Contact sheet recording with a self-acting negative air bearing
First Claim
1. A support for a sheetform magnetic media having a characteristic stiffness and thickness, that travels forward along a machine dimension from a forward upstream direction to a forward downstream direction, said support comprising:
- a. a head, having a signal exchange surface that comprises;
i. a signal exchange site;
ii. a forward upstream corner upstream of said signal exchange site; and
iii a forward upstream signal exchange surface, defined by an upstream main signal exchange surface curve, located along said machine dimension between said upstream corner and said signal exchange site, which signal exchange surface meets said upstream corner at a main slope discontinuity and has an upstream main tangent τ
main at said main slope discontinuity;
b. a forward upstream media guide, spaced upstream from said upstream corner; and
c. said upstream media guide being located relative to said upstream corner and said upstream corner being sufficiently sharp and said upstream main tangent being oriented such that, a sheetform media that is contacting said media guide and is moving forward under tension follows a path such that;
i. a portion of said media contacts said upstream corner;
ii. a portion of said media that is downstream and adjacent to said upstream corner contacting portion, is spaced away from said signal exchange surface adjacent to and downstream from said main slope discontinuity, forming a hollow bump between said media and said signal exchange surface; and
iii. a portion of said media downstream from and adjacent said hollow bump contacts said signal exchange surface along the full extent from said bump to and including said signal exchange site.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A flat head and a tape transport arrangement impart a wrap angle to the tape at the upstream corner of the head. The wrap angle, corner sharpness and tape stiffness are sufficient to cause a moving tape to form a hollow bump at the upstream corner, thereby creating a hollow into which entrained air can expand, causing a subambient pressure within and downstream of the bump. This pressure keeps the tape in contact with the head. It is created without the need for a groove or complex pressure relief slot(s). No contact pressure arises at the signal exchange site due to media wrap. The highest contact pressures are developed at a wrapped upstream corner. For a tape drive, traveling in both forward and reverse, the wrap can be at both the upstream and downstream (which is the "reverse upstream") corners. Heads that are not flat can also be used, if the wrap angle relative to a main surface is sufficient and not too large. The wrapped head can also be used with rotating media, such as disks (floppy and hard) and rotating heads, such as helical wound heads for video recording. Multiple flat tape bearing surfaces can be separated by grooves and/or angles. Each flat can carry heads along one or more gap lines. Multiple adjacent narrow tracks can thus be written for extreme high track density recording.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. A support for a sheetform magnetic media having a characteristic stiffness and thickness, that travels forward along a machine dimension from a forward upstream direction to a forward downstream direction, said support comprising:
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a. a head, having a signal exchange surface that comprises; i. a signal exchange site; ii. a forward upstream corner upstream of said signal exchange site; and iii a forward upstream signal exchange surface, defined by an upstream main signal exchange surface curve, located along said machine dimension between said upstream corner and said signal exchange site, which signal exchange surface meets said upstream corner at a main slope discontinuity and has an upstream main tangent τ
main at said main slope discontinuity;b. a forward upstream media guide, spaced upstream from said upstream corner; and c. said upstream media guide being located relative to said upstream corner and said upstream corner being sufficiently sharp and said upstream main tangent being oriented such that, a sheetform media that is contacting said media guide and is moving forward under tension follows a path such that; i. a portion of said media contacts said upstream corner; ii. a portion of said media that is downstream and adjacent to said upstream corner contacting portion, is spaced away from said signal exchange surface adjacent to and downstream from said main slope discontinuity, forming a hollow bump between said media and said signal exchange surface; and iii. a portion of said media downstream from and adjacent said hollow bump contacts said signal exchange surface along the full extent from said bump to and including said signal exchange site. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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2. A support for a sheetform magnetic media that travels forward along a machine dimension from a forward upstream direction to a forward downstream direction, said support comprising:
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a. a head, having a signal exchange surface that comprises; i. a signal exchange site; ii. a forward upstream corner; and iii a main signal exchange surface curve, located along said machine dimension between said upstream corner and said signal exchange site, which signal exchange surface meets said upstream corner at a main slope discontinuity and has an upstream main tangent τ
main at said main slope discontinuity;b. a forward upstream media guide, spaced upstream from said upstream corner; and c. said upstream media guide being located such that, a sheetform media that is contacting said media guide and is moving forward under tension follows a path such that; i. a portion of said media that is downstream and adjacent to said upstream corner is spaced away from said signal exchange surface adjacent to and downstream from said upstream corner, forming a hollow bump between said media and said signal exchange surface; and ii. a portion of said media downstream from and adjacent said hollow bump contacts said signal exchange surface along the full extent from said bump to and including said signal exchange site.
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Specification