Apparatus and method for mounting transducer heads in a hard disk drive

A transducer head support apparatus for supporting transducer heads in proximity to surfaces of stacked data storage disks of a hard disk drive, comprising: an actuator body mounted in the hard disk drive adjacent the stack of data storage disks, the actuator body having a plurality of extensive fingers formed on one end thereof and each finger having first and second spaced apart holes formed therethrough near the distal end thereof to intersect opposite first and second sides of the finger and extend therebetween, wherein the first hole through each finger is axially aligned with the first hole through the other fingers and the second hole through each finger is axially aligned with second holes through the other fingers; a plurality of first transducer support arms mounted on the actuator body and extending therefrom to support a transducer head proximate a surface of a disk, each first transducer support arm mounted on the first side of one of said fingers and having a boss extending into the first hole on the finger and sized to mate with the first hole so as to secure the first transducer support arm to the finger; and a plurality of second transducer support arms mounted on the actuator body and extending therefrom to support a transducer head proximate a surface of a disk, each second transducer support arm mounted on the second side of one of said fingers and having a boss extending into the second hole on the finger and sized to mate with the second hole so as to secure the second transducer support arm to the finger.

In a transducer support arm for a hard disk drive, said transducer support arm including a swage plate for attaching the support arm to an actuator body mounted in the hard disk drive for moving transducer heads substantially radially across rotatable data storage disks and an extensive leaf member attached to the swage plate for supporting a transducer head in proximity to the surface of a disk, the improvement wherein the swage plate is characterized as comprising: a laminar body portion have two spaced apart holes formed therethrough to intersect opposite sides of the body portion and extend therebetween; and a tubular boss formed integrally with the body portion on one side of the body portion and extending circumferentially about one of said holes formed through the body portion.

A method for mounting a plurality of transducer support arms on an actuator of a hard disk drive, said actuator including an actuator body having a plurality of fingers extending from one end thereof, the method comprising: forming spaced apart first and second holes through each of said fingers, wherein the first hole through each finger is formed coaxially with the first hole through the other fingers and the second hole through each finger is formed coaxially with the second hole through the other fingers; forming spaced apart, first and second transducer support arm holes through each of the transducer support arms to align with the first and second holes through the fingers of the actuator body, wherein a tubular boss is formed on each transducer support arm about a selected one of the first and second transducer support arm holes therethrough: clamping the transducer support arms to the fingers on the actuator body so that the tubular bosses formed about the first transducer support arm holes through the first transducer support arms extend in a first direction into the first holes in the fingers of the actuator body and the tubular bosses formed about the second transducer support arm holes through the second transducer support arms extend in a second direction into the second holes in the fingers of the actuator body; and driving swaging implements through the bores of the bosses to expand the bosses into gripping contact with the peripheries of the holes formed through the fingers, wherein the swaging implement driven through the bosses formed about first transducer support arm holes of the transducer support arms are driven therethrough in said second direction and the swaging implement driven through the bosses formed about second transducer support arm holes of the transducer support arms are driven therethrough in said first direction.