A head suspension assembly or component for supporting a head slider over a disk
in a hard disk drive with the assembly including a plurality of head suspension
components joined together by welds at weld pockets. A component includes a component
thickness and one or more weld pockets formed at desired weld sites, each weld
pocket including an area whose thickness is less than the component thickness with
the area being greater in size than an area of a weld to be formed at the weld
pocket. A method of welding components together includes providing at least two
components to be welded together at a desired weld site, forming a weld pocket
at the desired weld site in a component, and welding the components together. The
weld pocket includes an area of reduced thickness with the area being greater in
size than an area of a weld to be formed.
