Orientation process of acicular oxides in the magnetic tape layer

The orientation of acicular particles in the active layer of a magnetic tape is presently a usual technological process applied in magnetic tape production. The theory of this process is dealt with. A mathematical model is deduced, describing the behavior of an isolated agglomerate of acicular particles in an external magnetic field and the change of its microstructure, i.e., the orientation of acicular particles in the agglomerate. The term for the density of probability ω(α) of the angle distribution α of the longer particle axes in the orientated agglomerate is also deduced. Also the approximate relation between the orientation degree, defined by the mean quadratic deviation of the angles α of the particular particles and by the bevel values γ of the deformed agglomerate, is shown. It appears that, besides the orientation by means of the external magnetic field, it would also be possible to orientate the magnetic suspension by other methods.