Role of particulate contamination on friction and wear and durability of load/unload and padded picosliders

The role of particulate contamination on friction and wear at the head-disk interface (HDI) for load/unload (L/UL) picosliders and contact-start-stop padded picosliders is studied. L/UL picosliders performed better than padded picosliders in the presence of particulate contamination and in a clean environment. Disk wear was higher for harder and smaller sized particles. Disk wear decreases with an increase in disk speed in the presence of smaller particles as these can escape more easily through the HDI at higher speeds. Track following causes more and earlier disk damage as compared to sweeping. In the case of padded picosliders, HDI contamination causes wear of pads eventually leading to partial or complete removal of pads.