JPH0991648A - Method for working magnetic head slider and device therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to change the chamfering width measure in the longitudinal direction of the floating surfaces of a slider by feeding the floating surface in a longitudinal direction and working the surfaces while vibrating the floating surfaces in a direction orthogonal with the longitudinal direction in the state of pressing the floating surfaces onto a polishing tape. SOLUTION: A traveling table 24 is returned to an origin position set on the deep side in the plane of Fig. and the slider 7 is set in the state of directing its both floating surfaces 7a upward and placing the slider on a fixing frame 6 on a pad 5 by lowering a lifting stage 23 and thereafter, the lifting stage 23 is risen to lift the slider to a specified position. This up position is such a position where the polishing tape 8 is pressed. Both sticking plates 9a, 9b vary in the wall thickness in this state and the rigidity of the sticking plates is higher than the rigidity of the pad and, therefore, the slider 7 inclines by the prescribed chamfering angle θ and sink into the pad 5. An upper base plate 11 is thereafter excited laterally by vibration exciting means 25 and the traveling table 25 is moved to the front side in the plane of Fig. simultaneously therewith. The chamfering width size in the longitudinal direction of the floating surfaces is changeable by controlling a mechanical feed direction, feed amount and feed rate.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention A minute chamfer is formed on an edge portion of a protrusion provided on one surface of a magnetic head slider (hereinafter abbreviated as slider) and having a pair of left and right flat surface portions (hereinafter referred to as air bearing surfaces). To a processing method and device for

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A general slider is provided with two rail-shaped air bearing surfaces on the left and right sides of a surface facing a magnetic disk surface. Recently, as shown in FIGS. 6, 7 and 8, the distance between the slider and the magnetic disk (referred to as the flying height) is asymmetric, and as shown in FIGS. A chamfered width W is formed, and a chamfered angle θ which is a processing angle from the air bearing surface is formed. Although this chamfer is minute, it is generally processed by polishing, and as a polishing method, for example, JP-A-6-
There is one disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 203355. this is,
A polishing sheet is fixed on an elastic material or a metal plate having minute steps, and the slider is placed on the polishing sheet with the air bearing surface of the slider facing downward and both air bearing surfaces straddling the step. This is a method of pressing with a load, applying a traveling wave that is a combination of vertical and horizontal vibrations to an elastic material or a metal plate, and performing minute chamfering processing on the side surface.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the above conventional technique,
As one means for applying a constant load to the slider, one pressing pin with a spring is used, and the load applied to the edges on which chamfers on both sides should be formed cannot be constant due to variations in the slider set position and the like. For this reason, in the case where the polishing sheet is fixed to the metal plate, this load difference directly appears as a processing amount difference, and the chamfering width W of both air bearing surfaces cannot be precisely controlled. Further, in the case where the polishing sheet is fixed to the elastic material, there is a problem that it is difficult to form the minute step accurately first. That is, this step difference differs depending on the target chamfering angle θ and the dimension of the both-side edges of the target slider, but is as small as several tens of μm.
And with a dimensional accuracy of about 1 μm, R in the corner as much as possible
Although it is necessary to process so that no portion is formed, it is difficult to perform this processing on the elastic material. Further, there is a problem that the amount of deformation of the elastic material is different due to the load difference applied to both edges. For these reasons, it is difficult to stably process the chamfering angle θ without variation by the method using the elastic material.

Further, in order to further improve the performance of the magnetic head, it is required to keep the flying height of the slider smaller and moreover constant. Therefore, in chamfering, it has been proposed that the chamfering width W is not uniform in the longitudinal direction of the air bearing surface as shown in FIG. 7B, but has a predetermined width from wide to narrow. There is. It is obvious that the above-mentioned conventional technique cannot cope with such processing because there is no means for controlling the chamfer width dimension. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to precisely and stably control the chamfering width processing dimension on the edges of the pair of left and right air bearing surfaces provided on one surface of the magnetic head slider, and in particular, to increase the width from a wide width to a narrow width. It is an object of the present invention to provide a processing method and a processing apparatus for performing minute chamfering on a shape.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to achieve the above object, and in a method of processing a magnetic head slider for performing a minute chamfer on the edge portion of the air bearing surface of the magnetic head slider, the slider is It is characterized in that it is held by a cushion material, its air bearing surface is pressed against a polishing body, and is fed in the longitudinal direction of the air bearing surface, and horizontal vibration is applied in the intersecting direction for processing. In addition, in a magnetic head processing device that performs minute chamfering on the edge portion of the air bearing surface of the magnetic head slider, a cushion material that holds the slider and a polishing member that is arranged to face the air bearing surface of the slider that is held by the cushion material. It is also characterized in that it has a body, a means for moving at least one of the polishing body and the slider in the longitudinal direction of the air bearing surface of the slider, and a vibrating means for vibrating at least one of the polishing body and the slider in the horizontal direction.

