More Info about the rivets from the Motley Fool Board:
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Sunray,
You almost got it completely right. The beauty of the rivet patent is
twofold. First is the cost to add and tighten the screws during assembly
and to remove them to recycle testing failures. The patent describes how
to use rivets which are not fully installed during assembly and testing, but
are only "sealed" after the disk passes inspection. There is no need to
remove a temporary rivet and replace it with a permanent one. The rivet is
"locked" through the application of heat, pressure, ultrasound, etc.
The second advantage to the patent comes with the recycling of casings
from defective disks (when the magnetic media is defective, not the case).
As the screws are inserted and removed, the threads on the plastic case
get more and more worn, destroying the precision fit of the platter within
the case. (See some of the patents for stabilizing the spinning media.) The
rivets, on the other hand, snap into place. If there is a problem, they snap
apart. Only when everything is perfect, are they are sealed.
For further information see the Mizuta patent (US 5,682,286).
patent.womplex.ibm.com
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