Wang Laboratories, Inc.

Hightree Media Corporation

Am International Incorporated

Cubic Photo Products Division

Addressograph Multigraph Corporation

Excellon Industries, Inc.

Alfred M Nelson

Houshang Rasekhi

Robert P Adams

David L Davis

John J Sudano

Frederick A Rupinski

John S Kula

William E Roberts

Ronald J Cieplik

Walter B Hatfield, Jr

James P Johnston

Alan N Raffaelli

Charles E Redman

Slave cassettes each including a slave tape and having a peripheral groove are stacked in a first station. Gripping fingers movable into the grooves in the forward cassette and the next cassette grip the forward cassette. During the pivoting of the cassette to a second station, a cover on the cassette is pivoted to expose the slave tape. At the second station, threading arms are moved from retracted to extended positions. The cassette and the threading arms are then moved to a third station planar with a pinch roller which is displaced from the capstan. The threading arms are then retracted to dispose the slave tape on the capstan. With a master tape on the pinch roller, the pinch roller is moved to a position abutting the capstan. The pinch roller and capstan are then rotated to transfer the image on the master tape to the slave tape such that the image beginning is at the slave tape beginning. The threading arms are extended; the pinch roller is moved to the displaced position; the cassette and the threading arms are moved to the second station; and the threading arms are retracted to decouple the slave tape from the capstan. The cassette is then moved to a position where belts are coupled to the cassette and the gripping fingers are thereafter released from the cassette. The belts then move the cassette to the mouth of a fourth station. Pins are rotated to move the cassette into the fourth station.

Apparatus for, and methods of, processing a slave cassette to obtain a

A thermomagnetic layer on a slave tape has a Curie temperature above which it loses, and below which it stores, an image. Such layer is heated above the Curie temperature just before such layer records an image. To compensate for image stretching in such layer by the heat, the lines in a raster scan on the mirror-master tape are lengthened relative to such lines on a master tape during an image transfer between the tapes. To accomplish this, a rotary member holding the mirror-master tape has a larger diameter than, and rotates at the same angular speed as, a rotary member holding the master tape. To inhibit the slave tape separation from the heater by water vaporization in the thermomagnetic layer, (1) the heater heats such layer while the slave tape moves in a direction opposite to its movement during the image transfer or (2) a microwave oven heats such layer. The slave tape length may be determined from (1) the capstan revolutions for a reference tape of a given length and for the full length of the slave tape or (2) the angular revolutions of the slave tape supply and take-up reels at successive time instants, and the radius of the slave tape supply and take-up reels without tape on such reels. A sufficiently long slave tape may then be wound on the supply reel through an angular revolution of the particular reel dependent upon the image length on the master tape.

Tape drive system

Master and slave tapes respectively move on a pinch roller from a first supply reel to a first take-up reel in a first cassette and on a capstan from a second supply reel to a second take-up reel in a second cassette. The pinch roller locked in a first position abuts the capstan to transfer to the slave tape the image on the master tape. After such transfer, a signal sensing the slave tape end causes the pinch roller to be unlocked and to be moved to a second position displaced from the first position. In this position, the second cassette is replaceable by another cassette for an image transfer from the master tape. The rotations of the supply reel produce eccentricities which vary tape tension. These tension variations are compensated at positions before the pinch roller and the capstan by springs guiding the tapes and by damping members attached to the springs. The damping members are pre-stressed to provide damped compliances in accordance with the tension variations. Stiffeners are attached to the spring ends. The capstan may be hollow and non-magnetic to receive a magnetic head. A constant amplitude alternating signal applied to the head erases any image on the slave tape by providing a magnetic field greater than the the slave tape coercivity but less than the master tape coercivity. Thus, the image on the master tape is transferred to the slave tape by the abutting tape relationships.

