JPH03224182A - Disk cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a disc cartridge that can be installed in a disc drive device while housing a disc-shaped recording medium, and can record/reproduce information.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, in order to protect a disk-shaped recording medium, a disk cartridge has been known that is installed in a disk drive device with the disk-shaped recording medium stored therein so that information can be recorded/reproduced. ing.

This type of disk cartridge has a window hole for inserting the head and a window hole for inserting the turntable that is opened in series with this window hole or separately from this window hole. A turntable provided in the disk drive device is inserted through the window hole for rotating the disk-shaped recording medium, and a recording/reproducing head is inserted through the window hole for recording/reproducing information. will be held.

In this case, the recording/reproducing head is placed at a position further away from the disc cartridge setting position in the disc drive, and the disc cartridge is inserted into the disc drive at the stage when the disc cartridge is inserted into the disc drive.

If the recording/playback head accesses the disk-shaped recording medium from the top and bottom sides of the disk cartridge, a mechanism for moving the recording/playback head toward or away from the disk-shaped recording medium becomes necessary, and the disk drive device This increases the cost and requires space for operating the recording/reproducing head, making the disk drive larger.

In particular, like disk drives for magneto-optical disks,
Two heads (
In the case of magneto-optical disks, optical heads and magnetic heads)
This inconvenience is magnified in a disk drive device in which a disk must be installed.

In order to avoid such inconveniences, the applicant of the present application has conventionally constructed a structure in which the recording/playback head can be accessed from the front edge of the disk cartridge (the side edge on the side where it is inserted into the disk drive device), and the recording/playback head Various types of disk cartridges have been proposed that do not require a mechanism for moving the disk closer to or away from the disk-shaped recording medium. Publicly known examples regarding this include JP-A-1-128283, JP-A-1-134779, JP-A-1-134774, JP-A-1-133366, JP-A-1-133367, JP-A-1-151473, etc. can be mentioned.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The present invention has been made as part of these series of inventions, and includes a window hole for head insertion and a window hole for turntable insertion at opposing positions on both upper and lower surfaces, and a disk-shaped recording medium inside. a cartridge case that is rotatably housed; a slider that is slidably attached to the front edge of the cartridge case; and a slider that is fixed to the slider;
It is an object of the present invention to provide a similar effect to a disk cartridge provided with a shutter that is slidably attached to the upper and lower surfaces of the cartridge case and opens and closes the window hole.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a slider and a cartridge case, in which at least window holes for head insertion are formed at opposing positions on both upper and lower surfaces, and the slider is slidably attached to the front edge of the window holes. , a shutter plate that closes the window hole, and a notch portion having a predetermined step is formed on both upper and lower surfaces of the front edge of the window hole of the cartridge case, wherein the slider has a shutter plate that closes the window hole. a notch whose width is equal to or smaller than the thickness of the notch in the front edge of the cartridge case over a range that includes the notch formation width at the front edge of the cartridge case when the cartridge case is moved to a fully open position; A shutter plate is fixed to one end of the notch of the slider, and a shutter plate having a width equal to or smaller than the thickness of the cartridge case is fixed to the other end of the notch of the slider. A pin engaging portion is formed.

[Effect]

According to the above configuration, when the shutter is opened to the fully open position, a notch that is thinner than the total thickness of the cartridge case is exposed at the front edge of the cartridge case, and the thickness of the notch is exposed at the opposite part. The notch of the slider is arranged to have a width equal to or smaller than this.

Therefore, the recording/reproducing head can be inserted from the front edge of the cartridge case into the window hole through the notch of the slider and the notch of the cartridge case to access the disk-shaped recording medium. There is no need for a mechanism for moving the disc drive toward or away from the disc-shaped recording medium, making it possible to reduce the size and cost of the disc drive.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the disk cartridge according to the present invention will be described as follows.
This will be explained based on FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 1, this disk cartridge 6 includes:
A cartridge case 8 mainly made of hard plastic, a double-sided recording disk-shaped recording medium 7 rotatably housed within the cartridge case 8, and a slider slidably attached to a curved edge 9 of the cartridge case 8. 22, a shutter 11 that is fixed to the slider 22 and slides in one direction from the closed position to open and close the window hole 10 formed in the cartridge case 8, and a shutter presser plate 18 that presses the tip of the shutter 11. Cartridge case 8
Erroneous erasure prevention mechanism 16.1 provided near the restoration part 9a of
It consists of 7.

