High speed contact duplicating of a magnetic copy tape from a magnetic master tape is effected by a pair of pinch rollers for pressing the tapes together and into adhesion contact such that the air is squeezed from between the tapes and they adhere together until forcibly separated, and transfer excitation means immediately downstream from the pinch rollers to cause printing of the copy tape with minimum opportunity for shearing motion of the tapes relative to one another. The path of the tape downstream from the pinch rollers is also kept straight to minimize shearing motion, and tape cleaning means are provided upstream from the pinch rollers to augment the effectiveness of the adhesion contact. For television tapes, the audio and cue tracks may be separately read from the master and the control track from the copy and re-recorded on the copy downstream from the transfer excitation means. The tapes are separated during rewind mode. A multiple tape loop vacuum column storage bin is also provided for operation of the master tape in endless form, and the vacuum supply to the bin is servoed to control the feeding of tape from the bin to the pinch rollers. Means are also provided to make repeated copies of any selected portion of the master as by automatically stopping the copy tape at the end of the selected portion of the master, and rewinding the master to the beginning of the selected portion.
As tape moves through a closed loop, high-speed tape transporter (10) loops of the tape are accumulated and stored in a tape bin (64). The capacity of the tape bin (64) is increased by extracting air from and lowering the air pressure in the region of the bin (64) occupied by the loops of accumulated tape and inside the loops of tape sufficient to cause the accumulated tape to compress into tighter loops which occupy less space in the tape bin (64). Air extraction takes place through a vacuum port (95) which communicates with the interior of the tape bin (64) and which is connected to a vacuum supply (11A).
A vacuum column (34) is used in a closed loop, high-speed tape transporter (10) to maintain constant tension on a moving loop of tape as it is delivered to a pick-up head (20) of the transporter (10). A motor driven capstan (35) intermediate a tape storage bin (23) and the vacuum column (34) pulls the loop of tape from bin (23) and delivers it to the vacuum column (34). A servo-control (39), (40), (41) senses changes in the position of the tape within the vacuum column (34) caused by tension changes of the tape within the bin (23) and sends a signal responsive to the change of position of the tape in the vacuum column (34) to the capstan motor (31), thereby changing its speed sufficient to maintain the position of the tape within capstan (34) at a relatively constant level. Sensing can be by means of a vacuum slot (34), an ultrasonic proximity indicator (42) or a series of photo-optical sensors (44), (45).
A magnetic transfer apparatus of a video software high-speed printing system is provided with a cleaning device which prevents breakdowns of the magnetic transfer apparatus caused by magnetic powder and the like adhered to a cleaning tape by effectively removing magnetic powder and the like adhered to the cleaning tape. Slits are provided in both end flanges of a guide pole of the cleaning device and matter fallen from both edge surfaces of the cleaning tape is sucked through the slits. As a result, magnetic powder and the like fallen from both edge surfaces of both edges of the tape is effectively removed and it is possible to keep the surfaces of a mother tape and/or a blank tape clean at all times.
A master tape and a slave tape are driven so that successive portions of each are brought into substantial contact with successive portions of the other at a printing station. A printing magnetic field is applied to such successive portions while they are in substantial contact with each other at the printing station, so that data on the master tape is copied onto the slave tape and the slave tape becomes a copy of the master tape. A single master tape can thus be employed to produce a plurality of copies. A counter counts the number of copies thus produced, and an indicator provides an indication corresponding to the remaining life expectancy of the master tape.
A video tape duplicator for duplicating a video signal simultaneously on a plurality of video tapes at high speed. The duplicator includes a source for providing a high frequency video signal and a record head for simultaneously recording the high frequency video signal on a plurality of duplicate magnetic tapes. The record head rotates at a speed which is related to the frequency of the high frequency signal so that the duplicate tape may be played back at normal head and tape speeds.
