Patent ID: 7898764
Filing Date: 2011-03-01
Classification: G11B

Abstract:
1. A disk drive, comprising: a housing having a base, a top cover, a hub that defines an axis of rotation, and a radial direction relative to the axis; a media disk mounted to the hub for rotation relative to the housing, the media disk having a downstream side and an upstream side; an actuator mounted to the housing and movable relative to the media disk, the actuator having a head for reading data from the media disk; a bypass channel integrally formed with the base for directing airflow from the downstream side of the media disk to the upstream side of the media disk, such that the airflow substantially bypasses the actuator, the bypass channel having inner and outer walls that define a conduit for the airflow and an opening in the inner wall adjacent the actuator; and a slit shroud mounted to the housing and extending toward the actuator for maintaining planar shrouding of the media disk and to inhibit axial turbulent velocity components, the slit shroud having a wall feature located in and closing the opening in the inner wall of the bypass channel, such that the wall feature is complementary to and flush with the inner wall such that the slit shroud only forms a portion of the inner wall of the bypass channel and the airflow is contiguous through the conduit and air leakage from the conduit through the opening is minimized by the wall feature of the slit shroud; and the opening in the inner wall of the bypass channel is located on the upstream side of the media disk, such that the opening separates the inner wall into an upstream portion of the inner wall and a downstream portion of the inner wall, with the downstream portion of the inner wall extending from the downstream side of the media disk and around the actuator opposite the media disk, the upstream portion of the inner wall is located only directly adjacent the upstream side of the media disk such that the upstream portion of the inner wall causes the opening to be spaced apart from the media disk, and the downstream portion of the inner wall is longer than the upstream portion of the inner wall.