METHOD FOR CONTACT MAGNETIC PRINTING AND APPARATUS THEREFOR

Abstract: A method for contact magnetic printing of recorded information is disclosed which comprises keeping in intimate mutual contact the magnetic surface of a recorded master magnetic recording medium which uses a hexagonal ferrite magnetic particles as the magnetic material, and the magnetic surface of a blank slave magnetic recording medium (2), controlling the temperature of the two magnetic recording media so as to lower the coercive force of the slave magnetic recording medium relative to that of the master magnetic recording medium, and applying external magnetic field thereto thereby causing the recorded information to be magnetically printed from the master magnetic recording medium to the slave magnetic recording medium (2). In accordance with this method, copies of pictures of high quality and sounds of highly desirable high-frequency characteristics can be produced by the contact magnetic printing technique using the slave magnetic recording medium (2) possessing a coercive force equal to or greater than the coercive force of the master magnetic recordng medium (1).

Description: This invention relates to a method for a contact magnetic printing, i.e. transfer of information recorded in a master magnetic recording medium to a blank slave magnetic recording medium, and an apparatus for effecting the method, and more particularly to a method for the contact magnetic printing which permits transfer of information from a master magnetic recording medium to a slave magnetic recording medium possessing a coercive force equal to or larger than the coercive force of the master magnetic recording medium and an apparatus for effecting the method. The rapid growth of the information society and the extensive dissemination of magnetic recording devices in recent years have been inducing a sharp increase in the demand for magnetic tapes containing music and other various forms of information and have been imparting a steadily growing commercial value to these magnetic tapes. As means of copying a recorded magnetic tape, the method which consists in effecting transfer of recorded information at an equal speed or an accelerated speed from one VTR (or audio recorder) as an original source to a plurality of copying VTR's (or audio recorders) is now widely in use. This method requires no special apparatus and permits construction of a copying system by suitable combination of a plurality of commercially available VTR's or audio recorders or their modifiers. This method nevertheless has a disadvantage that the number of copying devices allowed to be effectively connected to one VTR as an original source has its own limit and, therefore, the effeciency of copy production cannot be heightened as one pleases. Further, this method incurs another disadvantage that since it is difficult for the plurality of copying devices used in the system to maintain uniform quality, the tapes obtained by the copying inevitably vary in quality and fail to offer copies of uniform quality. As another means of copying a recorded magnetic tape, the method which effects rapid volume production of copy tapes by transporting the filled master tape and a blank slave tape in such a manner that they have the magnetic surfaces thereof held in mutual contact and applying an AC magnetic field to the magnetic tapes being advanced in a state of intimate contact thereby allowing the information recorded in the magnetic surface of the master tape to be magnetically recorded to the magnetic surface of the slave tape, has found widespread recognition. Though this method permits collective production of a large volume of copies, it incurs a drawback that the coercive force of slave tapes must be decreased to one quarter to one third of the coercive force of the master tape. In terms of the hysteresis curve illustrated in Fig. 1, this statement is equivalent to the following expression: H₁ (master) > H c > H₂ (slave) (wherein H₁ stands for the magnetic field at the knee, H c for the coercive force, and H₂ for the saturation magnetic field). Since the following ranges generally prevail, H₁ = (0.5 ∼ 0.6) × H c H₂ = (1.4 ∼ 1.5) × H c the foregoing expression may be rewritten as follows. H c (master) > (2.3 ∼ 3.0) × H c (slave) The upper limit of the coercive force of the master tape available for the operation in question is determined by the capability of a magnetic head serving to record information on the master tape and generally falls in the range of 2,000 to 2,200 Oe (1 Oe = 79,59 A/m). The coercive force which the slave tape is allowed to assume in this case is about 700 Oe. The γ-Fe₂O₃ and Co- γ -Fe₂O₃ tapes which have been in widespread use suffer degradation of high-density recording property as their coercive forces are lowered. When a given master tape is copied to these conventional tapes as slave tapes, therefore, there inevitably entails a disadvantage that the high frequency sound characteristic of audio information is impaired. Any effort to preclude this impairment of the high frequency sound characteristic entails the necessity for using slave tapes of higher