As shown in this figure, the cartridge case 8 consists of an upper half 8a and a lower half 8b, and these halves 8a and 8b are joined together using a plurality of screws (not shown) to form a disc-shaped case. It constitutes a space for storing the recording medium 7, a door member for an accidental erasure prevention mechanism, and the like.

As shown in FIG. 2, the lower half 8b has an optical disk 7.
An elongated window hole 1o, which is a series of a window hole for inserting a head and a window hole for inserting a turntable, is opened from a substantially central portion corresponding to the rotation center P toward the front edge portion 9. Trailing edge 9
There are openings 16 for the accidental erasure prevention mechanism on both the left and right sides near a.
a and 17a are opened symmetrically. The window hole 1o
The width W is set to a width that allows insertion of a turntable for rotationally driving the disc-shaped recording medium 7 and a head for recording/reproducing information on the disc-shaped recording medium 7.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a mounting wall 23 of a constant height is provided on the outer peripheral edge of the lower half 8b excluding the front edge 9. As shown in FIGS. Further, a partition wall 24 having the same height as the joining wall 23 is erected in a ring shape on the circumference of the disk-shaped recording medium 7 around the rotation center P, and a partition wall 24 is provided in a ring shape to define the storage space 24a of the disk-shaped recording medium 7. It consists of Furthermore, on the circumference around the rotation center P around the window hole 10,
A disk receiving loa lower than the joining wall 23 and the partition wall 24 is erected in a ring shape.

The front edge 9 of the lower half 8b is provided with the joining wall 23.
A guide rail 25, which is slightly lower than the guide rail 24, is formed in a straight line, and a step portion 25a for stopping the shutter is formed at the end of the guide rail 25 on the shutter closing side. Also, this guide rail 2
On the inside of 5, a joining wall 26 having the same height as the joining walls 23 and 24 is erected in parallel with the guide rail 25.

As shown in FIG. 4, in a portion of the front edge of the lower half 8b facing the window hole 10, there is a notch 27 recessed through a predetermined step from the surface of the lower half 8b. It is formed integrally with the tip of the guide rail 24 so as to have the same plane shape.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, a recess 28 is formed in the outer surface of the lower half 8b at a portion on which the shutter 11 slides, for accommodating the surface of the shutter 11 within the surface of the lower half 8b.

On the other hand, the upper half 8a is formed to have substantially the same shape as the lower half 8b, except that each member is provided at a symmetrical position. Therefore, when these halves 8a and 8b are joined together, a slider insertion hole 29 is formed in a straight line at the joined portion of the front edge 9, as shown in FIG.

In this cartridge case 8, an optical disc or a magnetic disc can be stored as the disc-shaped recording medium 7. As the optical disk, in addition to a magneto-optical disk that uses both an optical head and a magnetic head as a write/read head, it is also possible to accommodate an optical disk that uses only an optical head.

Next, the configuration of the shutter 11 will be explained.

As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the shutter 11 is constructed by bending a thin plate made of stainless steel or the like into a U-shape to form an upper piece 11a and a lower piece having a length that can cover the entire window hole 10 at the same time. The piece 11b is integrally formed with a front piece 11c having a width approximately equal to the thickness S of the shutter setting portion of the cartridge case 8, and a portion of the upper piece 11a and the lower piece 11b adjacent to the front piece 11c is formed integrally with the piece 11b. In this case, the locking pawl 30 is bent inward.

As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, the slider 22 includes a wide front part 31, a rear part 32 narrower than a notch 27 formed at the front edge of the cartridge case, and a connecting part connecting these parts. 33, and the guide rail 25 can be placed inside the grooves 34a and 34b formed by these parts.

As shown in FIGS. 8, 10, and 11, the front portion 31 has a length Q that is approximately equal to the width W of the window hole 10, and a thickness T of the notch 27 that is equal to or greater than this. Narrow width T6
a notch 35 formed in the shutter 1], a shutter mounting part 36 formed to have a width substantially equal to the inner width of the shutter 1], a tapered part 37 formed at the tip of the shutter mounting part 36, and the notch 35, and a pin engaging portion 37a formed on the opposite side of the shutter mounting portion 36. The pin retaining portion 37a is formed to have approximately the same width as the shutter mounting portion 36, and protrudes symmetrically from the upper and lower surfaces of the notch portion 35.

