Head suspension for disk drive, and semi-finished suspension

A method of manufacturing a head suspension for a disk drive, the head suspension having a base plate to be supported by a carriage, a load beam including a rigid part resiliently supported by the base plate, to apply load onto a slider, and a flexure positioned and fitted to the load beam and having a read-write head, the method comprising:

• a first step of forming a semi-finished suspension having the base plate the rigid part solidly joined with the base plate through a bridge, and a protrusion protruding from one of the base plate and rigid part and having a positioning hole to be aligned with a positioning hole formed through part of the flexure;
• a second step of fixing a resilient material to the base plate and rigid part of the semi-finished suspension so that the base plate may resiliently support the rigid part through the resilient material;
• a third step of aligning the positioning hole of the flexure with the positioning hole of the protrusion and fixing the flexure to the rigid part, and
• a fourth step of cutting off the positioning-hole-formed part of the flexure, the bridge, and the protrusion including the positioning hole.