JPH11134838A - Sliding member for recording/reproducing operation - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce friction coefficient of a sliding member which slides in contact with the other portion to improve abrasion resistance by providing a diamond-like coverage formed on the surface of the part sliding in contact with a recording/reproducing medium of the sliding member. SOLUTION: A chamber 31 is evacuated to the higher vacuum condition of 10<6> Torr, a valve of a gas feeding passage 37 is manipulated to introduce the mixed gas of methane gas of the predetermined amount of flow and hydrogen or the mixed gas and the carrier gas of Ar, He, Ne or the like from each supply port 35 to obtain the predetermined gas pressure by regulating the exhaust system 38. An AC current If is impressed to a plurality of hot cathode filament 34 and a voltage difference Vd is impressed across the filament 34 and hot cathode 36 to form discharge. The methane gas supplied from the supply port 35 is thermally decomposed and it collides with thermions from the filament to generate positive ion and electrons. Ions are attracted by a negative potential Va impressed to the grid 35 of electrode 32 and are then accelerated toward the gas S. Ions collide with a substrate to form a diamond- like thin film.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a member for mounting a magnetic or optical recording / reproducing medium and an improvement of a sliding member in a recording / reproducing apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a magnetic tape cassette tape guide, a tape guide member such as a guide roller, a half case member that comes into contact with a medium, a center boss for fixing a reel with a spring, a magnetic head, and a rotating hub for an optical or magnetic disk. The present invention relates to a friction-resistant and wear-resistant sliding member that slides with a magnetic tape or another part.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Cassette tapes such as audio tape cassettes and video tape cassettes are provided with guide members for properly guiding the running of a magnetic tape and ensuring running stability. For example, fixed tape guides are provided at both ends of the front surface of the cassette. FIG. 1 is an exploded view of a conventional video tape cassette case, in which only a tape guide portion is shown in detail for easy understanding. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 2 denotes a lower half, and 1 denotes an upper half. The lower half 2 is made of metal supported by a plastic guide pin 3 and a plastic support pin 4 in order from a magnetic tape feeding side along a magnetic tape running path. A semi-cylindrical or cylindrical fixing tape guide 5, a metal semi-cylindrical or cylindrical fixing tape guide 7 supported by a plastic support pin 6, and a metal guide roller 9 supported by a plastic pin 8 are provided. Of these guide members, the tape guides 5 and 7 are particularly important. These guides are made of stainless steel (SUS304) for video use.
Etc.), plating on a brass or aluminum base, a hard resin such as polyacetal, and a resin such as stainless steel and polystyrene for audio use. Stainless steel may be scraped by inorganic material particles as an additive of a back coat of a magnetic tape for a video tape cassette, which causes dropout, and is extremely satisfactory but extremely expensive for audio. When plating is performed on a brass or aluminum base, the cost increases, and the surface roughness decreases, so that the friction coefficient increases and the running property deteriorates. Resins such as polyacetal are easily scraped off, adhere to the surface of the recording medium due to powder dropping, causing dropout, and are liable to cause running failure due to a large friction coefficient.

On the other hand, in the case of an optical disk or a magnetic disk, a recording medium is formed in an annular shape, and a metal rotary hub is fitted and fixed in a central hole for supporting and driving the recording medium. The rotary hub has a central hole for receiving a spindle pin from the device side and an off-axis hole for receiving a drive pin located at an eccentric position, and the drive pin automatically becomes a hub when a disc is mounted on a recording / reproducing device. Slides over the surface and fits into the hole of the shaft. At this time, abrasion, abrasion, and powder fall occur on the surface of the hub.

