Archive Corporation

Donald Schilling

Ashok Babubhai Nayak

Kurt A Buckland

Walter Fehlmann

Jones V Howell

Apparatus for fine positioning a tape head relative to a head carriage that is coarsely positionable by a lead screw. The fine positioning apparatus includes parallel first and second resilient support beams oriented generally parallel to the direction of tape travel and having their ends fixedly secured to the head carriage so as to be deflectable in a direction transverse to the direction of tape travel. The centers of the parallel first and second support beams have their centers secured to a tape head frame which contains the tape. A linear motor drives the tape head frame against the resilience of the first and second resilient support beams in response to a drive signal which, for example, is derived from tracking error information produced pursuant to reading of servo information on tape. Pursuant to the displacement of the tape head frame against the resilience of the support beams, the magnetic tape head is moved along a linear path transverse to the tape travel direction. For operation with tapes without servo information on tape, a piezoelectric transducer detects the deflection of one of the support beams and provides an output which is utilized to provide damping of the natural resonance the spring/mass system that includes the first and second resilient support beams and the tape head and tape head frame supported thereby. Alternatively, the operation with tapes without servo tracks can be open-loop with the damping being provided by damping members disposed symmetrically on either side of the tape head frame.

Mechanisms for a closed loop head positioner for streaming tape drives

Tape head positioning apparatus that includes a head carriage frame and a parallel beam positioning structure supported by the head carriage for supporting the magnetic tape head and for variably positioning the magnetic tape head relative to the carriage along a path generally transverse to the tape travel direction. The parallel beam positioning structure includes parallel support beams secured at their ends to the head carriage. The magnetic tape head is secured between the bender beam at a location generally between their ends. In a particular embodiment of the parallel beam positioning apparatus, the parallel support beams comprise first and second resilient reed beams having their ends secured to the head carriage and configured to be deflectable in a direction transverse to the tape travel direction. A voice coil linear motor deflects the reed beams pursuant to a control signal to move the magnetic tape head along the path transverse to the tape travel direction. In a further embodiment of the parallel beam positioning apparatus, the support beams comprise first and second parallel piezoelectric bender beams having their ends secured to the head carriage and configured to deflect in a direction transverse to the tape travel direction in response to a control signal. Deflection of the bender beams pursuant to the control signal displaces the magnetic tape head along the path transverse to the tape travel direction.

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Anaheim, CA, United States of America

Donald Schilling