Cantilevered head support arm having increased resonance frequency

Claim 1

In a flexible random access disk file memory system wherein one or more disks are mounted for rotation about a centrally located axis and a magnetic transducer is mounted to a support arm, said support arm being rigidly mounted to the movable assembly of a linear actuator for movement along a radial line into and out of the disk file memory system, an improved support arm comprising in combination: a first elongated relatively flat support means having one end rigidly mounted to the movable assembly and the other end cantilevered therefrom; a second elongated relatively flat support means positioned in end to end alignment with the first support means and operable to support the magnetic transducer, the ratio between the length of the first elongated support means and the sum of the length of the first and the second elongated support means is approximately one to five; a resilient connecting means operable for joining the first and the second support means, said resilient connecting means being adapted to flex in a first direction orthogonal to the plane of the disks and the first and second support means; and a third relatively flat, u-shaped elongated member rigidly mounted to the first support means and encasing the balance of the first and second support means, said third member being substantially in the same plane as the first and second support means and characterized by an elongated, relatively sharp leading edge positioned in contiguous, adjacent relation with a relatively sharp front edge and a predetermined converging angle relative to the radial line along which movement of the head support arm occurs.