Tape duplicating system

A master tape movable in a closed loop including a pinch roller transfers a mirror image to a slave tape movable in a closed loop including a capstan. A thermomagnetic layer on the slave tape has a Curie temperature above which magnetic information is destroyed and below which magnetic information can be recorded on such layer. The thermomagnetic layer is heated above the Curie temperature, thereby becoming lengthened by thermal expansion just before the slave tape reaches the capstan. A downstream portion of a peripheral surface, preferably defining a cylindrical segment, on a first guide receives a pressurized fluid for sensing the tape tension in accordance with the tape width, distance from the cylinder axis and fluid pressure. An upstream portion of the guide peripheral surface receives a vacuum adjustable to regulate tape tension in response to variations in the pressurized fluid pressure. In regulating the tape tension, the spacing between the slave tape and the peripheral surface at the downstream portion is controlled. The master tape is lengthened by a second guide having the same construction as the first guide to compensate for the slave tape lengthening by the heater and the first guide, thereby producing a mirror image on the slave tape after the slave tape has cooled to the ambient temperature. Each of the master and slave tapes has a particular product of the Youngs modulus, tape width and tape thickness to provide a controlled strain on such tape when the tension on such tape is regulated.

Servo system

A master tape moves between first supply and take-up reels over a pinch roller. A slave tape moves between second supply and take-up reels over a capstan. First and second guides are respectively constructed and positioned to regulate the movement of the master and slave tapes to aligned positions on the pinch roller and the capstan. A heater between the pinch roller and the second guide heats essentially only a thermomagnetic layer on the slave tape to at least the Curie temperature. The heater is adjustably positioned to facilitate the movement of the slave tape to the aligned position on the capstan. Brake shoes respectively between the first guide and the first supply reel, and between the second guide and the second supply reel, control master and slave tape tensions and damp any variations in tensions. The pinch roller is movable to a first position, locked in position relative to the capstan, to abut the capstan and facilitate the transfer of magnetic information from the master tape to the slave tape. In this disposition, the pinch roller locks the heater in a fixed position relative to the capstan. The pinch roller and the associated guide are movable to a second position displaced from the capstan to facilitate the disposition of the master tape on the pinch roller. The heater is pivotable relative to the capstan to facilitate the disposition of the slave tape on the capstan. The rotational axis of the capstan, preferably of a unitary construction, is fixed.

A pick-and-place machine having magnetic elements which hold down the chips at the pick stations, thus preventing shingling, and also hold such chips at the pick stations adjacent a stop element. The magnetic elements create magnetic forces in two directions relative to chip elements having magnetizable terminal portions. The magnetic elements are provided in combination with feed apparatus that is adapted to stop, when the associated groove is full of chips, rather than causing the machine to jam.

Pick-station and feed apparatus in pick-and-place machine

There is provided improvements in magnetic recording head arrangements, such as may employ multiplexing, which provide substantially higher speeds of recording and require fewer components. The recording head is comprised of a compact, four-layer laminate structure mountable on a supporting substrate, in which the entire array of recording elements forms a flexible, uniquely arranged first layer, the return paths of the recording elements comprise a flexible second layer which has the dual utility of substantially reducing the recording element circuit inductance, the third layer is a rigid printed circuit board structure providing a mount for the blocking diodes and the conductive paths of the associated multiplexing scheme, and the fourth layer is a ground plane located between the first and third layers and insulated therefrom for further reducing the inductance associated to the circuitry of the first layer and for substantially minimizing the circuit inductance of the third layer.

Magnetic recording heads

A recording head protective overlay arrangement with an alarm capability is provided. The protective overlay is continuously replenishable between the recording surface of the recording head and the recording medium and is movable in a direction opposite to that of the recording medium so as to provide a cleaning function as well as a wear-preventive function. A dispenser cartridge housing the protective overlay is provided which is specially designed to closely conform to the recording head. A pivotable cartridge holder is included for enabling the cartridge to be inserted in a position remote from the recording head and pivotable into an operative position with the recording head. The tape medium itself and various components operatively associated therewith are pivotably mounted, to provide movement of the medium into intimate operative contact with the overlay and the recording head.

