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Updated: Apr 21, 2026

Experiments on Ultrasonic Lubrication Using a Piezoelectrically-assisted Tribometer and Optical Profilometer
Published on: September 28, 2015
The impact of lubricants on the precision lapping process
Xionghua Jiang1, Zhenxing Chen1, Joy Wolfram2
11School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering,Sun Yat-sen University,Guangzhou 510275,P.R. China.
Abstract:
The impact of lubricants on pole-tip recession and surface morphology of hard disk drive heads in the precision lapping process was investigated with atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and auger electron spectroscopy. In particular, the effects of deionized water, hydrocarbon oil, ethanediol, isopropanol, and ethanol lubricants were evaluated. The results reveal that proper selection of lubricant is critical for achieving optimal performance in the lapping process. A mixture of 68% hydrocarbon oil, 30% isopropanol, and 2% octadecenoic acid was found to yield the most favorable results, displaying a writer shield recession, first shield of reader recession, and surface roughness of 0.423, 0.581, and 0.242 nm, respectively.
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