Relationship between Head/Tape Contact Conditions and Tape Stiffness

An experimental study on the tribology of head/tape interfaces has been carried out in order to develop high-performance videotapes. In this paper, we report on a system for directly measuring the head contact force, and describe the relationship between contact conditions and tape stiffness. The video head was found to exert a contact force of about 20 to 30 mN, and the steady-state distribution of this force over all angles of rotation of the cylinder is approximately expressed by an exponential function. Under low stiffness conditions, the distribution becomes less well-ordered, and the playback signal deteriorates. It is thus very important that a suitable stiffness be maintained, to obtain a stable state of head/tape contact.