The surface of a hard disk is extremely flat so that a large amount of data can be stored at high density. This high degree of flatness, however, tends to cause the disk and the head to stick together when the disk is turned on and stopped, undermining the reliability of the hard disk device. To solve this problem, we have developed an ultrasonic vibration spindle mechanism that vibrates the sidk when it is turned on and off. Using this experimental spindle, we conducted an ultrasonic levitation experiment. The result shows that, by vibrating the spindle in a circular node mode, we can keep the head and the disk apart, drastically reducing the friction between them. Further, we placed a reflection plate in the space above the hard disk, finding that the acoustic power increased when the plate-disk distance was properly adjusted. This means that the spindle can be made much smaller.
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