Disc drive latch housing having improved vibration dampening

Abstract

A latch housing for a carriage latch in a disc drive comprising a cantilever beam and a buckling beam. The cantilever beam and the buckling beam are so oriented in relation to each other and the path of the carriage that contact between a latching feature on the moving carriage and the carriage latch occurs with the beams at an original position and causes the cantilever beam to deflect in a cantilever mode and the buckling beam to deflect in a buckling mode until the kinetic energy of the moving carriage is converted to internal stresses in the material of the beams. Reactive motion of the beams due to these internal stresses is limited to a return to the original position by leashing action of the buckling beam. In a preferred embodiment, the latch housing is realized as a one-piece molded component, and the material of the component as well as the dimensions and shapes of the cantilever beam and buckling beam are all selected to limit the motion caused by contact between the moving latch feature and the latch to a single excursion from the original position to a maximum deflected position and back to the original position.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.