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AssigneeImation Corp.
InventorsJohn D. Willems, Daniel C. Egan, Douglas W. Johnson, Leif O. Erickson
Estimating the term…
A compliant tape guide having a compliant member with optimized planar stiffness. The compliant tape guide includes a top support plate, a bottom support plate, a bearing piece, the compliant member and a biasing member. The bearing piece extends between the top and bottom support plate in a generally perpendicular fashion. The compliant member is associated with an inner surface of the bottom support plate and includes a base, opposing legs, an edge receiving surface and a planar stiffness body. The opposing legs extend from the base. The edge receiving surface is attached to the opposing legs opposite the base to define an opening. The planar stiffness body is disposed within the opening and is configured to increase an in-plane stiffness of the compliant member in a plane substantially parallel to a plane of the base. Finally, the biasing member is associated with the compliant member to bias the edge receiving surface into engagement with a storage tape during use.
A compliant tape guide for guiding a storage tape longitudinally through a tape path, the compliant tape guide comprising:
An improved compliant member portion of a compliant tape guide for use with a data storage tape cartridge including a longitudinally driven storage tape, the compliant member including a base, opposing legs extending from a side of the base and an edge receiving surface attached to the opposing legs opposite the base such that an opening is defined between the base, the opposing legs and the edge receiving surface, the compliant member having a predetermined out-of-plane deflection stiffness for controlling deflection of the edge receiving surface relative to the base in a plane substantially perpendicular to a plane of the base, the improvement comprising:
A method for altering an in-plane stiffness of a compliant member portion of a compliant tape guide for use with a longitudinally driven storage tape, the compliant member including a base, opposing legs extending from a side of the base and a edge receiving surface attached to the opposing legs opposite the base such that an opening is defined between the base, the opposing legs and the edge receiving surface, the compliant member having a predetermined out-of-plane stiffness for directing the edge receiving surface into engagement with an edge of the storage tape upon final assembly of the compliant tape guide, the method including:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.