JPH06101218B2 - Tape cassette - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a tape cassette having an outer shape compatible with a floppy disk.

[Outline of Invention]

In a flat cartridge formed by an upper half and a lower half, a center core which is rotationally driven, a rotary drive unit which is interlocked with the center core for rotating a supply reel and a take-up reel, In a tape cassette formed with a tape running path for guiding a magnetic tape drawn from a supply reel along a flat space in a cartridge and returning it to a tape up reel, a part of the tape running path forms a center core. It is configured by a separate guide substrate provided with a positioning member that fits on a shaft that is rotationally driven.
Therefore, the position of the tape that contacts the head is restricted by the guide substrate, and the track position of the tape can be accurately determined regardless of the dimensional accuracy of the cartridge.

[Conventional technology]

The floppy disk has a flexible magnetic disk housed in a flat cartridge, and the magnetic disk is rotated to record / reproduce signals.

Therefore, the shape becomes compact, and high-density data can be written or read out quickly, so that it can be directly attached to various kinds of OA equipment such as a microcomputer.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of an example of such a floppy disk, in which a magnetic disk D is rotatably housed in the space inside the cartridge in which the upper half H ₁ and the lower half H ₂ are superposed. A shutter S for opening and closing an opening K for contacting a magnetic head (pad) is attached to one end.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

In such a floppy disk, since the recording tracks are formed in the circumferential direction of the magnetic disk D, the access time is short, but there is a problem that the storage capacity becomes insufficient especially when the disk is small.

Therefore, as described below, we developed a large-capacity tape cassette compatible with floppy disks.
The conventional method of positioning the recording / reproducing apparatus has a problem that it is extremely difficult for the magnetic head to scan a predetermined recording track.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides a tape cassette positioning means capable of performing positioning with high accuracy when mounted in a recording / reproducing apparatus.

[Means for solving problems]

In the tape cassette of the present invention, a guide substrate for positioning the tape running path with respect to the rotation drive shaft of the floppy disk recording / reproducing device is housed near the opening so that it serves as a positioning reference point for the half tape cassette. Has been done.

[Action]

In the floppy disk recording / reproducing apparatus, the position of the rotary drive shaft and the relative position of the magnetic head moved by the stepping motor are adjusted with high accuracy at the manufacturing stage. Therefore, when the running path of the tape running inside the tape cassette is positioned by the rotary drive shaft, the relative position between the magnetic head and the tape can be accurately determined.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a tape cassette (separately applied for application) to which the present invention is applied, and shows a state inside the cassette by removing the upper half in the portion below the break line R. Further, FIG. 2 shows a cross section taken along the center line LL of FIG.

Referring to these drawings, first, when the tape cassette is described, 10 indicates a cartridge formed by stacking a lower half 10a and an upper half 10b having the same size.

Regarding the size of the cartridge 10, the size on the left side of the alternate long and short dash line Q is, for example, the same as that of a 3.5-inch micro floppy disk cartridge. Lower half 10a
Is provided with a driving center core 1 at a substantially central portion in a driving hole 10A that engages with a rotation shaft of a motor.
Both the upper and lower halves 10a and 10b are formed with openings 10B that are exposed by the magnetic head (pad) as in the conventional floppy disk cartridge.

10C is a protrusion provided to identify this tape cassette and a conventional micro floppy disk,
10D and 10D are dowel holes for positioning.

Reference numeral 10E indicates a tape reel and a dome portion formed so as to cover the rotating mechanism, which will be described later.

Further, a detection hole 10F that penetrates the upper and lower halves 10a and 10b
₁ and 10F ₂ are provided, and the running state of the tape is monitored by the detection holes 10F ₁ and 10F ₂ .

Reference numeral 1 denotes a center core rotatably attached to the inner surface of the upper half 10b facing the drive hole 10A, for example, via an oilless metal or the like. At the center of the center core 1, a rotation shaft of the recording / reproducing apparatus is provided. Is provided with a shaft hole 1A for abutting against each other and a hole 1B into which a drive pin is fitted, and a concave flange 1C is formed on the outer periphery thereof so that the timing belt 2 can be wound.

