A drive latch apparatus may include a latch coupled to a chassis such that the latch secures a hard drive to the chassis. The apparatus may also include a handle coupled to a proximal end of the latch such that compressing the handle unlocks the latch from the chassis. In addition, the apparatus may include a drive holder coupled to a distal end of the latch such that a distal end of the drive holder bends under the hard drive to unseat the hard drive and the drive holder slides vertically from the chassis in tandem with the latch. Various other apparatuses, systems, and methods are also disclosed.

A tolerance ring has a band with outwardly extending corrugated protrusions forming waves that engage an outer surface of a shaft. At one end of the tolerance ring is an inwardly flared guide surface extending axially and radially from the band. The guide surface acts as a tapered entrance to a bore of a housing to assist during assembly.

A PZT microactuator such as for a hard disk drive has a restraining layer bonded on its side that is opposite the side on which the PZT is mounted. The restraining layer comprises a stiff and resilient material such as stainless steel. The restraining layer can cover most or all of the top of the PZT, with an electrical connection being made to the PZT where it is not covered by the restraining layer. The restraining layer reduces bending of the PZT as mounted and hence increases effective stroke length, or reverses the sign of the bending which increases the effective stroke length of the PZT even further. The restraining layer can be one or more active layers of PZT material that act in the opposite direction as the main PZT layer. The restraining layer(s) may be thinner than the main PZT layer.

A ball bearing is filled with a grease composition. The grease composition contains a synthetic oil other than a synthetic hydrocarbon oil, a synthetic hydrocarbon oil, a mineral oil, and a urea compound. The synthetic oil other than the synthetic hydrocarbon oil is contained in an amount of 10% by mass or more and 60% by mass or less when the total of the synthetic oil other than the synthetic hydrocarbon oil, the synthetic hydrocarbon oil and the mineral oil is taken as 100% by mass.

A system for checking the axial position of a bearing (30) inside an hole (31) of an E-block (29), preferably during the assembly of an HSA, comprises a reference system (3) that locates the E-block, a coupling element (17) that comes into contact with the bearing, a floating element (8) that, being connected to the coupling element, assumes the attitude of the bearing, two or more detection devices, for example optoelectronic, that cooperate with the floating element and detect at the same time, at checking areas are spaced apart from each other, quantities indicative of the position and, in case, of the attitude of the bearing with respect to the E-block, and a processing unit (50) for receiving and processing the detected quantities. A corresponding method for checking comprises the steps of locating E-block and bearing to mutually movable parts of the reference system, detecting at the same time, at least at two checking are spaced apart from each other, quantities indicative of the position and in case, of the attitude of the bearing with respect to the E-block, and processing the detected quantities. The invention relates also to an equipment and a method for assembling HSAs, that respectively employ the above-mentioned system and method for checking the mutual position and, in case, the attitude of the bearing with respect to the E-block.

A process of assembling a voice coil motor (VCM), such as for a hard disk drive, includes creating an opening in a yoke, attaching a primary magnet to an inside surface of the yoke, installing through the opening in the yoke a cross-flux magnet into a channel of the primary magnet, and installing a plug into the opening in the yoke. Thus, part count is minimized and the manufacturing process is readily incorporated into existing VCM manufacturing processes.

Systems and techniques for compensation to improve write signal controls for magnetic-medium-based storage devices, include an apparatus comprising: pre-compensation circuitry coupled with a controller to receive a data signal and a write-current control signal and to generate a write-current signal; the pre-compensation circuitry is configured to use different baseline write-current levels for the write-current signal after an overshoot write-current level used at polarity transitions of the write-current signal, and the pre-compensation circuitry is configured use a first baseline level of the different baseline write-current levels for a first type of magnet in the sequence of magnets and use a second baseline level of the different baseline write-current levels for a second type of magnet in the sequence of magnets, the first baseline level having a greater magnitude than the second baseline level, and the first type of magnet being shorter than the second type of magnet.

A PZT microactuator such as for a hard disk drive has a restraining layer bonded on its side that is opposite the side on which the PZT is mounted. The restraining layer comprises a stiff and resilient material such as stainless steel. The restraining layer can cover most or all of the top of the PZT, with an electrical connection being made to the PZT where it is not covered by the restraining layer. The restraining layer reduces bending of the PZT as mounted and hence increases effective stroke length, or reverses the sign of the bending which increases the effective stroke length of the PZT even further. The restraining layer can be one or more active layers of PZT material that act in the opposite direction as the main PZT layer. The restraining layer(s) may be thinner than the main PZT layer.

According to one embodiment, a disk-like magnetic recording medium includes a disk-like substrate, a first soft magnetic layer provided on the disk-substrate, a nonmagnetic spacer layer provided on the first soft magnetic layer, a second soft magnetic layer provided on the nonmagnetic spacer layer and antiferromagnetically exchange-coupled with the first soft magnetic layer via the nonmagnetic spacer layer, a magnetic recording layer provided on the second soft magnetic layer, wherein strength of an exchange coupling magnetic field Hbias decreases from an inner circumferential area toward an outer circumferential area of the disk-like magnetic recording medium.

A method of manufacturing a piezoelectric microactuator having a wrap-around electrode includes forming a piezoelectric element having a large central electrode on a top face, and having a wrap-around electrode that includes the bottom face, two opposing ends of the device, and two opposing end portions of the top face. The device is then cut through the middle, separating the device into two separate piezoelectric microactuators each having a wrap-around electrode.