FIG. 2 shows an outline of an exploded structure of a magnetic disk drive. A magnetic disk 14 having a rotating hub 13 fitted and fixed in a central hole between an upper case 11 and a lower case 12, and liner sheets 15 on both sides thereof. , 16 are housed.
The rotary hub 13 has a square central hole 17 for receiving a center spindle pin (not shown) on the reproducing apparatus side and an off-axis square hole 18 for receiving a drive pin (not shown) in an eccentric position. When the disk device is mounted on the recording / reproducing apparatus, the spindle pin and the drive pin automatically try to enter these holes, but since these pins are not always properly aligned with the holes 17 and 18, the drive pin is It rotates while sliding on the surface of the hole and finds the position of the hole, leading to fitting. The rotating hub 13 is usually made of stainless steel (S
US430) or plating (for example, hard chrome plating) is used, but the parts that come into contact with the drive pins and the spindle pins gradually wear out during use many times, causing powder drop, If this adheres to the disk surface, false recording or dropout occurs, resulting in malfunction in recording and reading information. Since the shutter and the like also slide each time they are used, the above-described problem occurs unless durability is improved. In addition, there are similar problems due to friction and abrasion of the magnetic head due to contact with the magnetic tape and the powder falling off. Generally, when a sliding member in a magnetic recording / reproducing device, an optical disk recording / reproducing device, or the like is located at a position close to a recording medium, an error occurs in recording or reproducing information due to powder drop due to abrasion of the sliding member. There is a need for a sliding member that is as abrasion-resistant as possible. Actually, by devising the material of the sliding member, a material with considerably high abrasion resistance has been obtained, but it can be easily manufactured in terms of cost. Is more desirable.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a tape guide member, a magnetic head, an optical or magnetic disk in a magnetic or optical recording and reproducing apparatus such as a magnetic tape cassette, an optical or magnetic disk, and a magnetic head. It is an object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive means for reducing the friction of a rotating member, a sliding member that slides on a magnetic tape or another part, and improving abrasion resistance.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided a member for mounting a recording / reproducing medium and a sliding member used in a recording / reproducing apparatus, wherein a surface portion of the sliding member is formed of metal and the surface thereof. And a friction- and wear-resistant sliding member for recording / reproduction characterized by comprising a diamond-like coating.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The sliding member of the present invention is a magnetic tape guide member of a magnetic tape cassette, a medium storage half case,
The present invention can be applied to a center boss for fixing a reel, a magnetic head surface in contact with a medium, a rotating hub for supporting an optical disk or a disk of a magnetic disk device, and the like. According to the above configuration, the sliding member used in the recording / reproducing apparatus can be coated with a diamond-like film having good productivity and low friction and wear resistance at low cost. The diamond-like film suitable for the present invention can be formed by various methods, but preferably, an ionization vapor deposition method can be suitably used. That is, a hydrocarbon raw material gas or a raw material gas capable of generating hydrocarbons by decomposition or reaction is introduced into a vacuum, ionized, and led to a metal surface serving as a substrate in the surface portion of the sliding member. A sliding member can be formed by a method of forming a diamond-like thin film by depositing on a diamond. This method is preferable to other methods because it can be carried out at a low temperature, can form a film with good crystallinity, and can be easily mass-produced.

As briefly described above, the present invention is characterized in that a diamond-like film is formed on the surface of a sliding member for a recording / reproducing device. As a film forming method, a diamond-like film forming method by ionization vapor deposition is particularly preferable. The ionization vapor deposition method is a hydrocarbon raw material gas or a raw material gas capable of generating hydrocarbon by decomposition or reaction (here, hydrocarbon is methane,
There are saturated hydrocarbons such as ethane and propane, and unsaturated hydrocarbons such as ethylene, propylene and acetylene.The raw material gas which can be decomposed to produce hydrocarbons is methyl alcohol,
There are alcohols such as ethyl alcohol, ketones such as acetone and methyl ethyl ketone, and the like. The raw material gas which reacts to produce a hydrocarbon gas includes carbon monoxide and a mixed gas of carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The raw material may contain a rare gas such as helium, neon, or argon, or at least one of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, water, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and the like). , Ionization by means such as ionization due to thermionic emission between the cathode hot filament and the negative electrode, to form an ion current,
In this method, a diamond-like thin film is formed by accelerating this flow in an electric field and directing it to a substrate.
No. 174507, Japanese Patent Application No. 63-59376, 63
As described in JP-A-59377, it is not necessary to use a high temperature of 700 ° C. or more as a conventional substrate temperature in the ionization vapor deposition method (for example, “Surface Chemistry” Vol. 5, No. 10).
No. 8 (1984) pp. 108-115), the film forming efficiency is good, and the formed diamond-like film has good surface properties, high hardness, high thermal conductivity, and high refractive index. ,
This is an excellent method, such as not requiring a finishing surface treatment.

It is to be noted that the ion beam is fixed and the substrate is moved, or conversely, the substrate is fixed and the ionized hydrocarbon plasma ion beam is deflected and scanned in a direction substantially perpendicular to the original direction. A diamond-like thin film can be formed on a substrate. Such a deflection magnetic field is
It can be formed by using a permanent magnet or an electromagnet that generates a magnetic field in a direction crossing the acceleration direction of the ion flow. The ionization deposition method, which is a basic technique of the present invention, is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Nos. 63-59377 and 63-59376.
In the embodiments of the present invention, a method and an apparatus based on the apparatus described therein are used.

