Effect of Air and Helium on the Head-Disk Interface During Load-Unload

The tribological characteristics of the head-disk interface is investigated during load-unload for air and helium-filled drives as a function of the pitch static angle and the roll static angle between slider and disk. A custom-made experimental tester was used to determine the regions of “safe” pitch static angles and “safe” roll static angles during the load-unload process, i.e., regions where head-disk contacts are absent. The experiments were performed inside a sealed environmental chamber for both air and helium environments.