to produce tires, gas masks and a whole host of military gear. Wright tackled the task diligently -- and wound up inventing Silly Putty.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7327054 | Linear actuator comprising velocity sensor A linear actuator for a motion system is provided with a velocity sensor for monitoring a velocity of an actuation arm that it is driving. The linear actuator comprises a magnetic field, a first coil that is controllably movable within the magnetic field by adjustin... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7274119 | Yoke for voice coil motor in recording disk drive A first yoke member is received on a first reference plane defined on a support body. A second yoke member is coupled to the first yoke member so as to define a space for accommodation of a voice coil between the first and second yoke members. The second yoke member... | 09/25/2007 |
| 7191457 | Optical disk apparatus having a structure for vibration attenuation and heat dissipation Guide members for guiding an optical pickup for movement in directions parallel to a diameter of an optical disk relative to the optical disk are formed of a metal, support members supporting the guide members on a chassis are formed of a resin, and heat transfer me... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7188348 | Optical disc drive apparatus and method An optical pickup unit (OPU) includes a moveable structure that is moved by a voice coil motor component in response to an input signal. The moveable structure includes a pattern that is moved corresponding to the input signal. An encoder reads the pattern to genera... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7106668 | Disk drive apparatus A disk drive apparatus for a disk having helically-formed or concentric circle-like formed tracks includes a spindle motor for controlling a rotation of the disk; a pick-up device for recording or reproducing information on or from the disk; a stepping motor for mov... | 09/12/2006 |
| 7085200 | Stepping motor controlling method and disk apparatus A disk apparatus includes a pick-up for reading/writing signals from/on a disk; a pick-up base provided with the pick-up; a traverse motor for moving the pick-up in a radial direction of said disk; a feed screw rotated by the traverse motor and provided with a threa... | 08/01/2006 |
| 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 |
| 6942741 | Iron alloy strip for voice coil motor magnetic circuits An iron alloy strip having a gage of 0.1 to 5 mm and a magnetic field strength variation within the strip of 0 to 10 Hz, made of an iron alloy consisting essentially of, in % by weight, 0.0001-0.02% of C, 0.0001-5% of Si, 0.001-0.2% of Mn, 0.0001-0.05% of P, 0.0001-... | 09/13/2005 |
| 5818666 | Linear drive motor apparatus for adjusting the relative position between and second yokes of a pair of magnetic circuits A linear motor drive apparatus for moving a head carriage in a direction perpendicular to tracks on a recording medium includes a permanent magnet, first yoke for supporting the permanent magnet, a second yoke, and a coil fixed on the head carriage and wo... | 10/06/1998 |
| 5812517 | Optical head driver An optical head drive device for driving an optical head in a tracking direction and a focusing direction, comprising a pair of first tracking leaf spring members provided such that the respective one end sides are fixed to a fixing member, and structured... | 09/22/1998 |
| 5745470 | Head moving apparatus which cancels leakage flux A focus driving coil is fixed to an objective lens for record/reproduction of an optical disk, and the objective lens is provided on a carriage together with the focus driving coil. The carriage is movable by a bearing contacting a guide rail, and the bea... | 04/28/1998 |
| 5495455 | Magneto-optical disk recording and reading apparatus and method wherein the recording head is controlled in the radial direction of the disk to a desired position A magneto-optical disc recording apparatus includes a magnetic head, an optical head, a position detector and a controller. The magnetic head supplies a vertical magnetic field corresponding to recording data to a magneto-optical disc. The optical head em... | 02/27/1996 |
| 5491684 | Optical disk unit There is disclosed an optical disk unit. Optical parts, including a laser unit and objective, are integrally mounted on a bobbin, and focusing coils and tracking and feed coils are mounted on the bobbin. The bobbin is resiliently supported, and is slidabl... | 02/13/1996 |
| 5485434 | Magneto-optical disk apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information using modulated and constant magnetic field applying devices A magneto-optical disk apparatus performs at least one of recording and reproduction of information on or from a magneto-optical recording medium having a disk shape. The apparatus is provided with an optical device including an objective lens, for irradi... | 01/16/1996 |
| 5463612 | Objective lens drive apparatus used in optical information recording/reproducing apparatus An objective lens drive apparatus is used in an optical information recording/reproducing apparatus to conduct recording and reproducing of information by radiating a light spot onto a disk recording medium. The objective lens drive apparatus includes an ... | 10/31/1995 |
| 5442605 | Head driving device with carriage assembly centroid position set where servo frequency is not delayed In a head driving device having an optical head for erasing, recording and reproducing information, a carriage adapted to move in a radial direction of a disk as an information recording carrier together with the optical head, and voice coils attached to ... | 08/15/1995 |
| 5278820 | Apparatus and method for a radial access mechanism for a disk player/recorder In a disk player/recorder apparatus, a radial access mechanism is disclosed in which a first guide rod is positioned on a mounting plate accurately with respect to the information storage medium. A head assembly engages the first guide rod through bushing... | 01/11/1994 |
| 5243919 | Magnetic levitation actuator A magnetic levitation actuator includes a pair of U-shaped first permanent magnets provided on opposite sides of an object to be driven with a pair of outwardly projecting first legs defining the U-shape. A pair of guide rails are spaced apart from the ob... | 09/14/1993 |
| 5193080 | Magneto-optical recording medium and apparatus Guide parts and driving parts are independently provided for an optical head and a magnetic bias field generator, and a relative position control part controls the relative positions of the two so that the both can access recording medium tracks individua... | 03/09/1993 |
