Abstract: A head stack assembly for mounting to a pivot bearing cartridge in a disk drive includes a coil having opposite electrical ends and a unitary molded plastic E-block fabricated from a first thermoplastic material containing electrically conductive filler material such that the E-block is electrically conductive. The E-block defines a generally cylindrically shaped body portion and a plurality of elongated arms, the body portion having a pivot bore for receiving the pivot bearing cartridge, a plurality of spaced-apart arm-support regions, and a surface defining a mounting site. Each arm is cantilevered from a respective one of the arm-support regions to project radially away from the pivot bore. The head stack assembly further includes an overmolded coil frame securing the coil to the body portion such that the coil is cantilevered to project radially away from the pivot bore. The overmolded coil frame is fabricated from a second thermoplastic material and is electrically non-conductive.

Abstract: A disk drive actuator assembly adapted for assembly in one of several configurations from a single line of modular components without a manually-supervised aligning step. The actuator improves manufacturability and inertia by introducing a common set of self-aligning modular piece parts. Each of several self-aligning modular components can be used to assemble any of several different actuator assembly designs. That is, a head-stack assembly (HSA) providing from one to six heads can be assembled using elements selected from single set of standardized modular components. The assembly process relies entirely on the self-aligning features of the standardized modular components, thereby eliminating the elaborate and error-prone manual assembly and alignment procedures known in the art.

Abstract: A noise suppression system for use in a disk drive. The system isolates the interface between the disk drive cover and the moving parts of the disk drive to attenuate acoustic energy introduced by the moving parts and also dissipates some of the unwanted acoustic energy in viscoelastic damping layers. An outer plate made of a rigid layer covered with a viscoelastic damping layer is disposed over an inner cover in which is provided an open region surrounding the pivot axis of the head-stack assembly (HSA) or, alternatively, surrounding both the pivot axis and the spindle axis of the disk assembly. A rigid interface member is fixed to the pivot journal or, alternatively, to both the pivot journal and the spindle journal within the open region. The outer plate is fitted to the periphery of the inner cover so that the viscoelastic damping layer abuts a flexible sealing member fitted over the interface member and inner cover around the open region.