Patent ID: 7260884

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a drum assembly associated with a digital video tape machine, the method comprising: providing a helical scan drum assembly having a stationary upper drum, a stationary lower drum and a plurality of rotating read/write heads disposed between the stationary upper and lower drums, the rotating read/write heads teading and writing digital information to and from a tape; and altering at least one of the stationary upper drum and the stationary lower drum so as to improve the performance of the helical scan drum assembly, wherein altering at least one of the stationary upper drum and stationary lower drum comprises inserting air grooves in an outer peripheral surface of the stationary upper drum, the air grooves being configured to reduce sticktion between a tape and the outer peripheral surface of the stationary upper drum when the tape is moved around the outer peripheral surface of the stationary upper drum, wherein the depth of each of the air grooves is between about 0.001 inches to about 0.020 inches, the height of each of the air grooves is between about 0.001 inches to about 0.020 inches, and the spacing between air grooves is between about 0.025 inches to about 0.100 inches, and wherein the position of a first air groove is spaced between about 0.100 inches to about 0.300 inches from the top of the rotating read/write heads.