Air bearing slider rail design and mechanical method for producing it.

摘要

An air bearing slider (10) for supporting a transducer (24) is provided with a pair of rails having an air bearing surface (12,14) with a trumpet-like part (12A,14A) with its greatest width (LW) at the leading end (20) of the slider. In the rear area of the slider the air bearing surfaces are of equal width (TW). The invention furthermore provides a mechanical grinding process using a grinding wheel (40) having two grinding disks (41,42) separated by a spacer disk (43) and provided with bevelled grinding surfaces (47) on its inner sides. Either by advancing the turning grinding wheel (40) parallel to the surface of the slider from the trailing towards the leading end up to a certain point or in accordance with another embodiment by skipping the slider slightly towards the advance motion and continuously advancing the grinding wheel, the trumpet-like air bearing surface portions (12A,14A) are provided in a simple and efficient manner.