Bidirectional cassette head

Claim 1

A bidirectional magnetic head assembly comprising: first and second pairs of associated record/playback transducers, each transducer having an elongate core segment and an energizing coil mounted thereon and an associated elongate pole segment adapted to be disposed end-to-end with said core segment to form a nonmagnetic transducing gap between one set of adjacent ends; a pair of complementary carriers for supporting said transducers relAtive to a magnetic tape, said core segments and coils of said first pair of transducers and said pole segments of said second pair of transducers being mounted in spaced-apart sideby-side relation in one of said carriers, and said core segments and coils of said second pair of transducers and said pole segments of said first pair of transducers being mounted in spaced-apart side-by-side relation in the other said carrier, said complementary carriers with said segments mounted therein being secured together in a confronting assembled relationship with associated said core and pole segments in end-to-end registration with the sets of adjacent ends forming said transducing gaps at a head-to-tape interface; and a pair of erase transducers mounted in different said carriers and in longitudinally offset relationship to each other, one of said erase transducers having an erase gap disposed in tracking relationship with said first pair of transducers and the other erase transducer having an erase gap disposed in tracking relationship with the second pair of transducers such that for one direction of tape movement one of said erase transducers may operate on the magnetic tracks associated with said first pair of transducers prior to recording and for the other direction of tape movement the other erase transducer may operate on the magnetic tracks associated with the second pair of transducers prior to recording.