Abstract:
In this research, the wear behavior of the Gripper used in the slider-alignment process prior to the
head-gimbal assembly (HGA) process has been studied using the finite element method (FEM). The
aim of this research is to understand the wear mechanism responsible for failure and estimate the in-
service life of the gripper in order to improve the assembly process. Examination of process-used
grippers randomly collected from the assembly line, together with the computational results showed
that gripper failure is a result of mild abrasive wear taking place at surface asperities. Moreover, it
was found that the initial position of the slider has a strong effect on the gripper wear and, hence,it's
in-service life. The FEM results show that initial position of +6.75 ํ in the maximum wear. The
adjustment of the initial position of the slider led to a 48.64% increase in the gripper lifetime.