Computer-aided design of slider bearings in magnetic disk files

This paper reviews the application of lubrication theory to slider bearings in magnetic disk files. For more than thirty years, slider bearings have been used to maintain close and precise spacings between recording transducer and recording medium in disk files. Computer modeling has been central to the design and performance analysis of these systems. The topics covered are the basic design, sensitivity and tolerance analysis, dynamic characteristics, and response to disk excitations from the disk. The main purpose of this paper is to review the use of computer modeling in design of slider bearings; however, the discussion of slider modes in the slider dynamics section is new.