HGA Flexure Tail Bent Alignment Tab for Cable Positioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need for improved flexure tail configurations and alignment tooling to facilitate precise alignment and secure attachment of the flexure tail to the flex cable in head stack assemblies, ensuring reliable electrical connection and secure attachment in information storage devices like magnetic hard disk drives.
Innovation Solution
A novel method and device that uses an alignment pin and alignment tabs on the flexure tail, bent at a residual angle of 10° to 80°, to align with the flex cable, utilizing an alignment fixture with saw-tooth tooling for both translational and rotational alignment, accommodating manufacturing tolerances and variations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If traditional straight flexure tail configuration is used, then manufacturing is simpler, but alignment precision with flex cable deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The flexure tail is bent out of its original plane to create a three-dimensional configuration with bend angles between 10° and 80°. This dimensional change allows the alignment tab to engage with guide surfaces on the alignment fixture, enabling precise alignment in multiple directions (translational and rotational) rather than relying solely on planar alignment features.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexure tail is pre-bent during manufacturing to include alignment tabs at specific angles. This preliminary action ensures that when the flexure tail is installed, the alignment tabs are already positioned to engage with the alignment fixture's guide surfaces, facilitating precise alignment without requiring complex adjustment procedures during assembly.
2Reliability
If alignment tolerances are tightened to improve connection reliability, then connection reliability improves, but manufacturing cost and difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The alignment tab acts as an intermediary feature between the flexure tail and the alignment fixture. It transfers and maintains the precise alignment relationship through mechanical engagement with the guide surface, allowing tolerances to be accommodated in the final connection while ensuring reliable electrical and mechanical attachment.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces bend angle parameters (10° to 80°) as design variables that can be optimized to accommodate manufacturing tolerances. By adjusting these angular parameters, the alignment tab can compensate for variations in part dimensions and tool positioning, maintaining connection reliability without requiring extremely tight tolerances.
3Manufacturing precision
If complex alignment tooling is used to achieve precise alignment, then alignment precision improves, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The alignment fixture is segmented into distinct functional features: alignment pins for translational alignment and guide surfaces for rotational alignment. This segmentation allows each feature to perform its specific alignment function independently, simplifying the overall fixture design while achieving precise multi-degree-of-freedom alignment.
Solution Approach 2:
The alignment fixture design integrates multiple alignment functions (translational and rotational alignment) into a single fixture structure. The combination of alignment pins and guide surfaces provides comprehensive alignment capability, reducing the need for multiple separate tooling operations or complex adjustment mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
A novel method and device to align a flexure tail of a head gimbal assembly (HGA) to a flex cable of a head stack assembly (HSA) is disclosed and claimed. An alignment pin is passed through a first alignment hole in the flex cable, and a second alignment hole in the flexure tail. The second alignment hole is disposed in a region of the flexure tail that lies in a flexure tail plane that is approximately parallel to the flex cable plane adjacent the first alignment hole. A novel head gimbal assembly (HGA) has a flexure tail that includes a first bend line. The flexure tail is bent out-of-plane about the first bend line to create a residual bend angle in the range 10° to 80°. The first alignment tab is abutted against a first guide surface of an alignment fixture.