[0010] Preferred examples of the film formation apparatus Overview Figure 3 of film forming apparatus. In the figure, reference numeral 30 denotes a vacuum vessel, and 31 denotes a chamber, which is connected to an exhaust system 38 and is evacuated to a high vacuum of about 10 ^-6 Torr. Reference numeral 32 denotes an electrode provided on the back surface of the substrate S which is sent in a certain direction by a suitable driving means, and is supplied with a voltage Va in this case. Reference numeral 33 is used to accelerate ions in the grid. Reference numeral 34 denotes a hot cathode filament,
Heated by f generates thermoelectrons and is maintained at a negative potential. Reference numeral 35 denotes a supply port for a hydrocarbon gas as a raw material. A counter electrode 36 surrounds the filament 34.
Are provided, and a voltage Vd is applied to the filament.
An electromagnetic coil 39 for generating a magnetic field for confining the ionized gas is arranged so as to surround the filament 34, the counter electrode 36, and the supply port 35. Therefore, the film quality can be changed by adjusting Vd, Va and the current of the coil. In FIG. 3, a plasma excitation chamber 36 is provided in the hydrocarbon gas source introduction passage 37, thereby improving the efficiency of the ionization apparatus. For the plasma excitation, for example, microwave, high frequency (RF wave), radiation, ultraviolet light and the like can be used. Also, as shown in FIG.
By changing a part of the configuration, a fixed or variable strength magnet 40 may be arranged above the filament 34 and used for deflecting a plasma-like ion beam. The magnetic field strength of the magnet 40 is fixed or variable, and the magnetic field of the magnet is in a direction crossing the traveling direction of the ion flow. Thus, CH ₃ ⁺ ,
Deflection angle θ for desired ions such as CH ₄ ⁺ ions
Get. On the other hand, in the case of fixation, ions whose masses are significantly different from these ions, for example, hydrogen ions, are further bent, and neutral particles and heavy multimeric ions go straight. Therefore, if the mask is arranged in the straight traveling direction, only ions having high crystallinity adhere to the substrate S.

[0011] manufactured will be described in detail film forming method by a membrane method Figure 3 apparatus. First,
The inside of the chamber 31 is set to a high vacuum of 10 ^-6 Torr, and a valve of the gas supply passage 37 is operated to operate a predetermined flow rate of methane gas, a mixed gas of hydrogen and hydrogen, or a mixed gas of Ar and H
The evacuation system 38 is adjusted while introducing a carrier gas such as e, Ne or the like from each supply port 35 to a predetermined gas pressure, for example, 10 ^-1.
Torr. On the other hand, a plurality of hot cathode filaments 34
Is heated by passing an alternating current If, and a potential difference Vd is applied between the filament 34 and the counter electrode 36 to form a discharge. The methane gas supplied from the supply port 35 is thermally decomposed and collides with thermoelectrons from the filament to generate positive ions and electrons. This electron collides with another pyrolysis particle. By repeating such a phenomenon under the confinement effect of the magnetic field of the electromagnetic coil, methane gas becomes a positive ion of a pyrolysis substance.

The positive ions are attracted by the negative potential Va applied to the electrode 32 and the grid 36, accelerated toward the slowly moving substrate S, collide with the substrate and perform a film forming reaction, and A thin film is formed. If desired, a higher quality thin film can be obtained using the fixed magnet described above. In addition, the potential of each part,
For the conditions such as current and temperature, refer to the above-cited patent applications and patent publications as well as known materials. The thickness of the film to be formed is preferably 100 to 10,000 °. If the thickness is smaller than the above range, the abrasion resistance is reduced, and if the thickness is too large, the effect is not increased and the production time is increased. Further, the substrate on which the diamond-like film is formed may be cleaned in advance by ultrasonic cleaning with an organic solvent or the like.

[0013]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described. Example 1 (tape guide) The tape guide shown in FIG. 1 was manufactured. First, a cylindrical body having a diameter of 3 mm was made of stainless steel as a base S of the tape guide, and this base was loaded into the film forming apparatus shown in FIG. 3 and described above, and the inside of the vacuum vessel 10 was evacuated to 10 ^-6 Torr. After that, methane gas was introduced and the gas pressure was set to 10 ^-1 Torr to cause discharge in the hot cathode filament. The magnetic flux density of the electromagnetic coil 19 is 400 Gauss, the substrate voltage is -300 V,
The substrate temperature was 200 ° C. A current of 25 A was passed through the filament 14. The filament is coil-shaped and has a width of 3 mm and a gap of 8 mm between the electrodes surrounding the filament,
The feed speed was 40 mm / hr. If = 175A, Va
= 30 V, Vd = -30 V, a tape guide having a diamond-like film having a thickness of 0.8 µm was obtained.

