Vapor lubrication of thin film disks

A novel solvent-free coating process is described whereby hysteretic surface adsorption is used to provide uniform coatings of liquid perfluoropolyether lubricants onto thin film disks. The essence of the coating process is to place disks and lubricant in a closed atmosphere over at 170/spl deg/C for one hour. It is observed that the resultant lubricant thickness on the disk surface is near 10 /spl Aring/ and that the resultant lubricant thickness on the disk surface is only weakly dependent upon the coating oven exposure time and temperature. The contact stop/start performance of the disks is equivalent to those lubricated by dipping.<
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