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US 6,687,071 B2Granted
Magnetic tape drive apparatus and magnetic head cleaning method
AssigneeSony Corporation
InventorsNobuyuki Nagai, Tadashi Ozue
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AssigneeSony Corporation
InventorsNobuyuki Nagai, Tadashi Ozue
Estimating the term…
A magnetic tape drive apparatus in which data are recorded/reproduced on/from a magnetic tape by recording/reproducing magnetic heads which are disposed on a head drum and moved on a circular locus comprising cleaning device for removing deposit such as stain adhering to a magnetic head to clean the magnetic head, error rate detection device for detecting the error rate of the magnetic tape when data are recorded/reproduced onto/from the magnetic tape, and error rate storage device for storing the error rate detected by the error rate detection device, wherein the error rate detected by the error rate detection device exceeds a reference error rate by a predetermined amount, the magnetic head is cleaned by the cleaning device.
A magnetic tape drive apparatus in which data are recorded/reproduced on/from a magnetic tape by a recording/reproducing magnetic head which is disposed on a head drum and moved on a circular locus, comprising:
A magnetic head cleaning method for cleaning the magnetic head which is disposed on the head drum and moved on a circular locus, said method comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Recording by magnetisation or demagnetisation of a record carrier; Reproducing by magnetic means; Record carriers therefor: cleaning of heads
With simultaneous movement of head and record carrier, e.g. rotation of head: disposition or mounting of heads on rotating support
By sensing features present on or derived from record carrier or container: by sensing recorded signals
Information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer
Term ended 21 Dec 2021 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of effectively removing deposit such as stain which adhere to a magnetic head disposed on a head drum so as to move along a circular locus in a magnetic tape drive apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the construction of VTR to which a magnetic tape drive apparatus and a magnetic head cleaning method of the present invention are applied; and
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the construction of a reproducing system of VTR.
Preferred embodiments of a magnetic tape drive apparatus and a magnetic head cleaning method according to the present invention will be described hereunder with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following embodiments, the present invention is applied to a video tape recorder of a helical scan system (hereinafter referred to as “VTR”) which is an embodiment of a magnetic tape drive apparatus of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 1, VTR 1 has a head drum 2, and magnetic heads 3a, 3b for recording/reproducing data on/from a magnetic tape (hereinafter referred to as “recording/reproducing heads”) are disposed on the head drum 2 so as to be spaced away from each other at an angular interval, for example, of 180°. Each of the recording/reproducing heads 3a, 3b has a magneto resistive effect (MR effect) element as a magnetically sensitive portion in order to support a recording system of high recording density, and adopts a so-called MR head for converting magnetic variation on the magnetic tape into resistive variation of MR film and picking up the resistive variation as current variation.
When a tape cassette 4 is loaded into VTR 1, a magnetic tape 5 is hooked and drawn out from the housing of the tape cassette 4 by a loading post or the like, guided by a tape guide, a pinch roller, etc. and wound around the head drum 2 at a predetermined winding angle to form a tape path as shown in FIG. 1, and then it travels in the direction of an arrow 6 at a constant speed. The magnetic tape 5 travels along the outer circumferential surface of the head drum 2 while floated from the outer circumferential surface of the head drum 2 at a distance of several μm due to an air film effect which is caused by air current occurring due to the rotation of the head drum 2.