One end of the timing belt 2 with teeth, is connected to a pulley 3 that is supported by a shaft P ₁ as shown in FIG. 2, the gear 3A being engraved on the pulley 3 is supported by a shaft P ₁ It is formed so as to mesh with the swinging gear 4 that is running. Reference numeral 5 denotes a swing plate which is connected to the shaft P ₂ via a slip mechanism 4A and a spring coil 4B by a clutch mechanism, one end of which is loosely fitted to the shaft P ₁ .

Such a transmission mechanism uses the swing plate 5 depending on the rotation direction of the pulley 3 as seen in the forward / reverse rotation mechanism of the tape recorder.
Swings to the left and right, and controls the swing gear 4 so as to mesh with the adjacent gear (bevel gear) 6a or 6b.

A bevel gear 7a is rotatably supported by a shaft 9 which is substantially orthogonal to the bevel gear 6a, and drives a supply reel 8a around which a tape 11 is wound.

The tape 11 pulled out from the supply reel 8a is guided by the tape guides 12a, 13a, 14a, 15a, 16a, 17a, 17b so as to circulate in a flat space in the cartridge in a flat state, and is taken up although not shown. The tape is guided back to the reel 8b by the tape guides 12b, 13b, 14b, 15b, 16b, 17b.

Reference numeral 18 is a sliding shutter configured to block the openings 18B of the upper and lower halves 10a and 10b.
18 is controlled in the same manner as that used in known micro-floppies.

Since the tape cassette to which the present invention is applied has the above-described structure, when it is mounted on a micro floppy disk reproducing device similar to the conventional one, the rotary shaft in the device abuts the shaft hole 1A of the center core 1, The drive pin can be driven into the hole 1B to drive the center core 1 as the rotary shaft rotates. Then, the pulley 3 rotates via the timing belt 1, and the supply reel 8a rotates via the swing gear 4 and the bevel gears 6a and 7a. In this case, when the center core 1 rotates in the normal direction (arrow direction), the swing gear 4 and the swing plate 5 swing in the arrow direction as is well known, so that the swing gear 4 and the bevel gear 6b are The take-up reel 8b is rotated via the bevel gear 7b (not shown). Therefore, the tape 11 is pulled out from the supply reel 8a in the direction of the arrow, turned about 90 ° by the tape guide 15a at the corner, passes through the opening 10B with its position regulated by the tape guides 16a and 17a, and is not shown. The tape guide 15b at the corner is turned about 90 ° and wound around the take-up reel 8b arranged in the dome portion 10E.

Therefore, as seen in a normal floppy disk recording / reproducing apparatus, the opening 10 is formed from above and below the cartridge 10.
Tape 11 with the magnetic head and pad facing B
With a narrow contact, signals can be recorded in the running direction (longitudinal direction) of the tape 11 by the magnetic head, or the signals recorded on the tape 11 can be reproduced.

In this case, if you set the width of tape 11 to about 3/4 inch,
About 80 tracks can be set in the longitudinal direction corresponding to 3.5 inch floppy disk. However, since the recording medium of such a tape cassette is converted from a disk to a tape, the recording capacity of one track is several ten times that of the disk. For example, when the tape length is set to 12 m, the storage capacity of about 20 Mbytes is obtained. It can be obtained with one tape cassette.

Therefore, it can be used as a backup memory of a hard disk, and can be applied to a filing system that requires a large amount of data.

By the way, if the number of recording tracks formed on the tape 11 is set to, for example, 80, the track width of one track is about 0.12 mm. Therefore, such a tape cassette can be installed in the device with dowel holes 10D, 10D, etc. Even if the positioning is performed, it is extremely difficult to keep the relative positional accuracy between the tape 11 and the magnetic head within a predetermined range.

Therefore, in the present invention, the relative position accuracy of the tape 11 and the magnetic head is utilized by utilizing that the floppy disk recording / reproducing apparatus is adjusted by adjusting the positions of the disk rotation axis and the magnetic head on the production line. Try to make it higher.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the guide substrate 20 used for accurately setting the relative position of the tape 11 and the magnetic head, and the upper and lower halves 10a and 10b are omitted.

As shown in the drawing, the guide substrate 20 is integrally formed into a wing shape by using, for example, a thermosetting resin, and the protruding portions 21, 22a, 22b protruding upward are the upper half 10b as shown in FIG.
The height is projected from the surface of.

A concave positioning hole 21a is formed in the central portion of the protruding portion 21 so as to be fitted with the rotary drive shaft 30 for driving the tape cassette.