[0006]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

(Embodiment 1) A processing apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The lower base 20, the column 21 standing upright, and the upper base 22 disposed above the column form a main frame. The column 21 is provided with a traveling table 24 which has traveling means and whose movement is controlled in the front-back direction (perpendicular to the paper surface). Further, the traveling table 24 has elevating means which is vertically moved and controlled. Arrange the stage 23. An adjustment base 3 is fixed to the elevating stage 23 via a lower base 1 and a lower fixture 2. A pad 5, which is a cushion material having an original shape of a flat plate, is fixed to the upper surface of the adjustment table 3. The pad 5 is preferably made of rubber or foamed resin, for example, and has a good cushioning property and a small reaction force. A fixed frame 6 is fixed to the upper surface of the pad 5 so that the slider 7 is mounted and positioned upward such that the longitudinal directions of the pair of left and right floating surfaces 7a are parallel to the traveling direction of the traveling table 24. ing. The lower base 1 has a groove 1a and the groove 1a.
And a suction device (not shown) is connected to the suction hole 1b, and the lower fixture 2 is fixed on the lower base 1 by vacuum suction.

The adjusting table 3 has three layers of plates 3a, 3b and 3c, and the first layer 3a and the second layer 3b are connected by a front-rear direction connecting portion 3d extending in the front-rear direction at a central portion, The second layer 3b and the third layer 3c are connected by a left-right direction connecting portion 3e extending in the left-right direction at the central portion. Female threads are provided on the left and right ends of the center of the first layer 3a in the front-rear direction and on the front and rear ends of the center of the left-right direction, and the female threads on the left and right ends penetrate only the first layer 3a. The lower ends of the left adjusting screw 4a and the right adjusting screw 4b that are screwed in are
It is in contact with the upper surface of the second layer 3b. On the other hand, the female screws at the front and rear ends penetrate the first layer 3a and the second layer 3b, and the lower ends of the front adjusting screw 4c and the rear adjusting screw 4d screwed into these are
It is in contact with the upper surface of the third layer 3c. Therefore, when the left adjusting screw 4a is unscrewed and the right adjusting screw 4b is screwed in, the upper surface of the adjusting table 3 is inclined with the left side in the horizontal direction downward, and when the right adjusting screw 4b is unscrewed and the left adjusting screw 4a is screwed in, The upper surface of the adjustment table 3 is inclined with the right side in the horizontal direction facing downward. Similarly, when the front adjustment screw 4c is unscrewed and the rear adjustment screw 4d is screwed in, the upper surface of the adjustment base 3 is inclined with the front in the horizontal direction downward, and when the rear adjustment screw 4d is unscrewed and the front adjustment screw 4c is screwed in, The upper surface of the adjustment table 3 is inclined with the rear side in the horizontal direction facing downward.

