Electronic sweep magnetic scanning transducer

Claim 2

An improved magnetic transducer including a plurality of magnetic laminations formed from material utilized in a nonsquare hysteresis loop mode arrayed in side-by-side order, each lamination formed of a continuous piece of magnetic material which is cut to provide a magnetic circuit including a working gap, and a data winding coupling said laminations, wherein the improvement comprises: a. a plurality of controlled saturation portions in each magnetic lamination each having a magnetic saturation characteristic different from the saturation characteristic of a corresponding portion in another lamination; b. common control winding means magnetically linked to all said corresponding controlled saturation portions in the plurality of laminations; and c. control means for supplying variable magnitude current to said control winding means for saturating said controlled saturation portions in a predetermined order and thereby increasing the effective reluctance of the laminations.

Claim 3

The invention defined in claim 1 wherein the control winding means links each controlled saturation portion of each lamination through an aperture provided in said portion.

Claim 4

The invention defined in claim 1 wherein each said controlled saturation portion of each lamination comprises a portion of the lamination having a controlled cross-sectional area.

Claim 5

The invention defined in claim 3 wherein the laminations all have substantially the same thickness and each controlled cross-sectional area is provided by controlling the width of the controlled saturation portion of each lamination.

Claim 6

The invention defined in claim 1 wherein the magnetic laminations are arranged in a stack of n laminations each having at least two controlled saturation portions, separated by nonmagnetic spacers, and wherein nth corresponding controlled saturation portion of each lamination, from the first to the nthe in the case of the one portion and from the nthe to the first in the case of another portion, has a higher saturation level than the preceeding lamination and a lower saturation level than the succeeding lamination, and wherein the common control winding means links each corresponding controlled saturation portion through an aperture in said portion.

Claim 7

The invention defined in claim 5 wherein each said controlled saturation portion of each lamination comprises a part of the lamination having a controlled cross-sectional area different from the cross-sectional area of the corresponding portions of he other laminations, and wherein the aperture in each said portion is centrally located within the controlled cross-sectional area.

Claim 8

The invention defined in claim 6 wherein the control means supplies current of a generally ramp-type waveform, to saturate the controlled saturation portions of the laminations in sequence from the first lamination to the nth lamination.

Claim 9

An improved magnetic sweep head including n magnetic laminations arranged in side-by-side order, each lamination forming a magnetic circuit including a working gap, nonmagnetic spacer means interleaved with said laminations to magnetically isolate them, and a data winding coupled to all said magnetic laminations, wherein the improvement comprises: a. first and second controlled saturation portions in each magnetic lamination forming part of the magnetic circuit thereof, the corresponding first controlled saturation portions in the n laminations having increasingly larger saturation levels from the first lamination to the nth lamination and the corresponding second controlled saturation portions having increasingly smaller saturation levels from the first lamination to the nth lamination, each said first or second controlled saturation portion operating when saturated to effectively increase the reluctance of the magnetic circuit of its lamination and to prevent normal transducing action at the working gap; b. first and second common control winding means respectively coupled to all said corresponding first and second controlled saturation portions and operable upon energization to induce flux in the portions coupled thereto; and c. first and second energizing means connected respectively to said first and second control winding means, the first and second energizing means being operable in concert to apply current to said first and second winding means sufficient to saturate either the first or the second controlled saturation portion of all laminations except a desired lamination whereby to render all laminations except the desired one inoperative for normal transducing action.

Claim 10

An improved magnetic sweep head including n magnetic laminations arranged in side-by-side order, each lamination forming a magnetic circuit including a working gap, nonmagnetic spacer means interleaved with said laminations to magnetically isolate them, and a data winding coupled to all said magnetic laminations, wherein the improvement comprises: a. first and second controlled saturation portions in each magnetic lamination forming part of the magnetic circuit thereof, the corresponding first controlled saturation portions in the n laminations having increasingly larger saturation levels from the first lamination to the nth lamination and the corresponding second controlled saturation portions having increasingly smaller saturation levels from the first lamination to the nth lamination, each said first or second controlled saturation portion operating when saturated to effectively increase the reluctance of the magnetic circuit of its lamination and to prevent normal transducing action at the working gap; b. first and second common control winding means respectively coupled to all said corresponding first and second controlled saturation portions and operable upon energization to induce flux in the portions coupled thereto; and c. first and second energizing means connected respectively to said first and second control winding means, the first and second energizing means being operable in concert to apply current to said first and second winding means sufficient to saturate either the first or the second controlled saturation portion of all laminations except a desired lamination whereby to render all laminations except the desired one inoperative for normal transducing action.

Claim 11

The invention defined in claim 8 wherein the energizing means concurrently supplies a ramp-type waveform of increasing current magnitude to the first control winding to saturate the first controlled saturation portions of the laminations in sequence while simultaneously unsaturating the second controlled saturation portions in sequence to effectively render each lamination from the first to the nth operative for transducing action while maintaining the others inoperative.

Claim 12

The invention defined in claim 9 wherein each first and second controlled saturation portion comprises a controlled cross-sectional area portion of the lamination having an aperture therein, and wherein the first and second control winding means are threaded through the aperture of the portions they couple.