Ampex Corporation

Ampex Systems Corporation

Steven L Magnusson

Abraham Eshel

James K Lubin

Bradley D Blackwood

A flexural pantographic mount for use in a helical scan magnetic tape transport, the mount being a boxed leaf stiffened flexural pantograph mount, for holding and varying the position of a moveable head in a helical scan automatic scan tracking magnetic tape transport. The mount includes a moveable body such as a magnetic transducing head assembly coupled at one end of first and second generally parallel spaced apart elongated flexural pantographic leaves configured at the opposite free ends thereof for attachment to a fixed body. Each leaf includes first and second integrally formed and bent leaf edge extensions, which act as side stiffeners. A triangularly configured opening and a trapezoidally configured opening are formed in each leaf with each opening being configured to include tab projections for bending into the opening to provide transverse or lateral stiffening. An auxiliary web-like stiffening member is added to each leaf in the space therebetween, with each stiffener being separately formed and configured for attachment to the respective leaf to the side stiffeners and the tab projections of the openings to form a box-like cross-sectional configuration in conjunction with the side leaf edge extensions. The openings are formed in each leaf at locations such that the flexing surface of the leaves, at the connection to the fixed body and at the connection to the moveable body, are smaller width strap sections, substantially less than the width of the corresponding portion of the leaf.

Boxed leaf flexural pantographic mount for a magnetic transducing head

A rotary head helical scan tape record and/or reproduce apparatus has an upper rotatable cylindrical drum tape guide section and a stationary lower cylindrical drum tape guide section that includes a narrow upper ridge which is displaced radially from the axis of the stationary cylindrical drum tape guide section in a direction towards the location where the rotary head ends the scan of the tape. Magnetic tape is transported in a helical path from the lower stationary drum guide section, over the radially displaced upper ridge to the upper rotatable drum guide section, which carries the record and/or reproduce heads that transfer signals to and from the tape.

Rotary head and cylindrical drum tape guide assembly for tape record and

A method for analyzing the relative spatial alignment of the erase head pole tips relative to the record head pole tips on a recording of a magnetic tape to be partially overwritten by providing, through first and second erase heads, successive momentary erase pulses of a predetermined time duration in a predetermined phase relation on a non-overlapping basis, wherein each erase head thereby erases recorded information while leaving portions of information therebetween on adjacent track pairs, and then reading or playing back the results of the erasure for analysis of the RF envelope of the erasing pattern by a waveform monitor or ferrofluidic techniques. The duration of the erasures and playback is such that the RF envelope includes at least one erasure from the first erase head and at least one erasure from the second erase head.

Erase head positioning method

A flexural pantographic mount for use in a helical scan magnetic tape transport employing a closed loop servo system having a specified frequency bandwidth is disclosed. The mount includes a fixed body and a moveable body such as a magnetic transducing head assembly. First and second parallel spaced apart elongated flexible yet similar leaves have opposite ends, opposite edges and uniform thickness. The leaves are of similar material. One set of the opposite ends of the leaves are connected to the fixed body, the other set of opposite ends being connected to the moveable body. The leaves, when the moveable body assembly is subjected to a force having a component F perpendicular to the planes of the leaves, is flexed into an 'S' shape with the moveable assembly undergoing a deflection D. Each leaf exhibits its primary mode stiffness K equal to the ratio F/D. The leaves also exhibit shapes defining secondary and even higher order natural mode vibrations with higher order frequencies falling beyond the servo system bandwidth. First and second edge extension, or side stiffening, strips of similar material are integral with the opposite edges of each corresponding leaf and form a side along the edge of the leaf. The integration of edge stiffener with its leaf occurs without altering the thickness of either edge or leaf so as to maintain the value of the primary mode stiffness as a substantially unaltered value while at the same time the frequencies of the higher order natural mode vibrations are raised to values substantially greater than the specified bandwidth of the closed loop system.

Side-stiffened flexural pantographic mount for positioning a magnetic

A head assembly which provides in the rotary scanner body a tape support structure including a scanner opening, a pair of magnetic heads mounted in the scanner opening for the reading and writing of data on a magnetic tape medium, a support member disposed on the scanner body at the scanner opening and extending between the two magnetic heads to support the tape as it moves across the scanner opening, said tape support structure producing a dramatic improvement in signal output across the length of the head scan.

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Redwood City, CA, United States of America

Steven L Magnusson