Tape head with self-regulating wear regions

A tape head assembly for use with a magnetic recording tape passing thereover, comprising:

• a transducer support having a side with two generally coplanar raised elongated facing surfaces against which the tape exerts pressure, the facing surfaces being in generally aligned spaced apart relationship along their longitudinal axis, the longitudinal axis extending in a direction transverse to the direction of tape travel across the facing surfaces and being formed of a magnetic material;
• a core including two segments, the core located in the space between the two facing surfaces and being formed of the magnetic material, the core having on one side an elongated surface which extends in the tape travel direction to a greater extent than the facing surfaces, the elongated surface being generally coplanar with the facing surfaces and having a non-uniform width such that there are three basic regions, a first and a third region having an identical width which is smaller than the width of the space between the Two facing surfaces and a second region having a width which is equal to the tape track width and narrower than the width of the first and third regions, the second narrower region being located between the first and third regions and having a gap formed by the two core segments which extends through the second narrower region, the gap being centered between the two facing surfaces;
• and
• nonmagnetic material located in the space between the facing surfaces and the core to secure the core between the facing surfaces and located in the gap to secure the two segments of the core together such that the combination of the facing surfaces, the elongated surface of the core and the nonmagnetic material form a generally coplanar wear surface having a geometry with a non-uniform width, the surface area of the nonmagnetic material being from about 5 to 20 percent of the area of the elongated surface of the magnetic core and the area of the two facing surfaces so that the wear of the wear surface is controlled by the wear of the magnetic material of the core and the two facing surfaces, the dimension of the elongated surface extending in the tape travel direction is selected to effect a predetermined wear of the wear surface as the tape advances across the wear surface, wherein the geometry of the wear surface provides a reduced overall rate of wear of the wear surface.