Above the slider 7, an upper base 22 is provided.
An upper base 11 supported by the above is arranged. In the vibrating means 25, the main body is in the column 21, and the vibration applying portion is in the upper base 1.
It is attached to 1. As a result, the upper base 11 is moved in the left-right direction in FIG. 1, that is, on both air bearing surfaces 7a of the slider 7.
Can be excited in a direction intersecting the longitudinal direction of the. Upper base 1
1 is connected to the upper base 22 by, for example, a thin plate so as to be effectively vibrated by the vibrating means, or has a coupling structure via a slide, and is capable of fine movement in the left-right direction.
The upper base 11 is provided with a concave groove 11a and an intake port 11b communicating with the concave groove 11a. A suction device (not shown) is connected to the intake port 11b, and the upper fixture 10 Is fixed to the lower surface of the upper base 11 by vacuum suction. On the lower surface of the upper fixture 10, a tape-attached thin plate 9a and a tape-attached thick plate 9b are fixed adjacent to each other, and the step formed at the boundary between the both attached plates 9a and 9b is The slider 7 is arranged so as to be located between the two air bearing surfaces 7a. Both attachment plates 9a, 9b
Is made of a material having overwhelmingly high rigidity with respect to the pad 5, such as metal or ceramics. Polishing tapes 8 are attached to the lower surfaces of both attachment plates 9a and 9b, respectively.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 3. In FIG. 1, the traveling table 24 is returned to the origin position set on the back side of the paper surface, the elevating stage 23 is lowered, and the slider 7 is fixed to the fixed frame 6 on the pad 5 with both floating surfaces 7a thereof facing upward. After being set inside, the elevating stage 23 is lifted and lifted to a certain position. The rising position at this time is such that the two air bearing surfaces 7a of the slider 7 are attached to the lower surfaces of the tape-attached thin plate 9a and the tape-attached thick plate 9b, respectively.
It is a position where is pressed. In this state, the two attachment plates 9a and 9b have different wall thicknesses, and the attachment plate has a higher rigidity than the pad, so that the slider 7 has a space between the protrusions 7a and both attachment plates 9a and 9b. At a certain angle determined according to the step formed at the boundary of, i.e., a predetermined chamfering angle [theta], and is slightly inclined and sunk into the pad 5. However, by selecting the pad 5 having a good cushioning property (low rigidity), there is almost no difference in the reaction force received from the pad by the edge portions of the two air bearing surfaces 7a at the difference in the sinking amount of the pad. There is no.

After that, the vibrating means 25 is used to move the upper base 1
1 is oscillated in the left-right direction in FIG. 1, and at the same time, the traveling table 24 is moved to the front side of the paper surface. FIG. 3 is a view of FIG. 1 viewed from the A direction. In FIG. 3, the slider 7 travels from the origin position on the left side to the stop position on the right side while pressing the polishing tape 8. While traveling, the edge of the air bearing surface on the rear side with respect to the edge of the air bearing surface on the front side is processed with the polishing tape surface already used for processing the edge of the front air bearing surface, so the sharpness of the abrasive grains is It becomes worse and the amount of processing decreases. Therefore, when the slider 7 travels one way and reaches the stop position, when the elevating stage 23 is lowered,
The chamfering width W of the air bearing surfaces 7a after chamfering is processed such that the front side is wide and the rear side is narrow. The chamfer angle θ is regulated by the inclination angle and is almost constant over the entire length of the air bearing surface.

It is also effective to operate the adjusting table 3 to incline the pad 5 in the longitudinal direction of the air bearing surface 7a and set the slider 7 to perform the same operation. This time,
Of the chamfer widths W, the width of the chamfered width W is increased by about several hundreds μm. That is, as shown in FIG.
By screwing back the rear adjusting screw 4d and screwing in the front adjusting screw 4c, the upper surface of the adjusting base 3 is inclined so that the front side becomes higher. As described above, since the pad 5 has a good cushioning property (low rigidity), the reaction force does not change so much with respect to the minute pushing amount difference of about several tens μm. However, when the difference is several hundreds of μm, a reaction force difference occurs. The chamfering width can be processed more efficiently by taking into consideration the difference in the processing amount due to the difference in the pressing force of the air bearing surface 7a against the polishing tape 8 resulting from this reaction force difference and the difference in the sharpness of the abrasive grains.

Further, since the adjustment table 3 can adjust the inclination of the upper surface in the left-right direction and the inclination in the front-rear direction, it is necessary to adjust the slider posture in advance to the manufacturing error of the slider 7 for each lot. You can also Further, in this embodiment, since the lower fixture 2 is fixed to the lower base 1 by vacuum suction and the upper fixture 10 is fixed to the upper base 11 by vacuum suction, the lower fixture 2 and the upper fixture are fixed. The tool 10 can be quickly attached and detached, and therefore the slider 7 and the polishing tape 8 can both be quickly replaced.

