Patent ID: 8615318

Claim:
A method of process control comprising: (a) constraining a tolerance ring relative to one of an inner and an outer component, the outer component comprising a circumferential housing of a reading arm for hard disks, the tolerance ring comprising an annular band of resilient material having a plurality of projections projecting radially therefrom; (b) moving the other of the inner or outer component axially with respect to the constrained tolerance ring so as to compress the projections of the tolerance ring between the inner and outer components; (c) continuing movement of the inner or outer component, respectively, beyond an axial edge of the tolerance ring in a direction of travel of the inner component or outer component; (d) measuring a remaining assembly force required to achieve the continued movement at step (c); and (e) using the remaining assembly force measured at step (d) for process control, wherein (e) further includes (e′) determining an initial slip force from the measured remaining assembly force by using a best-fit line of a predetermined correlation between remaining assembly force and initial slip force.