Optimizing tape-burnishing/wiping process of magnetic recording media through Taguchi method

For the ever-increasing recording density in hard disk drives, ultra-low gliding height media are required. It is an immense challenge for the tape-burnishing/wiping process of media to reduce the asperities effectively and efficiently while no scratches occur. The purpose of this paper is to characterize and then optimize the tape-burnishing/wiping process as so to minimize the asperities without leaving any scratches on the media surface. A Taguchi experiment design method is adopted to analyze the data and acquire an optimal level combination of process parameters. The resulting optimal combination is practically implemented in tape-burnishing/wiping the several magnetic recording media, which reveals that the average pass ratio of 5 nm glide avalanche testing increases nearly doubly to a level of 96%. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.