Aluminum head drum with a protective layer which smoothly and continuously varies in hardness for use in a videocassette recorder

摘要

An aluminum head drum for use in a video cassette recorder is coated with a protective layer comprising diamond-like carbon. The protective layer of diamond-like carbon is obtained using a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition method and has a thickness ranging from 0.3 mu m to 2.0 mu m. The protective layer has a varying mechanical hardness, wherein the mechanical hardness has a maximum value at a region of the protective layer coming in contact with the aluminum head drum, decreases smoothly and continuously and reaches an minimum value at a region of the protective layer coming in contact with atmosphere. Micro-Vicker's hardness of the region of the protective layers coming in contact with a video tape is 1.5-2.0 times that of the magnetic substance constituting the video tape.