International Business Machines Corporation

Volker Heinrich

Holger Hinkel

Andreas Heinrich Dietzel

Werner Steiner

Gerhard Elsner

Upali Bandara

Ruediger Friedrich Berger

Gerhard Kaus

Werner Zapka

Jurgen Kempf

Artur Lang

Friedrich Ertingshausen

Thomas Frank

Manfred Schrader

Hans-Georg Nauth

Erwin Prinz

An apparatus for exactly positioning a medium mounted on a spindle is provided, whereby the apparatus comprises a device for continuously changing the angular position of said medium with respect to a predefined reference position by rotating said spindle. Additionally, the apparatus comprises a friction element for braking said spindle at a predetermined position, not allowing a swing back.

Precise positioning of media

Method for measuring the properties of a slider/disk interface in a magnetic disk storage apparatus by measuring a triboelectric current flowing between disk and slider. Rotational speed is adjusted between 100 and 500 rpm so as to obtain a frictional contact between disk and slider. The shape of the tribo current curve obtained during the measuring time interval is analyzed. An early maximum of the tribo current amplitude and a subsequent continual decay indicates a good slider/disk interface and a long lifetime.

System for testing magnetic head/disk interfaces

A magnetic head slider consisting of a mixed ceramic made of aluminum oxide/titanium carbide has on its sliding side adjacent a magnetic record carrier a thin layer from which the titanium carbide component has been removed. The titanium carbide component preferably is removed by preferential reactive ion etching in a CF.sub.4 plasma. The magnetic head slider with its sliding surface thus modified exhibits greatly improved sliding properties compared with sliders of the same material having a non-modified sliding surface.

Magnetic head slider of ceramic material

Growing community of inventors

Wiesbaden, Germany

Volker Heinrich