Friction Induced Lateral Vibrations of a Tape Moving in Contact With a Slewing Head

In dynamic systems, motion transfer due to frictional effects could result in quasi-harmonic oscillations and stick-slip, with potentially undesirable effects. The track-following motion of a read/write (RW) head-assembly transfers frictional forced onto the translating tape. This, in turn, has the potential to introduce unwanted dynamic motion into the system, and to affect the track following operation. In extreme cases the tape could stick onto the head-assembly, which could then create the potential for sudden release (slip) of the tape, if the restoring forces exceed the static friction forces. Due to longitudinal tape motion, stick is only a possibility during start-stop operations. However, with increasingly smoother tape, the effects of friction induced vibration (FrIV) could become problematic for the next generation of tape drives.