Tribology of helical scan tape drive systems

The future direction of the designs of the metal evaporated tape for higher density recording in the helical scan tape drives which use MR heads was investigated. Static friction force between a tape and a roller guide increases the force with which the tape edge is pressed against the flange of the roller guide and wear debris is produced from the tape edge. The wear debris is driven to the recording area on the tape and increases a rewrite ratio, which indicates the ratio of failure of reading data. A solid lubricant at operating temperature was found to reduce the coefficient of static friction. However, the combination between the solid lubricant and MR heads which are heated by sense current may cause tape damage in dwell tests at low temperature. The increase in a melting temperature of the solid lubricant was found to improve the durability in dwell tests at low temperature.