> Voyager's flange basically works on the same principle, but I knew it had to be designed to last a very long time. Viking's life was short by comparison. Voyager? I planned on an infinite life. Yeah, you're right: the "flange" on Voyager looks like a solid piece of metal attached to the top of the tape reel. Well, actually, not exactly. It's a "shell" made of titanium, within which a flange is mounted through a bearing to the center of the flange assembly. However, after sealing it using electron-beam welding, it was backfilled with a dampening fluid/oil to take the place of the vibration absorbing rubber in Viking. Then, the seal is thoroughly completed using more electron-beam welding. And good news! It will survive a very long time! Like forever.
> The great benefit of handling magnetic tape has wonderful benefits (well, back in its day) - the tape is barely handled in specialized transports like this, but most people didn't really understand how little the tape is touched, even if they may have noticed. Not many did. Once the clear "drive" belt no longer touches the backside of the magnetic tape (look at the photo to see where they separate), it moves freely, toward the tape read/write head, with only the precise distance needed for the tape, as it freely slides through the very narrow slot in the tape head. Well, that's just the introduction to the real problem. Go back to the previous discussions about the tape flanges. That's where the problem was resolved.
Someone who worked on it described it on stack exchange:
https://space.stackexchange.com/a/54979/54572
> Voyager's flange basically works on the same principle, but I knew it had to be designed to last a very long time. Viking's life was short by comparison. Voyager? I planned on an infinite life. Yeah, you're right: the "flange" on Voyager looks like a solid piece of metal attached to the top of the tape reel. Well, actually, not exactly. It's a "shell" made of titanium, within which a flange is mounted through a bearing to the center of the flange assembly. However, after sealing it using electron-beam welding, it was backfilled with a dampening fluid/oil to take the place of the vibration absorbing rubber in Viking. Then, the seal is thoroughly completed using more electron-beam welding. And good news! It will survive a very long time! Like forever.
https://space.stackexchange.com/a/55029/54572
> The great benefit of handling magnetic tape has wonderful benefits (well, back in its day) - the tape is barely handled in specialized transports like this, but most people didn't really understand how little the tape is touched, even if they may have noticed. Not many did. Once the clear "drive" belt no longer touches the backside of the magnetic tape (look at the photo to see where they separate), it moves freely, toward the tape read/write head, with only the precise distance needed for the tape, as it freely slides through the very narrow slot in the tape head. Well, that's just the introduction to the real problem. Go back to the previous discussions about the tape flanges. That's where the problem was resolved.