Owens Design Delivers 200th Hard Disk Automation Platform

Owens Design Inc., design and manufacturing service provider to the semiconductor, data storage and solar capital equipment markets, had delivered the 200th Hard Disk Automation Platform to a major OEM to the data storage industry. The automation platform was developed in collaboration with the OEM to meet disk handling requirements for disk metrology applications. As part of a long term partnership, Owens has been manufacturing the platform for this key customer for over six years.

Data storage technologies have continued to innovate rapidly during the last decade as storage demand has soared while costs plummet. A successful automation platform must enable rapid implementation of emerging technology, be customizable to each factory’s unique requirements, and deliver high uptime and low cost of ownership. Meeting all of these requirements simultaneously and on the aggressive delivery schedule demanded by the industry requires a deep understanding of disk automation and the HDD manufacturer’s factory needs.

"We worked very collaboratively with this OEM customer to identify the elements critical to their technology and incorporate the unique automation needs of the HDD industry," said Bob Fung, Vice President of Engineering for Owens Design. "Owens Design then developed an automation platform that would effectively interface the OEM’s process technology with their customer’s factory. Close collaboration with our OEM customer on this automation platform ensured they would be able to quickly deliver the exact solution that their HDD end-user customers required."

The Owens Design automation platform utilizes a six axis custom robot with specialized end effectors, cassette handling, and clean air management. The company developed and produced the entire platform including the robot programming. Owens Design also provides maintenance support as well as periodic platform upgrades.

"One of the benefits of collaborating with Owens Design is that our customers can leverage our design and engineering expertise to quickly develop and deliver a customized solution for a particular need, while minimizing development cost and time," said Mark Danna, Vice President of Business Development for Owens Design. "In the case of this Hard Disk Automation platform, we provided our OEM customer with a turnkey solution from prototype to volume manufacturing. This enabled our customer to focus on their core technology, rather than on supporting platform development. The 200th system milestone clearly demonstrates that, when working with the right partner, a company can outsource key subsystems and deliver a highly successful process tool."