Statistical Analysis of Contact-Induced Air Bearing Vibrations

Author(s):  
Adam Himes ◽  
Rick Budde

Air bearing vibrations at nanometer clearance levels are a major impediment to reducing head media spacing. Modern air bearings typically exhibit debilitating self-excited vibrations at fly heights of about 1–2 nm. At this point, peak head media spacing and contact pressures will increase, leading to performance and reliability issues. There has been considerable work performed to understand and improve air bearing stability at and around the point of contact, resulting in numerous experimental methods and design concepts in the literature. An area where additional research is worthwhile is the statistical behavior of contact vibrations. This paper explores the time dependence of fly height by using a simplified 2D air bearing with a mechanics based contact simulation. A comparison with measurements of fly height vibration demonstrates the utility of the simplified model and underscores the importance of proper time scale considerations.

2012 ◽  
Vol 531-532 ◽  
pp. 751-754
Author(s):  
Ying Xue Yao ◽  
Hong Bo Wang ◽  
Liang Zhou

A low-speed spindle running on air bearings is presented, it is used on rotary viscometer based on velocity attenuation of rotating cylinder. Principle of spindle is introduced, it is composed of a low speed motor and an air bearing. The low speed motor is a coupling of two motors. Design of the spindle shows the structure of it. Materials of the spindle are selected. The spindle is machined and operation process of it shows it is suitable for driving part of rotary viscometer based on velocity attenuation of rotating cylinder.


2005 ◽  
Vol 128 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vineet Gupta ◽  
David B. Bogy

Intermolecular and surface forces contribute significantly to the total forces acting on air bearing sliders for flying heights below 5 nm. Their contributions to the total force increase sharply with the reduction in flying height, and hence their existence can no longer be ignored in air bearing simulation for hard disk drives. Various experimentally observed dynamic instabilities can be explained by the inclusion of these forces in the model for low flying sliders. In this paper parametric studies are presented using a 3-DOF model to better understand the effect of the Hamaker constants, suspension pre load and pitch angle on the dynamic stability/instability of the sliders. A stiffness matrix is used to characterize the stability in the vertical, pitch, and roll directions. The fly height diagrams are used to examine the multiple equilibriums that exist for low flying heights. It has been found that the system instability increases as the magnitude of the van der Waals force increases. It has also been found that higher suspension pre load and higher pitch angles tend to stabilize the system.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (MEDSI-6) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Marion ◽  
L. Ducotte ◽  
M. Nicola ◽  
H. P. van der Kleij ◽  
L. Eybert ◽  
...  

In high-accuracy motion stages, the positioning accuracy at the point of interest is strongly influenced by guiding errors: for translation motions, straightness errors and angular errors (pitch, yaw and roll); for rotation motions, axial, radial and tilt errors. When air bearings are used for guiding, the air film averages out local irregularities of bearings surfaces, which helps reduce guiding errors considerably. Some results obtained with air bearing precision systems designed and manufactured by specialized companies and tested at ESRF are described below.


1997 ◽  
Vol 119 (3) ◽  
pp. 388-392
Author(s):  
J. M. Pitarresi ◽  
K. A. Haller

Air layer supported bearing pads, or “air bearings” as they are commonly called, are popular because of their high load capacity and low in-plane coefficient of friction, making them well suited for supporting moving, high accuracy manufacturing stages. Air/vacuum bearings enhance these capabilities by giving the bearing pad load resistance capacity in both the upward and downward directions. Consequently, it is desirable to know how to model the air layer between the bearing pad and the bearing surface. In this paper, a simple finite element modeling approach is presented for investigating the vibrational characteristics of an air layer supported bearing. It was found that by modeling the air layer as a bed of uniform springs who’s stiffness is determined by load-displacement tests of the bearing, a reasonable representation of the response can be obtained. For a bearing supported by air without vacuum, the dynamic response was very similar to that of a freely supported bearing. The addition of vacuum to an air bearing was found to significantly lower its fundamental frequency which could lead to unwanted resonance problems.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sripathi V. Canchi ◽  
David B. Bogy ◽  
Run-Han Wang ◽  
Aravind N. Murthy

