Force at the Stylus Tip while Cutting Lacquer Disk-Recording Blanks

Lacquer used for disk-recording purposes, being harder than wax, imposes a greater load on the cutting stylus and, consequently, upon the turntable drive system. In order to study the requirements, equipment has been developed to measure the force at the stylus tip while cutting unmodulated grooves. Reducing cutting bounce, a form of instability resulting in a groove of varying width, by using an advance ball or air dashpot was studied. The effect of height of the axis about which the recorder is pivoted above the record surface was also investigated.