Tribology of magnetic media and its relation to media failure

Failure of magnetic media is mostly associated with the friction and wear characteristics of its coating surface. Physical durability, as measured by frictional heating at the head/media interface is related to the properties of the binder matrix, lubricant and friction related chemical changes of binder components. Accelerated tests for tape and flexible disks (FD) have been correlated with end-use rankings. Test-time savings of 100X are feasible for FDs.