coercive forces and consequently for using a master tape of a proportionately higher coercive force. An effort to record a master signal to the master tape of such a high coercive force as mentioned above gives birth to a disadvantage that the magnetic head undergoes the phenomenon of core saturation and becomes incapable of recording the master signal with ample intensity. Where a Ba ferrite perpendicular recording medium is employed as a slave tape, the high-density recording property is not impaired even when the coercive force is changed from 2,000 Oe to about 600 Oe (1 Oe = 79,59 A/m). Again in this case, there persists a drawback that the magnetic head succumbs to the phenomenon of core saturation because the coercive force of the master tape must be increased to 2.5 to 3 times that of the slave tape. The method for magnetic recording which uses a master magnetic recording medium containing Co atom and a slave magnetic recording medium possessing a layer of magnetic alloy material formed mainly with Mn and Bi and effects transfer of signal with the magnetic recording media kept at a low temperature has been known to the art (Japanese Patent Publication SHO 52(1977)-46,801. Since the slave magnetic recording medium uses a Mn-Bi system alloy, this method requires to keep the recording media cooled to below such an extremely low temperature as 120°K (-150°C ) and does not prove to be quite practicable. Moreover, such slave magnetic recording media have a drawback that since recording thereof takes place by domain wall motion, they attain high resolution only with difficulty. Since the conventional magnetic contact printing methods require to keep the coercive forces of slave tapes below one fourth to one third of the coercive force of the master tape as described above, they are compelled to use low coercive forces and consequently prevented from producing copies of pictures of high quality and sound with satisfactory high-frequency characteristics. The transfer method resorting to control of temperature is impractable because the cooling temperature is too low. It is known from FR-A-2156869 (GB-1355895) to provide magnetic contact copying apparatus in which the master tape is cooled before it engages the slave tape in the nip of a pair of rollers. Where the slave material has little or no temperature dependence, there is also disclosed apparatus for feeding both tapes onto a single reel which is in a cooled chamber. EP-A-0208471 discloses the use of hexagonal ferrite particles for lowering the coercive force of the slave medium, and accordingly discloses the features defined in the preamble to claim 1 below. It is also known from the above-mentioned FR-A-2156869 and from US-3913131 to use as a master tape a magnetic material whose coercive force increases when the temperature is lowered. This invention has been produced for the purpose of mitigating or eliminating drawbacks of the prior art mentioned above. The method of the invention is defined in claim 1 below, and the apparatus of the invention is defined in claim 6 below. The invention enables pictures of high quality of copies of highly satisfactory high-frequency characteristics to be produced with high efficiency. Examples of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a known hysteresis curve; Figure 2 is a graph of coercive force and saturation magnetization against the substitution amount of hexagonal ferrite; Figures 3, 5 and 6 are diagrams of apparatus embodying the invention; and Figure 4 shows the temperature variation of coercive force of different materials in the magnetic media. In the operation of effecting magnetic printing by keeping the blank slave magnetic recording medium and causing the recorded information in the master magnetic recording medium to be printed onto the slave magnetic recording medium by application of external magnetic field, the present invention contemplates effecting the magnetic printing by using a hexagonal ferrite magnetic particles or ferrite particles with hexagonal structure as the magnetic material for the aforementioned slave magnetic recording medium and controlling the temperature so as to lower the coercive force of the slave magnetic recording medium with respect to that of the master magnetic recording medium. As the master magnetic recording medium for use in the present invention, a vacuum deposited tape or a metal tape is suitable. As the slave magnetic recording medium, a hexagonal ferrite tape such as a Ba ferrite tape is suitable. Any of the hexagonal ferrite tapes which are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Disclosure SHO 55(1980)-86,103 and Japanese Patent Application Disclosure SHO 56(1981)-61,101, for example, can be advantageously used. The coercive force of the substituted hexagonal ferrite varies in proportion to the amount of substitution, as illustrated in Fig. 2. The magnetic recording medium of a desired coercive force, therefore, can be obtained by varying the amount of substitution to suit the demand. The temperature coefficients of coercive force of typical magnetic recording media and the typical coercive forces exhibited by the magnetic media