US 8,553,365 B1Granted

Apparatuses and methods for loading a head onto a disk medium

AssigneeWestern Digital (Fremont), LLC

InventorsEugene Shapiro, Jagdeep S. Buttar, Trung Vinh, Tahir A. Ali

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

Systems and methods for improving loading and unloading of a read or write head onto and off of a disk medium. Particular embodiments may assist in loading a read or write head to, or unloading a read or write head from, a load location over a surface of a disk medium in such a manner that damage to the surface of the disk medium (e.g., load location) is either prevented or minimized. The prevention or reduction of damage may be achieved by ensuring that a read or write head has sufficient clearance over the surface of a disk medium as the read or write head moves over the surface (e.g., as the head moves parallel to the surface) during a head loading or unloading process.

Claims12

Dependent claims

An apparatus for loading a head onto a disk medium, comprising:

a head positioning mechanism configured to move the head, wherein the head positioning mechanism moves the head from a position off the surface of the disk medium to a position over the surface of the disk medium when the head is being loaded onto the disk medium;
and
a head loading mechanism configured to assist in loading the head to a load location, over the surface of the disk medium, as the head positioning mechanism moves the head from the position off the surface to the position over the surface, wherein the head loading mechanism is further configured to move from a first load position to a second load position after the head is loaded onto the disk medium, and wherein moving the head loading mechanism from the first load position to the second load position results in the load location changing from a first location over an outer diameter of the surface to a second location over an inner diameter of the surface.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.