Internal division actuation of ventilated floppy disk stack

Claim 2

Access actuation apparatus for sustainably separating normally inaccessible storage surfaces of flexible disks arranged in a rotating stack confined by inflexible end plates, successive said disks being nominally spaced by radially porous spacers, said stack encompassing a partially vacant space extending through all of said disks and spacers, said apparatus comprising: pressure transmittal means extending slidably into and partially filling said vacant space; and means having an enlarged hub section filling a portion of said space and effectively partitioning said space into at least partially vacant first and second sub-spaces; said means having an enclosed first pressure transmittal channel extending between said hub section and the exterior of said stack; said hub section having a narrow opening connected with said first channel and a cross channel construction isolated from said first channel for connecting vacant portions of of said first and second sub-spaces; and means for variably pressuring said first channel and said vacant portion of at least one of said sub-spaces to cause sustainable split displacement effects relative to said storage surfaces by which said surfaces are rendered selectively accessible for storage transducing operations.

Claim 3

Access actuation apparatus for sustainably separating normally inaccessible storage surfaces of flexible storage disks which are arranged in a rotating stack and are confined between inflexible plates, successive said surfaces being nominally spaced by radially porous spacers interposed between said disks, said stack encompassing a partially vacant space extending through the stack between said plates, said apparatus comprising: pressure transmittal means extending slidably through at least one of said plates and partially filling said partially vacant space; said means containing first and second enclosed channels isolated from each other which define pressure transmission passages extending through said at least one plate; one of said channels terminating within said partially vacant space in a narrow orifice alignable with a single said spacer in a closely congruent fit; the other said channel terminating within said partially vacant space in an opening connecting with a vacant portion of said space in near proximity to but isolated from said orifice; means coupled to said channels for variably pressuring said channels in order to produce a sustainable split spacing effect relative to surfaces interfacing at a spacer aligned with said orifice; and means for slidably manipulating said transmittal means relative to said spacers to selectively position said split effect.

Claim 4

Access actuation apparatus for sustainably separating normally inaccessible storage surfaces of flexible storage disks which are arranged in a rotating stack and are confined between inflexible plates, successive said surfaces being nominally spaced by radially porous spacers interposed between said disks, said stack encompassing a partially vacant space extending through the stack between said plates, said apparatus comprising: pressure transmittal means extending slidably through at least one of said plates and partially filling said partially vacant space; said means containing first and second enclosed channels isolated from each other which define pressure transmission passages extending through said at least one plate; one of said channels terminating within said partially vacant space in a narrow orifice alignable with a single said spacer in a closely congruent fit; the other said channel terminating within said partially vacant space in an opening connecting with a vacant portion of said space in near proximity to but isolated from said orifice; means coupled to said channels for variably pressuring said channels in order to produce a sustainable split spacing effect relative to surfaces interfacing at a spacer aligned with said orifice; and means for slidably manipulating said transmittal means relative to said spacers to selectively position said split effect.

Claim 5

Apparatus according to claim 2 wherein said transmittal means includes a narrow hub section containing said congruently fit orifice and effectively partitioning said partially vacant space into first and second discrete sub-spaces.

Claim 6

Apparatus according to claim 3 wherein said hub section contains a cross-channel passage connecting vacant portions of said sub-spaces; said cross-channel passage being isolated from said one channel.

Claim 7

Apparatus according to claim 4 including: first and second partitioning members disposed in respective said sub-spaces equidistant from said orifice; said members effectively partitioning said respective sub-spaces into discrete proximate and remote respective sub-space segments characterized in that: the respective proximate segments are adjacent opposite sides of said hub section and connected by said cross-channel passage; the respective remote segments are separated from said hub section by respective proximate segments; the proximate segments are equally dimensioned; and a vacant part of one of said proximate segments is directly connected with said other channel via said opening in said other channel.

Claim 8

Apparatus according to claim 5 wherein said variably pressuring means includes means for transiently reducing the pressure in said other channel and proximate segments, relative to pressures in said one channel and in vacant parts of said remote segment, in order to speed-up the formation of a said split effect.

Claim 9

Apparatus according to claim 6 wherein said variably pressuring means includes means for variably pressuring vacant parts of said proximate and remote segments to effectuate selective preservation of said split effect during said manipulating of said transmittal means and selective erasure of one said split effect prior to creation of another said split effect at another position in said stack.

Claim 10

Apparatus according to claim 6 wherein said variably pressuring means includes means for continuously pressuring vacant parts of said remote segments at a relatively elevated level at which the associated pressure between storage surfaces aligned with said remote segments opposes deflective displacement of said aligned sufaces; whereby said split effect is subject to formation only in the group of storage surfaces spanned by said partitioning members.

Claim 11

Apparatus according to claim 5 wherein said split effect is initiated by pressure transmitted transiently through said one channel and sustained by sustaining pressure transferred to vacant parts of said proximate segments via said other channel.

Claim 12

Apparatus according to claim 9 wherein said sustaining pressure is in a range associated with producing a bistable equilibrium effect relative to the rotational orbits of storage surfaces spanned by said partitioning members.