Accurate touchdown power detection is a prerequisite for read-write head-to-disk spacing calibration and control in current hard disk drives, which use the thermal fly-height control slider technology. The slider air bearing surface and head gimbal assembly design have a significant influence on the touchdown behavior, and this paper reports experimental findings to help understand the touchdown process. The dominant modes/frequencies of excitation at touchdown can be significantly different leading to very different touchdown signatures. The pressure under the slider at touchdown and hence the thermal fly-height control efficiency as well as the propensity for lubricant pickup show correlation with touchdown behavior which may be used as metrics for designing sliders with good touchdown behavior. Experiments are devised to measure friction at the head-disk interface of a thermal fly-height control slider actuated into contact. Parametric investigations on the effect of disk roughness, disk lubricant parameters, and air bearing surface design on the friction at the head-disk interface and slider burnishing/wear are conducted and reported.


Author(s):  
I. Cracaoanu ◽  
F. Bremer

In high precision system applications low friction levels between components are desirable. Moving heavy parts at high speeds and accelerations without friction is possible by using air bearings. The main failure ofthe air bearings is the wear phenomenon (modification of surface topography) that occurs due to crash into the counterpart when air supply is interrupted. The aim of this research is to investigate different types of air bearings for a large number of crashes using real operational parameters from the field: speed, acceleration, load and supply air pressure. The real crash phenomenon in a high precision machine hasbeen replicated using a test setup. During testing, evolution of air bearing surface topography and air bearing characteristics (gap and flow) after different number of crashes are investigated. Test results showthat some air bearings are not reaching the specified number of crashes due to large defects that occur on the bearing surface. Some specific relations were found between crash defects and parameters such asthe air gap size and the direct contact between opposing surfaces. The preferred type of air bearings shows good performance even above the maximum specified number of crashes. This behavior can be explainedby low friction level during crash tests between the opposing surfaces. The test results from this investigation produced a reliable candidate for air bearings in the high precision system application.


2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (2) ◽  
pp. 358-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinjiang Shen ◽  
David B. Bogy

For a particle entrained in an air bearing, various forces, such as the viscous drag force, Saffmann and Magnus lift forces and gravity force, will act on it. Such particles may pass through the air bearing or impact the slider or disk and then adhere to the surface or bounce off. In this paper, particle flow in an air bearing is simulated. The contamination of particles on a slider’s surface is analyzed using the assumption of adhesion upon impact. The effect of particle size and density on particle paths in the air bearing is studied. The numerical results show that particles are likely to contaminate slider surfaces in the transition regions on the rails. The density of the particles and the pitch angle of the slider are also found to strongly affect the flying path of the particles, and therefore, the accumulation of the particles on slider surfaces.


1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (3) ◽  
pp. 553-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Hu ◽  
Paul M. Jones ◽  
Kangjie Li

The increasing effort to use sub-ambient pressure air bearing sliders for dynamic load/unload applications in magnetic hard disk drives requires desirable air bearing characteristics during the dynamic unload event. This paper establishes air bearing design criteria for achieving a smooth head unload performance, through a correlation study between the modeled unloading air bearing dynamics of two 30 percent proximity recording sub-ambient pressure sliders and motion sequence of the same sliders by a high-speed video camera. It is shown that the air bearing lifting force quickly responds to changes in fly height and pitch, while the suction force is relatively resistant to changes in fly height, but somewhat more sensitive to changes in pitch. This unique distinction results in different decreasing rates between the air bearing lifting and suction forces during the unload process, creating a strong dependence of the unloading characteristics on the location of the suction cavities. Both the modeled unloading air bearing dynamics and experimentally recorded motion sequence illustrate that a toward-trailing-edge located suction force acts to pitch the slider up, while the moment produced by a toward-leading-edge located suction force induces a negative pitch motion, resulting in an excessive flexure deformation and dimple separation. Therefore, placing the suction cavities towards the trailing edge offers a reliable unloading performance for the sub-ambient pressure air bearing sliders.


Procedia CIRP ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 607-612
Author(s):  
Christopher Müller ◽  
Sebastian Greco ◽  
Benjamin Kirsch ◽  
Jan C. Aurich

1968 ◽  
Vol 90 (4) ◽  
pp. 680-686 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. L. Wunsch

This paper attempts to illustrate the advantages and limitations of air bearings in the machine-tool and measuring instrument field by reference to actual industrial applications. It also indicates likely future developments.


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