METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSPORTING TAPE THROUGH A RECORDER

摘要

A low-mass, short loop transport wherein the span of tape passing the inter-leaved head assembly is closecoupled and unsupported, with the turn-around points for the tape being at the beginning and end of the span in either direction of travel, thereby reducing head wear, skew, flutter and other undersirable characteristics. The tape is passed from the supply reel through a vacuum tensioning chamber over a pair of relatively large diameter low-mass drums defining the span or section of tape adjacent the head assembly to a second vacuum tensioning chamber and thence to the take-up reel. The drums are directly driven by peripheral contact with a capstan in both the record/read mode and the fast transport lift mode of operation. The drums may be mounted on movable eccentric shafts so that their axes of rotation can be shifted in a small arc carrying the drums in a manner to bring the span of the tape into sequential contact with the array of transducers in the head assembly or carry the drums and span of tape away from the head assembly in the lift mode of operation.