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US 6,271,996 B1Granted
Damper with unconstrained surface for a disk drive head suspension
AssigneeHutchinson Technology Incorporated
InventorsGalen D. Houk, Haiming Zhou
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A head suspension includes a damping structure having at least one unconstrained surface. A reservoir is formed on the head suspension preferably from epoxy resin. Visco-elastic damping material is dispensed into the reservoir to form a damper on the head suspension. The damper and reservoir act to damp resonance mode vibrations of the head suspension.
Claims33
A head suspension for supporting a read/write head and comprising:
- a load beam having at least one edge rail a mounting region at a proximal end, a rigid region adjacent to a distal end, and a spring region between the mounting region and the rigid region;
- a flexure at the distal end of the load beam and for supporting a head slider;
- one or more reservoirs defining a damping region on the head suspension, each reservoir surrounding a continuous surface;
- and
- a volume of damper material within each reservoir and having a first major surface and a second major surface oppsite the first major surface, wherein a substantial portion of the first major surface overlays and is supported by the continuous surface of the damping region and at least a substantial portion of the second major surface opposite the first major surface is unconstrained, the unconstrained damper material for significantly damping resonance vibrations of the head suspension.
2 more elements
A method of manufacturing a head suspension having a damper, comprising the steps of:
- providing a head suspension having a load beam with at least the edge rail a mounting region at a proximal end, a rigid region adjacent to a distal end, and a spring region between the mounting region and the rigid region;
- forming one or more reservoirs to define a damping region on a continuous surface in the head suspension;
- and
- placing a volume of damping material within each reservoir on the continuous damping region surface, the volume of damping material having a first major surface with at least a substantial portion which is supported by and overlays the continuous damping region surface for significantly damping resonance vibrations of the head suspension and such that at least a substantial portion of a second major surface of the damping material opposite the first surface of the damping material remains unconstrained.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.