Abstract: A top pole piece of a voice coil motor (VCM) is attached to a hard disk drive cover without screw fasteners and with minimal loss of VCM magnetic flux capacity. A pair of leaf springs are supported at both ends, rather than by cantilever, to more uniformly distribute mechanical stress throughout the springs so that less space is required to achieve the same transverse load as a cantilevered spring of the same profile. The smaller space envelope required by this design minimizes the loss of magnetic flux capacity of the VCM. Each leaf spring has two integral legs, central portions of which are rigidly fastened to the drive cover. The end of each leg opposite the central portion applies a force against the cover in the assembled disk drive.

Abstract: The dynamics of a disk drive actuator are enhanced by redistributing the mass and stiffness of the structure. The two nodal points of the second primary bending mode of the actuator are relocated to positions that are both radially outboard of their original positions. One nodal point is positioned as close to the read-write head as possible at one end of the actuator, and the other nodal point is positioned at the center of the active legs of the VCM coil at the other end of the actuator. This is done to reduce the off-track displacement associated with this fundamental resonance to near zero, allowing higher track densities to be supported.

Abstract: A hard disk drive has a motor mounting bracket with mounting screws that attach from outside the drive and external to the seal with a screw bolt pattern diameter that is larger than an outer diameter of the motor hub. This configuration greatly reduces contamination inside the disk drive since all contaminants due to the screws are sealed from entering the disk drive. Consequently, the bottom of the mounting bracket is extended to the form factor limit to increase the internal space that is provided for the stator/winding of the motor. In relatively high platter count disk drives, the bottom disk is positioned very close to the motor bracket with this approach, which normally would cause the air drag to increase drastically and thereby impede the performance of the disk drive. Bosses may be used on the bracket to accommodate blind tap hole depths from the external surface of the bracket.

Abstract: Improved shield designs for ball bearing based spindle motors that exhibit improved containment of grease and the base oil within the bearings at accelerated conditions of temperature and speed is disclosed. Improved shield designs are provided at the shield OD contact area, the use of an impervious shield material, the use of barrier films, shield/bearing designs that use tortuous paths and labyrinth schemes for reducing the oil and grease loss from the shield ID gap of DASD spindle ball bearings, and improved stainless steel shield designs.

Abstract: Shield designs for ball bearing based spindle motors that exhibit containment of grease and the base oil within the bearings at accelerated conditions of temperature and speed are provided at the shield OD contact area, the use of an impervious shield material, the use of barrier films, shield/bearing designs that use tortuous paths and labyrinth schemes for reducing the oil and grease loss from the shield ID gap of DASD spindle ball bearings, and stainless steel shield designs.