The torque, dropout, and Vickers hardness of the above tape guide were measured. However, the Vickers hardness was measured with a micro Vickers meter with a weight of 10 g. The measurement of torque and dropout was performed by the following method. 1) Measurement of torque The VHS tape was used to run at a high speed and the running was gradually reduced, and the minimum torque required for running was measured with a torque meter. 2) Measurement of dropout Recorded 6 minutes and played back 5 minutes on a real machine using VHS tape.
Connected D. O. Using a measuring machine, width 15μsec, depth 1
D. 6 dB or more. O. The signals were measured and expressed as numbers on average per minute.

[0015]

[Table 1]

Example 2 (disk hub) The disk hub shown in FIG. 2 was manufactured using the apparatus shown in FIG. First, a substrate in the form of a disk hub was made of stainless steel, and this substrate was loaded into the film forming apparatus shown in FIG. 3 and described above, and a diamond-like thin film was formed on the surface of the substrate under the same conditions as in Example 1. The process was performed until a film thickness of about 0.5 μm was formed. Table 2 shows the measurement results of various characteristics. Note that the chucking torque is a value after performing a detachment test 10,000 times with a torque generated by friction when sliding with a disk drive pin. The swing width is the swing width of the chucking torque. The surface scratch depth indicates a value after 10,000 times of the detachment test. Vickers hardness was measured at a weight of 10 g.

[0017]

[Table 2]

[0018]

When the sliding member of the present invention is applied to a magnetic tape guide member of a magnetic tape cassette, a contacting magnetic head surface, a rotating hub for supporting an optical disk or a disk of a magnetic disk device, the sliding member is: It can be coated with a diamond-like film with good friction resistance and abrasion resistance with good productivity and low cost.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a magnetic tape cassette provided with a conventional tape guide.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a magnetic disk case provided with a conventional disk hub.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of the apparatus for producing a diamond-like thin film of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing another example of the apparatus for producing a diamond-like thin film.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Upper half 2 Lower half 3 Guide pin 4 Support pin 5 Fixing tape guide 6 Support pin 7 Fixing tape guide 8 Plastic pin 9 Guide roller 30 Vacuum container 31 Chamber 32 Electrode 33 Grid 34 Hot cathode filament 36 Counter electrode 37 Source gas introduction passage 38 Exhaust system 39 Electromagnetic coil 40 Magnet

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] September 2, 1998

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0006

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a sliding member to be used for members or reproducing apparatus for mounting a recording medium, the sliding member of the recording medium in sliding
Provide a diamond-like coating on the moving surface
Providing sliding member for recording and reproduction, characterized in that the.
The present invention also provides a method for producing hydrocarbon feed gas or cracking or
Introduce a source gas that can produce hydrocarbons by the reaction,
Ionized by heat and electric field
And slide the ion beam with the recording / reproducing medium.
Due to the negative potential of the grid provided near the surface
To be deposited on the surface portion of the substrate,
For producing a sliding member characterized by forming a thin film
Provide the law. Substrate by ionizing low molecular weight hydrocarbons
By depositing a diamond film on the
The protection of the surface is described in JP-A-60-193112.
It is listed. However, the document does not mention hydrocarbon ionization.
A negative hot filament and 500 placed near the substrate.
By the grid to which the voltage of V is applied, carbon ions are
To the plate and remove hydrocarbon impurity ions by the grid.
(Page 2, upper right column)
The electron diffraction pattern of the film was diamond.
Described (lower left column of page 2).
It is distinctly different from the diamond-like thin film formed. Departure
In Ming, it is essential to form films using hydrocarbon ions
Because.

Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Masatoshi Nakayama 1-13-1 Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo TDK Corporation (72) Inventor Masanori Shibahara 1-13-1 Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo Inside TDK Corporation

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A diamond-like coating formed on a surface for sliding a recording / reproducing medium on a member for mounting a recording / reproducing medium or a sliding member used for a recording / reproducing apparatus. A recording / reproducing sliding member comprising: 2. The recording / reproducing sliding member according to claim 1, wherein the member for mounting the recording / reproducing medium is a magnetic tape cassette, and the sliding member is a magnetic tape guiding member. 3. The sliding member for recording / reproducing according to claim 1, wherein the recording / reproducing device is a magnetic recording / reproducing device, and the sliding member is a surface portion of a magnetic head in contact with the magnetic recording medium. 4. A hydrocarbon raw material gas or a raw material gas capable of generating hydrocarbons by decomposition or reaction is introduced into a vacuum, and this is ionized positively by heat and an electric field, accelerated by a negative potential, and accelerated by a negative potential. 2. The method for manufacturing a sliding member according to claim 1, wherein the diamond-like thin film is formed by depositing on the substrate.