Tape guiding assembly for recording and/or reproducing apparatus

Abstract

In a tape recording and/or reproducing apparatus having a guide drum with rotary heads for recording or reproducing signals in slant tracks scanned on a longitudinally transported tape wrapped helically about a circumferential surface of the drum between a tape-entry position and a tape-exit position; a tape-guiding assembly, which may be part of a tape loading device, includes ultrasonically vibrated tape guides engageably by the tape adjacent the tape-entry and tape-exit positions, respectively, auxiliary guide elements angled relative to the vibrated tape guides, respectively, and each being disposed for engagement by the tape between the respective vibrated tape guide and the tape-entry or tape exit position, respectively, with such auxiliary guide elements having respective surface projections extending therefrom at positions therealong corresponding to widthwise portions of the tape at which the rotary heads scan the tape adjacent the tape-entry and tape-exit positions, respectively, so that the surface projections on the auxiliary guide elements relatively increase tension in the tape at the respective widthwise portions for minimizing errors that may arise in the signals recorded or reproduced in the tracks adjacent the tape-entry and tape-exit positions due to vibrations transmitted along the tape from the vibrated tape guides.