Wear Between Lift Tab and Load/Unload Ramp in Hard Disk Drives

• Published in: IEEE transactions on magnetics Vol. 52; no. 12; pp. 1 - 7
• Main Authors: Youyi Fu, Min Yang, Jih-Ping Peng, Talke, Frank E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.12.2016; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Chemical composition; Disk drives; Force; Friction; Hard disk drive; Hard disks; lift tab; load/unload; Loading; Magnetism; polyoxymethylene (POM); ramp; Surface treatment; Testing; Torque; voice coil motor (VCM) current; wear; Wear mechanisms; Wear particles; X ray analysis
• ISSN: 0018-9464; 1941-0069
• DOI: 10.1109/TMAG.2016.2593423

A method was developed to characterize wear between the suspension lift tab and the load/unload ramp during load/unload testing in hard disk drives. The change of the friction force between the lift tab and the load/unload ramp was obtained by measuring the change of the voice coil motor (VCM) current. Scanning electron microscopy was used to evaluate the amount of wear debris deposited on the lift tab. The change of the VCM current was correlated with the area of adhering wear debris on the lift tab surface as a function of load/unload cycles and temperature. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis was performed to identify the chemical composition of the wear debris and determine the wear mechanism.