Mechanism for loading and unloading of read/write heads at an inner diameter of a disk

摘要

Mechanisms for loading and unloading heads on surfaces of disks in a disk drive provide ramps attached to central portions of the disks. The ramps are integral parts of spacers between disks or spacers or disk clamps at the top or bottom of a stack of disks. Each head assembly has a suspension arm that engages a corresponding ramp to lift a read/write head away from a surface of a disk. Heads land (or return to the surfaces of the disks) in landing zones at inner diameters of the disks and do not damage data because the loading zones contain no data storage. Alignment of the ramps with the disks is automatic because ramps directly attach to the disks.