at normal room temperature are as follows. Medium H c Temp. Coeff. (Oe) Typical H c value (Oe) Metal (powder) -2.5 ∼ -1 1400 ∼ 2200 Metal (evaporated) -5 ∼ -2 1400 ∼ 2200 Co-γ-Fe₂O₃ -5 ∼ -2 600 ∼ 700 Ba-ferrite +2.5 ∼ +5 600 ∼ 750 1 Oe = 79,59 A/m In the combinations of magnetic recording media as mentioned above, the coercive force of the master magnetic recording medium can be increased and the coercive force of the slave magnetic recording medium can be decreased by cooling temperature. The temperature is desired to fall in the range of the room temperature to -100°C, preferably 0 to -20°C. When a particle coated magnetic recording medium is used as the slave magnetic recording medium, the desirable flexibility of the medium contributes to enhance the efficiency of high-density signal printing. In accordance with the present invention, by using a slave magnetic recording medium possessing a greater temperature coefficient of coercive force than that of a master magnetic recording medium and cooling the recording medium to a low temperature, for example, the coercive force of the slave magnetic recording medium can be lowered relateve to that of the master magnetic recording medium. By carrying out the magnetic printing in the state described above, therefore, copied magnetic recording media of high quality can be obtained efficiently. Fig. 3 illustrates one embodiment of the present invention which effects magnetic printing by using a metal tape as a master tape 1 and a ferrite tape as a slave tape 2. As illustrated in Fig. 4, the coercive force of the metal tape Me possesses a negative temperature coefficient and the coercive force of the Ba ferrite tape a positive temperature coefficient. In the present embodiment, since the master tape (metal particulate tape) exhibits a coercive force, H c , of 1400 Oe (1 Oe = 79,59 A/m) at normal room temperature (20°C), it is enabled to record a master signal with the conventional metal head. The magnetic printing is effected by keeping the two magnetic tapes in a state having the magnetic surfaces thereof in mutual contact and passing them between a magnetic printing head 3 and a roller which are both cooled wholly to -20°C, for example, with a cooling device which is not shown in the diagram. At this time, the coercive force (H c ) of the master tape (metal particulate tape) 1 is 1,500 Oe and that (H c ) of the slave tape (Ba ferrite tape) 2 is 600 Oe (1 Oe = 79,59 A/m), the ratio being 2.5. In this state, the printing AC magnetic field produced from a magnetic circuit disposed inside the magnetic printing head 3 acts on the slave tape 2 and effects magnetic printing of signal from the master tape 1 to the slave tape 2 in high effeciency. The symbol "r" denotes a reel. Generally, the coercive force, H c (master), of the master tape and the coercive force, H c (slave), of the slave tape are desired to satisfy the following relation: H c (master) > (2.3 ∼ 3.0) × H c (slave) When the slave tape 2 onto which the signal has been magnetically printed as described above is put to use in replaying the recorded information at room temperature, the coercive force (H c ) of the slave tape 2 reaches 700 Oe as noted from Fig. 2 so that the slave tape is allowed to retain highly desirable high-density characteristic intact. Fig. 5 illustrates another embodiment of the present invention. In the following drawings, the components having their equivalents indicated in Fig. 3 are denoted by like symbols. In the present embodiment, a cooling house 6 encloses a roller 4 and an ordinary magnetic printing head 5 so as to cool them wholly therein. Fig. 6 illustrates yet another embodiment of the present invention. The apparatus in this embodiment has the printing device wholly enclosed with a cooling house 7 so as to cool the printing device therein. The preceding embodiments represent cases wherein the coercive force (H c ) of the master tape 1 possesses a negative temperature coefficient and the coercive force (H c ) of the slave tape 2 a positive temperature coeffecient respectively. This invention need not be limited to these embodiments. This Invention can be embodied as effectively in a case wherein the temperature coefficients of the two coercive forces (H c ) have one same polarity, only so long as the temperature coefficient of coercive force (H c ) of the slave tape is greater than that of coercive force (H c ) of the master tape. As described above, the present invention sues a slave magnetic recording medium possessing a temperature coefficient of coercive force different from that of the master magnetic recording medium and carries out the magnetic printing by controlling the temperature in such a manner as to lower the coercive force of the slave magnetic recording medium relative to that of the master magnetic recording medium. Thus, the present invention permits copies of pictures of high quality or sounds of highly desirable high-frequency characteristics to be produced with high efficiency by the use of the slave magnetic recording medium possessing a coercive force equal to or larger than that of the master magnetic recording medium at room temperature.