(Embodiment 2) In the apparatus shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, the setting portion of the slider 7 has a structure in which a spacer 12 is attached between the pad 5 and the fixed frame 6 in this embodiment. The spacer 12 has a hollow shape similar to that of the fixed frame 6, but has a protruding portion 12a capable of supporting one end of the lower surface of the slider in the longitudinal direction of the air bearing surface. Therefore, when the slider is set, as shown in FIG. 5A, the slider is supported by the pad 5 at one end and the protruding portion 12a of the spacer at the other end in the longitudinal direction of the air bearing surface, and is inclined by exactly the thickness of the spacer. It will be.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 5. In FIG. 1, the traveling table 24 is returned to the origin position on the back side of the paper surface, the elevating stage 23 is lowered, and as shown in FIG. The lower base 1 is raised to a certain position after the lower base 1 is set in a state where it is placed in the fixed frame 6 on the pad 5 so that the side whose chamfer width is desired to be wide is on the protruding portion 12a of the spacer. At this time, the ascending position is such that both air bearing surfaces 7a of the slider 7 press the polishing tapes 8 attached to the lower surfaces of the tape-attached thin plate 9a and the tape-attached thick plate 9b, respectively.
In the present embodiment, on the surface orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the air bearing surface, both the attachment plates 9a, 9a, as in the first embodiment.
Since the thickness of b is different and the rigidity of the sticking plate is much higher than that of the pad, the slider 7 has a gap between both air bearing surfaces 7a and a step formed at the boundary between both sticking plates 9a and 9b. Although it slightly inclines by a constant angle determined according to the above, that is, a predetermined chamfering angle θ and sinks into the pad 5, the reaction force received by the edge portions of both air bearing surfaces 7a contacting the polishing tape is almost the same.

However, as shown in FIG. 5B, on the longitudinal surface of the air bearing surface 7a, the slider 7 is inclined by the thickness of the spacer 12 by both attachment plates 9a and 9b and sinks into the pad. Therefore, the protruding portion 12 of the spacer
The slider receives a reaction force as much as a is deflected. If the air bearing surface 7a is initially set high, that is, if the chamfering width is to be increased, the force required to elastically deform the protruding portion 12a is pressed against the polishing tape.

Then, the vibrating means 25 is used to excite the upper base 1.
1 is vibrated in the left-right direction in FIG. 1, and at the same time, the traveling table 24 is moved in the front direction on the paper surface. As described in the first embodiment, the chamfering width machining amount increases on the front side in the moving direction of the slider. Therefore, if the protruding portion 12a of the spacer is set to the front side in the traveling direction, both factors such as the difference in sharpness of the abrasive grains and the difference in pressing force are added, so that the machining with higher efficiency can be performed.
Alternatively, it is possible to perform processing with a larger chamfer width difference. Also, if you process the slider by traveling back and forth,
The factor of the difference in sharpness of the abrasive grains is canceled, and the size of the chamfer width W can be controlled only by adjusting the spacer thickness.

Using the method of this embodiment, the spacer 12
Was manufactured from a SUS material having a thickness of 30 μm, and the chamfering processing of the edge portion was performed with a processing stroke of 10 mm reciprocating and a feed rate of 20 mm / min. As a result, the difference between W1 and W2 was 30.
It was possible to stably process a chamfer from a wide width to a narrow width with an accuracy of ± 5 μm or more and within ± 5 μm. In this example, the polishing tape was used,
As the polishing sheet, a so-called grindstone in which abrasive grains are hardened with a binder may be used as it is. When using a grindstone, the tape sticking plate may be omitted.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained, and extremely accurate and stable micro chamfering can be formed and controlled at the edges of both air bearing surfaces of the slider. It is possible to perform chamfering such that the width of the chamfer in the direction becomes wide to narrow. 1) With the slider air bearing surface pressed against the polishing tape,
Since machining is performed by feeding in the longitudinal direction while vibrating in the direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction, it is possible to change the chamfer width dimension in the longitudinal direction of the air bearing surface by controlling the mechanical feed direction, feed amount, and feed speed. it can. 2) When the amount of mechanical control is set to a constant value, the chamfer width in the longitudinal direction of the air bearing surface can be stably controlled by changing the material and shape of the spacer that supports one end of the slider bottom surface. 3) Since the tape adhering plate is manufactured separately from the highly rigid body, the thickness of each adhering plate can be accurately manufactured, and the accuracy of the step formed at the boundary between both adhering plates becomes high, The chamfering angle of the edge portion can be formed with high accuracy and stability. 4) Since a pad with a good cushioning property and a small reaction force is used to hold the slider, even if the slider is tilted and sinks by the step of the tape sticking plate, there is no difference in reaction force and the air bearing surface on both sides Is pressed against the polishing tape with the same load, the chamfering angle of the edge portion can be formed with high accuracy and stability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a basic structure of a processing apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an adjustment table.

