Speed Dependence,Takeoff and Stiction of a New Class of Gas Bearing Sliders

While searching for a less-speed-sensitive programmable air bearing slider, the author noted that the primary reason for the sluggish takeoff and large dependence of fly height on speed is the very common 10 mrad taper. This taper is found on many sliders in the railed, taper/flat class. A single, plane wedge bearing operating at a large bearing number and a pitch angle considerably below that which gives maximum lift does not suffer from such speed sensitivity. The “inlet throttled” condition of the bearing inlet fixes the mass flux into the bearing gap. Because a single pad of this type has poor pitch stability, the author placed two of these pads in a tandem configuration, and abandoned rails. The result defines a new air bearing class, called Tango, which has front and rear pads, each having inlet throttled leading edges. Some members of this class offer takeoff velocities equalling and even improving more-complex designs using subambient pressure. In addition, numerical and hardware experiments have verified the considerably reduced sensitivity of fly height to speed, a reduced sensitivity to crown distortion, and improved stiction. Disk designers benefit by not having to accept a longer takeoff run when the fly height decreases.