| 5138605 | Low-profile radial access mechanism for disk recording/playback apparatus, with optical head mounted on a carriage A low-profile radial access mechanism for controlling the radial position of a read/write head relative to a rotating data storage disk (e.g. optical, magneto-optical and magnetic disks). Such mechanism has a carriage (10) which supports a plurality of be... | 08/11/1992 |
| 5136446 | Apparatus for movably supporting and positioning a transducer A transducer driving apparatus symmetrically supports a transducer with soft members each being elastically deformed into circular-arc shape about an axis in a direction perpendicular to the transferring direction of the transducer. The rigidity of each o... | 08/04/1992 |
| 5134608 | Disk drive crash stop A disk drive having a disk stack and a movable actuator movable between position limits for moving one or more transducers between inner and outer radial limits with respect to the disk stack, established by a crash stop structure having at least one cras... | 07/28/1992 |
| 5130972 | Optical recording and reproducing apparatus An optical recording and reproducing apparatus includes a movable portion carrying a movable optical system, a sliding member slidable on a guide shaft, and a rotation limiting device engaged with an auxiliary guide shaft so as to limit the rotation of th... | 07/14/1992 |
| 5130873 | Head positioning apparatus for disc unit A head positioning apparatus for a disc unit which moves a carriage having a movable portion by driving motors constituted by coils and magnets, wherein driving power distribution of the driving motors is variable, so that the acting points of the driving... | 07/14/1992 |
| 5124971 | Optical head driving device An optical head driving device mounted on a base is comprised of a spindle for driving a recording medium of disk shape, an optical head and a voice coil motor for driving the optical head. The optical head and the voice coil motor are disposed in corresp... | 06/23/1992 |
| 5121016 | Linear motor A linear motor comprising first and second magnetic members with first and second magnets secured to and cooperating respectively with the first and second magnetic members to form first and second magnetic circuits each having a magnetic gap formed there... | 06/09/1992 |
| 5023861 | Single stage tracking actuator apparatus for optical beam information storage drive system Single stage tracking actuator apparatus for an optical or magneto-optical disk drive system in which a read/write head is suspended by parallel flexures between mutually isolated magnetic circuits disposed on opposite sides of the head, one of the magnet... | 06/11/1991 |
| 5016238 | Linear actuator for radial access in disk recorder/player Disclosed herein is a linear actuator for controlling the movement of a payload along a linear trajectory. Such actuator is particularly useful, for example, in controlling the radial position of a write/read head in an optical or magnetic recorder/player... | 05/14/1991 |
| 4977554 | Slider-position detector for detecting the position of the slider of a disk player A slider-position detector for a disk player having a slider carrying a pickup and capable of moving in radial direction of a disk. The slider-position detector comprises an up-down counter which indicates a count variable according to the direction and m... | 12/11/1990 |
| 4956735 | Actuator magnetic circuit A magnetic circuit structure for use in an actuator, where the actuator has a displaceable assembly and a coil attached to such assembly, is shown to include flux conductors having generally parallel first and second poles defining gaps therebetween and a... | 09/11/1990 |
| 4942562 | Pickup actuator for disk-type media A pickup actuator includes a slider, an optical pickup unit, and at least one suspension arm extending from the slider for suspending the pickup unit. The pickup unit includes at least one bobbin surrounding a yoke plate, upon which a first coil is wound,... | 07/17/1990 |
| 4908816 | Voice coil motor with linearized force constant A linear motor with uniform force constant across the full stroke length achieved by varying the width of the air gap face area of the permanent magnet such that the width is reduced towards the center of the magnet in relation to the widths at the ends t... | 03/13/1990 |
| 4890277 | Carriage driving apparatus for a disk player A carriage driving apparatus for a disk player in which the stability and responsiveness of the feedback loop are improved. The carriage driving apparatus includes a driving coil disposed in a magnetic path extending in the radial direction of a disk for ... | 12/26/1989 |
| 4823336 | Optical disk drive An optical disk drive includes an optical disk, a pair of guide shafts, a carriage having an optical pick-up movable in the radial direction of the disk as guided by the guide shafts. A plurality of rollers are rotatably mounted on the carriage so that a ... | 04/18/1989 |
| 4763314 | Linear actuator for an optical disk storage apparatus A linear actuator for controlling access to a track element belonging to a plurality of adjacent track elements arranged in a reference surface of an optical disk rotatable about a spindle. The linear actuator includes an objective lens for projecting a l... | 08/09/1988 |
| 4740946 | Data converter pickup carriage assembly An improved carriage assembly for linearly reciprocating a data converter pickup or the like. Magnetic circuits are provided on each side of a carriage, and a driving coil wound on a transversely solid type coil bobbin which surrounds the carriage, is mag... | 04/26/1988 |
| 4704712 | Low-friction slide apparatus for optical disc translation stage A low-friction slide apparatus for use with the translation stage of an optical disc recording/playback system is disclosed. The apparatus includes a rail which is fixed in position. The rail includes porous strips affixed to two orthogonal sides along it... | 11/03/1987 |
| 4698798 | Device for translating a slide A device for translating a slide comprises a frame 15, a first guide rod 17A, a second parallel guide rod 17B, and first and second bearing means which cooperate with respective guide rods. The slide 13 is rectilinearly movable along an X-axis of an ortho... | 10/06/1987 |
| 4620301 | Recording disk drive unit A turntable for placing a recording disk such as an optical information storage disk has a rotatable shaft to which an electrically conductive rotor is fixed. Inner and outer stators are disposed in confronting relation to each other with the rotor interp... | 10/28/1986 |
| 4613962 | Tracking device with linear motor A device for tracking a movable body along a linear path parallel to a plane includes a linear motor for driving the body along the linear path. The body is mounted, as by rollers, for movement along a guide, such as a pair of parallel guide rails, suppor... | 09/23/1986 |