A recess 38 into which the shutter 11 can be placed is formed on the front, upper, and lower surfaces of the shutter mounting portion 36 . Further, a recess 39 is formed in the center of the upper and lower surfaces of the shutter mounting portion 36 to facilitate engagement with the locking pawl 30 formed in a curved manner on the shutter 11. Furthermore, a recess 40 for inserting the locking pawl 30 is formed on the back side of the recess 39 of the shutter mounting portion 36 for engaging the locking pawl.

The rear surface portion 32 is formed to have the same width over its entire length when the slider 22 is viewed from the back side, and has a tapered portion 37.
As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, a spring locking portion 32b is provided protruding from the side end.

The slider 22 is integrally formed of a synthetic resin with excellent slipperiness, such as nylon or polyacetal.

The shutter 11 is attached to the slider 22 by engaging the locking pawl 30 with the shutter attachment portion 36, as shown in FIG. Further, the slider 22 is slidably attached to the cartridge case 8 by directing the tapered portion 37 toward the moving side when the shutter 11 is opened and fitting the guide rail 25 into the grooves 34a and 34b.

Furthermore, the slider 22 is connected to the cartridge case 8 by a spring member not shown, and is always biased in the shutter closing direction.

The upper piece 11a and the lower piece 11b of the shutter 11 are attached to the upper and lower surfaces of the cartridge case 8, respectively, and close the window holes 10 formed in the upper half 8a and the lower half 8b. The tip of the shutter 11 is connected to the cartridge case 21.
The cartridge case 8 is closely attached to the cartridge case 8 by an elongated presser plate 18 affixed to the cartridge case 8 .

Note that the step portion 25a for stopping the shutter is connected to the slider 2.
The shutter 11 is formed in such a positional relationship that the side portions of the shutter 11 do not come into contact with the end surfaces of the recess 28 when the end surfaces of the recess 28 come into contact with each other. Thereby, dust generation due to collision between the shutter 11 and the cartridge case 21 can be reduced.

Hereinafter, operations performed when the disk cartridge according to the above embodiment is installed in a disk drive device will be explained based on FIGS. 13 to 18. In these figures, l is a turntable provided in the disk drive device, 3 is a cartridge holder, and 4.5 is rotatably attached to the top plate 3b of the cartridge holder 3 via spindles 4b and 5b. Opening/closing arms 4a, 5a are shutter opening/closing pins attached to the tip of the opening/closing arm 4.5; 51 is a sensor for detecting whether or not the disk cartridge 6 has been inserted to a predetermined position in the cartridge holder 3; 52; 53 is an optical head; 53 is an optical head;
4 indicates a magnetic head.

Before the disk cartridge 6 is inserted,
As shown in FIG. 13, the cartridge holder 3 is separated from the turntable 1, and before the disc cartridge 6 is brought into contact with it, the
As shown in FIG. 5, two pins 4a and 5a are spaced apart from each other on both the left and right sides.

When the disc cartridge 6 is inserted into the cartridge holder 3, first, as shown in FIGS. 14 and 15,
One pin 4a is brought into contact with the outer surface of the pin engaging portion 37a of the slider 22 in the closed position, and the other pin 5
a is brought into contact with the front edge of the disk cartridge on the shutter open side.

When the disk cartridge is further inserted, the arms 4 and 5 are driven inwardly by the pressing force thereof, and the driving force of one arm 4 drives the shutter 11 in the opening direction. In the process of driving the shutter 11 in the opening direction, the other pin 5a meets the slider 22, but the slider 2
Since the tapered portion 37 is formed on the slider 2, the pin 5a rides on the front piece 11c of the shutter 11 without colliding with the slider 22.

When the disc cartridge 6 is inserted into the cartridge holder 3 to a predetermined position, the shutter 11 is fully opened and the slider 2 is fully opened, as shown in FIGS. 16 and 17.
2 is engaged with the shutter holding member 52.

At the same time, the sensor 51 detects that the disk cartridge 6 is inserted to a predetermined position and the shutter 1 is
When it is detected that the cartridge holder 1 is completely opened, a drive source (not shown) is driven, and the cartridge holder 3 is lowered toward the turntable I.

As a result, the disc-shaped recording medium 7 is mounted on the turntable 1, and the disc-shaped recording medium 7 can be driven to rotate.

Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 18, the optical head 53 and the magnetic head 54 pass through the shutter insertion portion 35 of the slider 22 and the notch 27 of the cartridge case 8 from the front edge 9 side of the disk cartridge holder 6 to the window. Hole 1
0, and a predetermined position on the disk-shaped recording medium 7 is accessed.

