Abstract
An experimental study on tribology in head/tape interface has been carried out in order to develop high performance video tapes. In this paper, we report a system for measuring directly the head contact force, and the relationship between contact conditions and tape stiffness. The video head has been found to have the contact force of about 20-30 mN, and its distribution for rotation angle of cylinder is approximately expressed by exponential functions in the steady state. Under low stiffness conditions, the distribution falls into disorder, and a reproduced signal is degraded. It is thus very important to maintain a suitable stiffness to obtain a stable contact state in the head/tape interface.
