Patent ID: 7061723

Claim:
A hard disk drive, comprising: an enclosure; a disk mounted to the enclosure and rotatable relative to the enclosure; an actuator mounted to the enclosure and movable relative to the enclosure, the actuator having a read/write head for reading data from and writing data to the disk; and a limit stop mounted to the enclosure for limiting movement of the actuator relative to the disk; the limit stop further comprising: a core mounted to the enclosure; a collar mounted to the core and having an exterior that is external relative to the core, and the exterior being formed from a damping material; an impact member mounted to the core and having an outer portion that covers at least a portion of the exterior of the collar, such that the outer portion forms an initial point of contact for the actuator, and the outer portion being formed from a material that differs from the damping material of the collar and is essentially linear in elastic behavior; and the collar provides damping for the actuator after the actuator initially impacts the impact member.