Lubrication of tapes with fluorocarbon (FOMBLIN) oils

Fluorocarbon oils, both in their branched (Fomblin Y) and linear (Fomblin Z) forms, were used as topic lubri cants in solutions of trichloro-trifluoro-hethane ( Delifrene LS) for magnetic tapes. This work reports the preliminary results on this inves tigation which is going to be extended to include different aspects of topic lubrication with Fomblin. The surface roughness of the tapes which were used in this preliminary study was too high to allow a straight forward comparison between the bulk lubricated media, the non lubricated ones and those which were topically lubricated with silicon oils in n-heptane solutions; yet, some important conclusions can be drawn. 1. Fomblin is the only lubricant which is not removed from the surface when the media is subjected to a scraping effect (from the heads or the slide used in the friction measuring device); 2. Due to this phenomenon, although the friction and intermodulation of all virgin samples are very symilar, a degradation of the lubricating properties is not found for Fomblin lubricated materials in comparison with sensible losses for any other type of media.