This makes it possible to record/reproduce information on the disk-shaped recording medium 7.

Note that when the disk cartridge 6 is turned upside down and installed in the cartridge holder 3, the pin 5a comes into contact with the slider 22, and the shutter 11 is opened.

The disk cartridge 6 of the above embodiment has a notch 27 thinner than the total thickness S of the cartridge case 8 at the front edge 9 of the cartridge case 8, and the notch 27 is formed at a predetermined portion of the slider 22. Since the notch 35 is formed with a width equal to or smaller than the thickness, when the shutter 11 is opened to the fully open position, the notch 27 is exposed on the front edge 9 of the cartridge case 8, and the part facing this is exposed. The cutout portion 35 of the slider can be placed at. Therefore, the optical head 53 and the magnetic head 54 can be inserted into the window hole 10 from the front edge 9 of the cartridge case 8 through the notch 35 and the notch 27 to access the disk-shaped recording medium 7. , the optical head 53 and the magnetic head 54 are connected to the disk-shaped recording medium 7.
There is no need for a mechanism to approach or separate from the
It is possible to reduce the size and cost of the disk drive device. Note that similar effects can be achieved even when only an optical head is used as the recording/reproducing head.

Further, the shutter 11 is formed with the locking pawl 30, and the slider 22 is formed with a recess 40 for engaging the locking pawl, so that the shutter 11 and the slider 22 can be integrated by engagement. 22 can be easily assembled. Furthermore, since a recess 39 is formed in the portion of the slider 22 following the locking pawl engaging recess 40 to facilitate insertion of the locking pawl 30, there is no possibility that the shutter 11 will be deformed during assembly work. do not have.

Furthermore, since a pin engaging portion 37a having approximately the same width as the shutter mounting portion 36 is formed at one end of the slider 22, it is possible to set a large engagement length between the pin 4a or 5a and the pin engaging portion 37a. , the two can be reliably engaged. Therefore, even if unauthorized vibration is applied, pin 4
The engagement between a or 5a and the pin engaging portion 37a is difficult to disengage, resulting in excellent reliability. Furthermore, since the pin engaging portions 37a are provided symmetrically protruding from the upper and lower surfaces of the cutout portion 35, even when the disk cartridge 6 is turned upside down and installed in the cartridge holder 3 with either side facing upward. The pin 4a or 5a and the pin engaging portion 37a can be reliably engaged.

Further, since the tapered portion 37 is formed at the other end of the slider 22, the opening and closing operations of the shutter 11 can be smoothly performed without the pins not involved in the opening and closing operations of the shutter 1 coming into contact with the slider 22.

In addition, in the embodiment, the rear surface portion 3 of the slider 22
2 and the connecting portion 33 are formed over almost the entire length of the slider 22. However, as shown in FIG. 19, the rear surface portion 32 and the connecting portion 33 may be formed only at both ends of the slider 22.

When using the slider of this example, as shown in FIG.
A cartridge case 8 with opening 9 can be used.

Further, in the above embodiment, the shutter 11 and the slider 22 were integrated by engagement, but as shown in FIG. 21(a), one or more shutters (in this example, 2) screw holes 55 are opened, and the shutter 11 is opened as shown in FIG. 21(b).
A screw insertion hole 56 is opened at a position corresponding to the screw hole 55 of the shutter 11 and the slider 2 by screwing the screw inserted through the screw insertion hole 56 into the screw hole.
2 can also be integrated.

Further, in the embodiment described above, the tapered portion 37 was formed at one end of the slider 22, but this applies to a disk cartridge used in a single-sided recording type disk drive device having only one opening/closing arm.

