4 Jan
2017
4 Jan
'17
12:30 p.m.
On 01/04/2017 11:48 AM, Kyle Owen wrote:
Will the desired thickness be enough with sputtering
or evaporation?
For modern hard drives, sure, but my gut instinct is that you'd want
a thicker coating on the drum. I'd suggest sputtering over
evaporation since it will probably adhere to the surface better. I'd
think nickel electroplating would take less time and effort, though.
Heck, I have about 4 L of nickel plating solution as well as an
anode, if someone wants to give it a shot.
Thinking more about this a bit...
"Modern" aluminum-substrate plated media uses a layer of electroless
nickel, which is then polished, then plated with a layer of electroless
cobalt. I don't know if cobalt can be vacuum-sputtered onto nickel.
Lubrication layers are often added in the case of Winchester drives.
I suspect that the LGP30 drum heads require a substantial signal, so
perhaps 5 micron cobalt plating wouldn't work. In any case, the low
recording density might be better realized through a traditional
iron-oxide-in-binder coating.
--Chuck