We propose a model for a description of dynamics of cracklike processes that occur at the interface between two blocks prior to the onset of frictional motion. We find that the onset of sliding is preceded by well-defined detachment fronts initiated at the slider trailing edge and extended across the slider over limited lengths smaller than the overall length of the slider. Three different type...

Tangible sliders are successfully used as they do not need visual attention. However, users need to balance between opposite concerns: size and precision of the slider. We propose a resizable tangible slider to balance between these concerns. Users can resize the on-screen representation of the slider by resizing the tangible slider. Our aim is to benefit from both tangibility and flexible cont...

A precision spin stand was used to study the effects of pitch static angle and roll static angle on lubricant transfer between a disk and a slider in a hard disk drive. The lubricant distribution on the slider was determined by timeof-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry, while the lubricant distribution on the disks was obtained using optical surface analysis. Lubricant transfer from the dis...

A new polysilicon bridge-slider structure (Fig. 1), in which one end of the bridge is fixed and the other is connected to a plate sliding in two flanged guideways, is designed and fabricated to study the strain at fracture of LPCVD polysilicon. In the experiments, a mechanical probe is used to push against the plate end, compressing and forcing the bridge to buckle until it breaks. The distance...

Heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) is one of the most promising techniques to extend the recording density in hard disk drives beyond 1 Tb/in. Although the diameter of the spot on the disk that is heated by the laser beam is very small, on the order of nanometers, high local temperatures on the disk and the heat dissipated in the slider during the light delivery process can cause thermal d...

This paper mainly proposes an efficient modified particle swarm optimization (MPSO) method, to identify a slidercrank mechanism driven by a field-oriented PM synchronous motor. In system identification, we adopt the MPSO method to find parameters of the slider-crank mechanism. This new algorithm is added with “distance” term in the traditional PSO’s fitness function to avoid converging to a loc...

We report peculiar velocity quantization phenomena in the classical motion of an idealized 1D solid lubricant, consisting of a harmonic chain interposed between two periodic sliders. The ratio upsilon(c.m.)/upsilon(ext) of the chain center-of-mass velocity to the externally imposed relative velocity of the sliders stays pinned to exact "plateau" values for wide ranges of parameters, such as sli...

When one rigid object (the pusher) pushes another (the slider) across a horizontal support plane, Coulomb’s law admits some surprising phenomena. First, it is possible to move the slider by moving the pusher away from the slider: pulling. Second, it is possible to obtain slip between the two objects even with an infinite coefficient of friction. Thus the common conception that infinite friction...