The inclined guides 23a and 23b corresponding to the guide pins 15a (15b) in FIG. 1 are supported by ribs at an angle of about 45 degrees to the left and right of the guide board 20, and the central opening of the guide board 20 Guide pins 24a that regulate the position of the running tape,
24b are juxtaposed.

The tape 11 supplied from the supply reel as shown by the alternate long and short dash line is guided to the guide board 20 by tilting from the direction of arrow A _1.
Wrap around 23a, turn around 90 ° here and guide pin 2
It passes over 4a and 24b, and 90 ° again with the other inclined guide 23b.
The tape is turned around and advances in the direction of arrow A _2, and is wound on the tape-up reel.

FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view showing the positional relationship between the guide board 20, the rotary drive shaft 30, and the recording / reproducing head 40. The rotary drive shaft 30 and the V groove are fitted into the protrusion 21 of the guide board 20. A matching fixed shaft 21b is attached. Reference numeral 1 denotes a center core magnetically attracted to a chucking table 31 of a rotary drive shaft 30, and the center core 1 is axially supported by an oilless metal 33 fixed to a support piece 32 fixed to the lower half 10a. There is.

Therefore, when the tape cassette loaded in the magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus is placed on the chucking tape 31 and the tape cassette is biased downward by the pressing member (not shown) from above the protrusion 21, the guide substrate 20
Is positioned on the axis of the rotary drive shaft 30, and similarly, when the left and right protrusions 22a and 22b of the guide board 20 are pressed from above, the horizontal direction of the guide board 20 is adjusted by the positioning pin 34 (FIG. 3) below the projections 22a and 22b. Is positioned.

Since the distance L between the rotary drive shaft 30 and the head 40 is adjusted with high accuracy in the manufacturing stage, in this state the guide substrate
The positional relationship between the head 20 and the head 40 is also accurately regulated, and the guide board
The positional relationship between the tape 11 and the head 40 whose tape running position is regulated by 20 is also regulated accurately.

Therefore, the cartridge 10 that constitutes the tape cassette
Even if the dimensional accuracy of the tape is slightly poor, the tape position when the tape cassette is loaded is accurately regulated by the guide board 20, so that even if a narrow track width is formed on the recording surface of the tape 11, the crosstalk is small. Will be able to record and play.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, the tape cassette of the present invention dramatically increases the recording capacity of a floppy-type tape cassette by using a magnetic tape as a recording medium, and at the same time, a guide substrate is provided in the tape running system path, particularly in the head portion. Since the guide board is positioned with respect to the rotation drive shaft of the spindle motor as a reference, the running tape and the head are relatively positioned regardless of the dimensional error of the cartridge of the tape cassette.
There is an effect that crosstalk between multi-channel tracks can be eliminated.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 is a plan view showing a tape cassette of the present invention, FIG.
1 is a cross-sectional view taken along the center line L-L of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an outline of a guide board, and FIG. 4 is a view for explaining the positional relationship between the guide board, the rotary drive shaft, and the head. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a conventional floppy disk. In the figure, 1 is a center core, 10 is a cartridge, 11 is a tape, 20 is a guide substrate, 21 is a positioning protrusion, 21a is a concave hole, 21b is a fixed shaft, 22a and 22b are left and right positioning protrusions, and 23a. , 23b are inclined guides, 24a, 24b are tape guide pins, 30 is a rotary drive shaft, 31 is a chucking table, 32 is a support plate, 34 is a positioning pin, and 40 is a head.

Front Page Continuation (72) Inventor Chiarz Etsch Matsukonica Palo Alto Pagemill Road, Calhounnia, United States 1501 Within the Hirelet Patz Card Company (72) Inventor Gioji Cliffaud Palo Alto, California, United States Alto Pagemill Road 1501 In the Hillet Patz Card Company (72) Inventor Bruce F. Spencer Palo Alto Pagemill Road in the United States, California, California

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A guide board, which is movably arranged in a tape cassette and has a guide member for guiding the tape along a predetermined traveling path, is provided with a positioning hole for the guide board and the tape. A receiving portion for receiving a rotation drive shaft for traveling is formed, and a lower surface of the tape cassette has a through hole at a position corresponding to the positioning hole and the receiving portion, and when the tape cassette is mounted, the through hole is formed. A tape cassette characterized in that a positioning pin and a rotation drive shaft engage with the positioning hole and the receiving portion to position the guide plate independently of the tape cassette.