Recording head protective overlay and cleaning arrangement

A magnetographic copier system in which images recorded on a magnetic tape are developed by toner with magnetic properties and where the toner particles are also electrostatically charged. A piece of paper is brought into contact with the tape at a toner transfer station and a first momentary electric field of the proper polarity and orientation is then used to transfer the developed toner images from the tape to paper. The paper and tape segments with the images are then separated and are moved away from the toner transfer station. An electrode external to the transfer station is then used to apply another electric field of the same polarity to the developed toner images on the paper to prevent the toner from being disturbed by the next occurrence of the first electric field for subsequent toner images being transferred to the paper.

Apparatus for preventing removal of toner from transferred images

Apparatus is provided for uniformly premagnetizing magnetic media, such as wide magnetic tapes and/or for substantially uniformly orienting the magnetic particles in the slurry of the magnetizable layer of magnetic media during their formation. Premagnetization constitutes magnetizing the medium in a preselected direction, such as the transverse direction (i.e., perpendicular to the intended direction of movement of the recording medium past a recording head but in the plane of the medium), prior to magnetically recording information thereon. The apparatus comprises a number of predeterminably arranged small magnets disposed proximate to the medium which obviates the need for large, expensive, heavy magnets and magnet systems. A continuous transverse saturation level of magnetization is provided in the medium with virtually no vertical or longitudinal magnetic components or anomalous effects. A preferred arrangement comprises a number of wafer magnets each having an elongated edge of a pole face disposed proximate to the medium and at a preselected acute angle relative to the direction of intended movement of the magnetic medium.

Magnetizing apparatus

Magnetographic printing, method and apparatus are used to generate letter-quality, relatively high speed transfer of magnetic toner particles from a magnetic tape to paper. A pretransfer force (f.sub.1) holding the toner to the tape is established which may be magnetic, or both magnetic and electrostatic in nature. The transfer operation employs relatively high speed approaching movement of the tape toward the paper in a controlled manner such that forces (f.sub.2) exerted on the toner particles due to the rapidly closing movement including forces created by air currents are collectively less than the toner-holding force (f.sub.1) for any instantaneous separation between the tape and paper. The operation may include the use of a bias voltage to generate a component of the electrostatic holding force and the use of a corotron to deposit electrostatic charge on the magnetic toner particles. The controlled movement of the tape toward the paper is achieved with a cam in one embodiment and with a solonoid in another embodiment.

Magnetic toner transfer method and apparatus

An apparatus and method are disclosed for electrostatically separating a first medium such as a magnetic tape from a second medium such as paper following transfer of images from the tape to the paper. The apparatus includes a movable member or platen disposed for moving the tape into contact with and away from the paper, and a voltage source coupled across predetermined portions of the tape and platen. The method includes the step of creating an electrostatic force between the tape and platen sufficient to overcome adherence of the tape to the paper during contact of the tape with the paper, facilitating separation of the tape from the paper as the platen is moved away from the paper following image transfer. Separation is accomplished substantially independent of tape tension. This permits operation with significantly less tape tension which, in turn, preserves tape integrity and provides for reduced tape breakage and misregistration of tape with paper, more effective cleaning of the tape, and less wear of the tape and the tape cleaning devices.

Apparatus and method for separating adhering media electrostatically

A method of fabricating from a single piece of copper foil the extremely fragile recording element structure of a multi-channel magnetic recording head having a linear array of bi-metal recording elements, in which the elements are comprised of elongated substantially parallel finger portions terminating in a common return, with each having a minutely thinned down recording zone. For high resolution recording head structures, the dimensions of the elements at the recording zone may typically be as thin as 0.1.times.10.sup.-3 inches with a width of 1.5.times.10.sup.-3 inches and length of 3.5.times.10.sup.-3 inches, where the total length of the recording elements may nevertheless be as long as three inches. The process comprises an etching technique and the application of one or more supports at appropriate times in the fabrication to protect the structure at its most vulnerable times. Full masking and deposition of bi-metal layer areas is accomplished prior to any etching steps to avoid, for example, having to re-register the recording element design on one side of the copper foil relative to the other.

Growing community of inventors

Redondo Beach, CA, United States of America

Alfred M Nelson