The Self-Acting, Subambient Foil Bearing in High Speed, Contact Tape Recording with a Flat Head

The mechanics and tribology of a flat head for high-speed, contact tape recording is presented. Experiments performed on a "row-bar" of thin-film disk heads where the tape is wrapped only on the edge opposite to the heads showed very stable contact for a wide range of tape speeds and very low wear. A model of the interface showed that a self-acting, subambient air bearing forms near the leading wrapped corner. This suction is caused by the expansion of air into the diverging gap on the upstream side of the head-tape interface, which is unique to this wrap geometry, and it is responsible for the stability and low contact pressures. A bidirectional version of a flat head geometry is analyzed via modeling and suggestions are made for that design. This work also showed strong evidence of a threshold of contact pressure below which wear becomes negligible.