Leaner, cleaner disk drives

Gary Knoth, Senior Contamination Control Engineer, WDC, provided the following input for a technical paper published in the IEST Journal.

Advanced carbon dioxide (CO₂) composite spray cleaning has been shown to be an effective alternative to traditional spray and immersion cleaning processes, as well as conventional snow cleaning, for selectively removing contaminants and films from partially assembled hard disk drive (HDD) components during the remanufacturing or rework process.  CO₂ consumption is reduced significantly using a composite spray while spray cleaning control and performance is improved.  CO₂ composite spray cleaning performance is dependant upon the position, speed and motions of the spray applicator, and are matched to comply with HDD factory output.  Stored spray cleaning programs deliver precise cleaning 7 days a week, 24 hours per day with uptimes exceeding 99.9% over a six month period.  Monitoring and controlling composite spray cleaning process parameters including spray pressure and composition, scanning speed, and pallet/part identification are all done automatically.  Operator interaction is limited to loading and unloading pallets for continuous system operation.

Source:
“Automated CO₂ Composite Spray Cleaning System for HDD Rework Parts”, Journal of the IEST, V. 52, No. X, 2009