As shown in FIG. 22, it is also possible to use a slider 22 whose end face on the side of the shutter mounting portion 36 is formed at a right angle.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, the recording/reproducing head is inserted into the window hole from the front edge of the cartridge case through the notch of the slider and the notch of the cartridge case. Since the recording medium can be accessed, there is no need for a mechanism for moving the recording/reproducing head toward or away from the disk-shaped recording medium, making it possible to reduce the size and cost of the disk drive device.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIGS. 1 to 11 are diagrams showing one embodiment of the present invention, and the first
The figure is a perspective view of the disk cartridge, Figure 2 is an inner view of the lower half, Figure 3 is a sectional view of the lower half, Figure 4 is a front view of the lower half, Figure 5 is a front view of the cartridge case, and Figure 6 is a front view of the cartridge case. The figure is a perspective view of the shutter, and Figure 7 is a side view of the shutter.
Fig. 8 is a plan view of the slider, Fig. 9 is a side view of the slider, Fig. 10 is a front view of the slider, Fig. 11 is a front view of the disk cartridge, and Fig. 12 is a sectional view of essential parts of the disk cartridge. . 13 to 18 are diagrams for explaining the insertion operation into the disk drive, in which FIG. 13 is a side sectional view of the disk drive, and FIG. 14 shows the pin and disk cartridge before the shutter is opened. FIG. 15 is a front view of the same, FIG. 16 is a partially sectional plan view showing the engagement state of the pin and disk cartridge after the shutter is opened, and FIG. The same front view and FIG. 18 are main part sectional views showing the insertion operation of the recording/reproducing head. FIG. 19 to FIG. 22 are diagrams of other embodiments of the present invention,
Fig. 19 is a plan view of the slider, Fig. 20 is a front view of the cartridge case in which the slider of Fig. 19 is installed, and
1A and 1B are explanatory diagrams showing other examples of a shutter and a slider, and FIG. 22 is a perspective view showing still another example of a slider. 6... Disk cartridge, 7...
Disc-shaped recording medium, 8...cartridge case, 9...front edge, 9a...rear edge, 1
0...Window hole, 11...Shutter, 22...
...Slider, 27...Notch, 30...
- Locking claw, 35... Notch, 36... Shutter mounting part, 37a... Pin engaging part. Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Picture 6 Illustration 10 Figure 11 Figure 12 Figure 14 Figure 15 Figure 16 Figure 17 Figure 19 Figure 20

Claims (8)

[Claims] (1) A slider slidably attached to the front edge of the window hole of a cartridge case in which at least a window hole for head insertion is opened at opposite positions on both upper and lower surfaces, and a shutter plate that closes the window hole. In the disk cartridge, the slider is provided with a cutout portion having a predetermined step on both upper and lower sides of the front edge of the window hole of the cartridge case, the slider having a cutout portion that has a predetermined step when the shutter is moved to a fully open position. A notch whose width is equal to or smaller than the thickness of the notch is formed at the front edge of the window hole over a range that includes the notch forming width at the front edge of the cartridge case, and the slider A shutter plate is fixed to one end of the notch of the slider, and a pin engaging portion having a width equal to or smaller than the thickness of the cartridge case is formed at the other end of the notch of the slider. A disc cartridge characterized by: (2) In claim 1, the width of the pin engaging portion of the slider is formed wider than the head insertion portion and narrower than the thickness of the cartridge case, and the width of the pin engagement portion of the slider is formed to be narrower than the thickness of the cartridge case, and A disk cartridge characterized by a more symmetrical protrusion. (3) In claim 1, the slider includes a front part in which the notch, a shutter mounting part, and a pin engaging part are formed, and the cartridge case extending in a straight line from one end of the front part to the other end. formed from a rear part narrower than the notch part, and a connecting part provided between the front part and the rear part and further narrower than the front part and the rear part,
A disc cartridge characterized in that a guide rail formed at the front edge of the cartridge case is inserted into the groove formed by the front part, the rear part, and the connecting part. (4) In claim 1, the slider includes a front part in which the notch, a shutter mounting part, and a pin engaging part are formed, and two cartridge cases disposed at both end parts of the front part. a rear part narrower than the cutout part, and a connecting part provided between the front part and the rear part, which is even narrower than the front part and the rear part, and the front part and the rear part are connected to each other. A disc cartridge characterized in that a guide rail formed at a front edge of the cartridge case is inserted into a concave groove constituted by a connecting part. (5) The disk cartridge according to claim 1, characterized in that a tapered portion is formed at the tip of the slider on the shutter mounting portion side. (6) A disk cartridge according to claim 1, characterized in that the end face of the slider on the shutter mounting portion side is formed at a right angle. (7) In claim 1, a shutter engaging portion is formed in the shutter mounting portion of the slider, and one or more locking claws are formed in a position corresponding to the shutter engaging portion of the shutter, A disk cartridge characterized in that the shutter is fixed to the slider by engaging the locking pawl with the shutter engaging portion. (8) In claim 1, one or more screw holes are provided in the shutter mounting portion of the slider, and a screw insertion hole is provided in a position corresponding to the screw hole of the shutter, and the screw insertion hole is provided at a position corresponding to the screw hole in the shutter. 1. A disk cartridge, wherein the shutter is fixed to the slider by screwing a screw inserted into the screw hole into the screw hole.