Claims: A method for contact magnetic printing by the steps of keeping the magnetic surface of a recorded master magnetic recording medium (1) and the magnetic surface of a blank slave magnetic recording medium (2) in mutual contact and applying an external magnetic field thereto thereby causing recorded information in said master magnetic recording medium to be magnetically printed onto said magnetic recording medium, hexagonal ferrite magnetic particles being used as the magnetic material for said slave magnetic recording medium, which method is characterised by selecting said slave magnetic recording medium to have a positive temperature coefficient of coercive force larger than that of said master magnetic recording medium, and by controlling the temperature of said magnetic recording media so as to lower the coercive force of said slave magnetic recording medium relative to that of said master magnetic recording medium thereby to effect magnetic printing of said recorded information onto said slave magnetic recording medium (2). A method according to claim 1, wherein said master magnetic recording medium possesses a negative temperature coefficient of coercive force. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said master magnetic recording medium is a vacuum deposited tape or a metal tape and said slave magnetic recording medium is a Ba ferrite particle coated tape. A method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the coercive force H c (master) of said master tape and the coercive force H c (slave) of said slave tape satisfy the following relation: H c (master) > (2.3 - 3.0) X H c (slave). A method according to claim 3, wherein said slave magnetic recording medium is a substituted Ba ferrite particle coated tape. Apparatus for contact magnetic printing comprising: means for feeding a master magnetic recording medium (1), means for feeding a slave magnetic recording medium (2), means (3, 4) for retaining in intimate contact while travelling magnetic layers of said master magnetic recording medium and said slave magnetic recording medium, face-to-face, in a region wherein said two media are kept at a low temperature and an external magnetic field is applied thereto, means for cooling said master magnetic recording medium (1), means for applying the external magnetic field to said magnetic recording media thereby to effect magnetic printing, means for taking up said master magnetic recording medium, and independent means for taking up said slave magnetic recording medium, characterised in that the cooling means comprises a cooled magnetic head (3) and a cooled roller (4) disposed in close proximity to each other so as to nip the said two magnetic recording media therebetween thereby to cool them to a low temperature. Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the cooled magnetic head (3) is a magnetic head which, together with the cooled roller (4), constitutes the said retaining means. Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said means for controlled cooling comprises a cooling house (7) enclosing the cooled magnetic head (3) and cooled roller (4). Apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the cooling house (7) encloses wholly therein the means for feeding the master magnetic recording medium, the means for feeding the slave magnetic recording medium, the means for taking up said master magnetic recording medium, and the means for taking up said slave magnetic recording medium.

Inventors: SUZUKI, TOSHIYUKI C/O PATENT DIVISION
Applicants: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
Application year: 1988
Main classification: G11B5
IPC codes: G11B5