Granted Patent B1

US 8,800,322 · App. 13/674,645 · Granted Aug 12, 2014

Abstract

Claims (17)

1. A system for glass hard disk substrate treatment, comprising

an oven comprising a receptacle for a glass hard disk substrate and a heat source;

a control module coupled to the oven and configured cause the oven to anneal the formed glass hard disk substrate to form an annealed glass hard disk substrate and configured to cause the oven to temper the annealed glass hard disk substrate to form a tempered and annealed glass hard disk substrate; and

a pipe positioned to flow air in an inner circumference of a receptacle capable of holding a columnar stack of disks, such that air flows through the inner circumference of the receptacle and the disks;

wherein the annealing comprises ramping up the formed glass hard disk substrate to an annealing temperature, maintaining the glass hard disk substrate at the annealing temperature for a first amount of time, and cooling the glass hard disk substrate at a first cooling rate; and

wherein the tempering comprises ramping up the annealed glass hard disk substrate to a tempering temperature, maintaining the glass hard disk substrate at the tempering temperature for a second amount of time, and cooling the glass hard disk substrate at a second cooling rate that is greater than the first cooling rate.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the tempering temperature and the second amount of time are selected such that the glass hard disk substrates enters a liquidus state during the step of maintaining the glass hard disk substrate at the tempering temperature for the second amount of time; and

wherein the second cooling rate is such that a surface region of the glass hard disk substrate enters a solidus state before an inner region of the glass hard disk substrate.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein:

the formed glass hard disk substrate is one of a plurality of formed glass hard disk substrates forming a columnar stack of glass hard disk substrates; and

wherein the step of cooling the glass hard disk substrate at the second cooling rate comprising cooling the stack of glass hard disk substrates by flowing air over an outer circumference of the stack of glass hard disk substrates at a first air flow rate and by flowing air over an inner circumference of the stack of glass hard disk substrates at a second air flow rate, wherein the first air flow rate and the second air flow rate are configured such that an outer circumferential region of the stack of glass hard disk substrates cools at substantially the same rate as an inner circumferential region of the stack of glass hard disk substrates.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the glass hard disk substrate comprises borosilicate glass, wherein the annealing temperature is between about 645° C. and about 655° C., wherein the tempering temperature is between about 665° C. and about 675° C., wherein the first cooling rate cools the glass hard disk substrate to room temperature in at least about 4 hours, and wherein the second cooling rate cools the glass hard disk substrate to room temperature in at most about 2.5 hours;

the formed glass hard disk substrate is one of a plurality of formed glass hard disk substrates forming a columnar stack of glass hard disk substrates; and

wherein the step of cooling the glass hard disk substrate at the second cooling rate comprising cooling the stack of glass hard disk substrates by flowing air over an outer circumference of the stack of glass hard disk substrates at a first air flow rate and by flowing air over an inner circumference of the stack of glass hard disk substrates at a second air flow rate, wherein the first air flow rate and the second air flow rate are configured such that an outer circumferential region of the stack of glass hard disk substrates cools at substantially the same rate as an inner circumferential region of the stack of glass hard disk substrates;

further comprising a weight configured to axially compress the columnar stack of glass hard disk substrates with a force of about 30 N.

Assignments (8)