FIG. 3 is an example showing a processing operation of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing an embodiment in which the adjusting table of the present invention is tilted.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing an embodiment in which the spacer of the present invention is used.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing an example of a magnetic head slider.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the same.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of the same

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Lower Fixture 3 Adjusting Stand 5 Pad 7 Magnetic Head Slider 7a Projection 8 Polishing Tape 9a Tape Attaching Thin Plate 9b Tape Attaching Thick Plate 10 Upper Fixture 12 Spacer 24 Traveling Table 25 Exciting Means

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A method of processing a magnetic head slider, wherein fine chamfering is performed on an edge portion of an air bearing surface of a magnetic head slider, wherein the slider is held by a cushioning material, and the air bearing surface is pressed against a polishing body, A processing method of a magnetic head slider, characterized in that feed traveling is performed in a longitudinal direction and horizontal vibration is applied in a crossing direction. 2. A method of processing a magnetic head slider, wherein minute chamfering is performed on an edge portion of a pair of air bearing surfaces of a magnetic head slider, wherein the slider is held by a cushion material, and the air bearing surface is stepped between the air bearing surfaces. A method of processing a magnetic head slider, characterized in that the magnetic head slider is processed by pressing the polishing body arranged in the above, feeding in the longitudinal direction of the air bearing surface, and applying horizontal vibration in the intersecting direction. 3. A method of processing a magnetic head, wherein a chamfering is performed at an edge portion of an air bearing surface of a magnetic head slider so that a chamfering width in the longitudinal direction on the air bearing surface is changed from a wide width to a narrow width. Then, the air bearing surface is pressed against the polishing body, so that the slider contacts the polishing body in the longitudinal direction of the air bearing surface from the wide side to the narrow side.
At least one of the slider and the polishing body is fed and run,
A method of processing a magnetic head slider, characterized in that horizontal vibration is applied to the intersecting direction for processing. 4. A method of processing a magnetic head, wherein a chamfering is performed on an edge portion of an air bearing surface of a magnetic head slider so that a chamfering width in a longitudinal direction on the air bearing surface is changed from a wide width to a narrow width. Then, the chamfered side that widens the air bearing surface is pressed more strongly to the polishing body, and the feed traveling is performed in the longitudinal direction of the air bearing surface, and horizontal vibration is applied in the intersecting direction to perform machining. Head slider processing method. 5. When a spacer is inserted between the slider and the cushion material at one end of the chamfering side for widening and the air bearing surface is pressed against the polishing body, the chamfering side for widening is made stronger for the polishing body. The method of processing a magnetic head slider according to claim 4, wherein the magnetic head slider is pressed. 6. At least one of the slider and the polishing body is fed so that the slider comes into contact with the polishing body from the wide side to the narrow side in the air-bearing-surface longitudinal feed traveling. Alternatively, the method of processing the magnetic head slider as described in 5 above. 7. A magnetic head processing device for performing minute chamfering on an edge portion of an air bearing surface of a magnetic head slider, the cushion material holding the slider and the air bearing surface of the slider held by the cushion material are arranged to face each other. A polishing body, a means for moving at least one of the polishing body and the slider in the longitudinal direction of the air bearing surface of the slider, and a vibrating means for horizontally exciting at least one of the polishing body and the slider. And processing device for magnetic head slider. 8. In a magnetic head processing apparatus for performing minute chamfering on a pair of air bearing surface edge portions of a magnetic head slider, a cushion material for holding the slider and an air bearing surface of the slider held by the cushion material are opposed to each other. And a means for running at least one of the polishing body and the slider in the longitudinal direction of the air bearing surface of the slider, and at least one of the polishing body and the slider. And a vibrating means for horizontally vibrating the magnetic head slider. 9. The magnetic head slider processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a spacer fixed on the cushion material so as to support one end of the slider bottom surface in the air bearing surface longitudinal direction. 10. The polishing body is obtained by attaching a polishing tape to a substrate having rigidity equal to or higher than that of metal.
10. The magnetic head slider processing device according to any one of 1 to 9.