JPH0982065A - Tape cassette - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the number of parts, the number of processing steps and the number of assembling steps for mounting a lid body to an upper half in a rotatable fashion. SOLUTION: A lid body 31, a thin hinge part 32 and a mounting flange 33 are integrally molded of synthetic resin. A plurality of caulking pins 36 are integrally molded in an upper half 1. The plurality of pins 36 in the upper half 1 are inserted in a plurality of holes 34 formed in the mounting flange 33 and ends 36a of the pins 36 are caulked. Whereby, the lid body 31 is mounted to the upper half 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to, for example, a U-matic
The present invention relates to a tape cassette most suitable for application to a video tape recorder tape cassette called a (Sony Corporation trademark) cassette, and more particularly to a lid mounting device for opening and closing a front opening of a cassette housing. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The applicant of the present invention has filed a Japanese Patent Application No. 63-166512 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-1547) as a prior application example of a lid mounting device for a tape cassette for a video tape recorder.
No. 9) was filed first.

"Overview of Tape Cassette of Prior Application" As shown in FIG. 4, a tape cassette for a video tape recorder of this prior application is a cassette composed of upper and lower halves 1 and 2 injection-molded with a synthetic resin such as polystyrene. A housing 3 is formed, and a magnetic tape 4 is placed in the cassette housing 3.
Is wound and stored on a pair of left and right tape reels 5, 6. The magnetic tape 4 is laid over the front opening 7 formed in the cassette housing 3, and the upper and lower halves 1 are provided with a horizontal hinge pin 8 so that the arrow a, which is the vertical direction,
The front opening 7 is configured to be opened and closed by a lid 9 which is attached so as to be rotatable in the b direction. The hinge pin 8 is made of thin wire.

[Description of Lid Attaching Device of Prior Application] Next, referring to FIGS. 4 to 9, the lid 8 in the tape cassette for a video tape recorder of the prior application and the details of the lid attaching device will be described. To do.

First, the lid 9 is formed by pressing a metal plate, and includes a horizontal plate portion 9a and a vertical plate portion 9b.
And have a substantially L-shaped cross section. A pair of thin cylindrical portions 11 corresponding to the thin hinge pins 8 are integrally formed on the same axis line at two positions on the left and right of the rear end edge 9c of the horizontal plate portion 9a. A slit 13 is formed in each of the cylindrical portions substantially in the center in the length direction.

On the other hand, in the upper half 1 injection-molded of synthetic resin, the upper layer portion of the front opening 7 is cut into a substantially L shape extending from the front wall 1a and the upper wall 1b.
A groove 16 having a U-shaped cross section is integrally formed on the lower surface 1c of the upper surface wall 1b along the edge 1d on the upper layer side of the front opening 7. A plurality of caulking projections 17 are integrally formed on the lower surface 1c along the sides of the groove 16.

When the lid 9 is attached to the upper half 1, first, as shown in FIG. 5, the hinge pins 8 are horizontally arranged in the pair of cylindrical portions 11 of the lid 9 in the horizontal direction from the horizontal direction to the arrow c direction. Then, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 (A), both ends 8a of the hinge pin 8 are approximately ½ of the length of each cylindrical portion 11.
Insert to the depth of.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8B, the outer ends of the slits 13 of the pair of cylindrical portions 11 are swaged by press working to form a pair of swaged portions 14. Thus, the hinge pin 8 is prevented from coming off from the pair of cylindrical portions 11.

Next, as shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 9A, the intermediate portion 8b of the hinge pin 8 horizontally mounted between the pair of cylindrical portions 11 of the lid 9 is provided with the groove of the upper half 1. After being fitted in the inside of 16 in the direction of arrow d, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 9 (B), the plurality of protrusions 17 are heated and crimped so as to be pushed down in the direction of arrow e which is the lateral direction. By a special caulking method, these plural protrusions 17 are caulked on the groove 16 (in this case, the lower surface side of the groove 16) at a right angle, and the plural open ends 16a of the groove 16 on the lower surface side are caulked. It is closed and the hinge pin 8 is horizontally mounted in the groove 16.

The lid 9 attached in this way
Is rotatable with respect to the cassette housing 3 around the hinge pins 8 in the directions of arrows a and b.

A lid 9 is formed by a tension spring 20 whose both ends are engaged with a spring locking pin 18 integrally formed on the lower surface 1c of the upper half 1 and a spring locking piece 19 integrally pressed on the lid 9. Is urged to rotate in the direction of arrow b, which is the closing direction. Further, the horizontal plate portion 9a of the lid body 9 is horizontally abutted on the pair of lid receiving portions 21 integrally formed on the left and right sides of the pair of cylindrical portions 11 of the lid body 9 on the lower surface 1c of the upper half 1. By doing so, the lid 9 is positioned at the closed position of the front opening 7 shown in FIG. In addition, a lock lever (not shown) provided in the lower half 2 is engaged with a lock claw 22 that is integrally pressed on the lid body 9, so that the lid body 9 is at the closed position of the front opening 7. It is configured to be locked.
Further, as shown in FIG. 4, when the lock releasing means (not shown) is inserted into the lock releasing means insertion hole 23 provided on the front surface of the lower half 2, the lid 9 is locked at the closed position. The lid 9 is released so that the lid 9 can be opened in the direction of arrow a.

[0012]

However, the tape cassette for the video tape recorder of this prior application has the following problems because the lid 9 is attached to the upper half 1 by the hinge pin 8. .

The lid made by pressing a metal plate is expensive and heavy, which impedes the weight reduction of the tape cassette.

Since two parts, the lid 9 and the hinge pin 8, are required, the number of parts is large and the cost is high.

The work of inserting the thin hinge pin 8 into the pair of thin cylindrical portions 11 in the direction of the arrow c is troublesome, and after the insertion, the pair of caulking portions are provided outside the slits 13 of the pair of cylindrical portions 11. Since the work of crimping 14 is also troublesome, the number of processing steps and assembly steps is large, resulting in high cost.

The intermediate portion 8b of the hinge pin 8 is inserted into the groove 16 of the upper half 1 from the direction of the arrow d, and the plurality of protrusions 17 are pushed down in the direction of the arrow e which is the lateral direction to form a right angle on the groove 16. Unlike the general crimping method in which the protrusion 17 is simply crushed in the axial direction, the special crimping method in which the crimping is performed is troublesome in adjusting the crimping device and takes time to perform the work. High cost.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and is a tape which can reduce the number of parts, the number of processing steps, and the number of assembly steps for rotatably attaching a lid to a cassette housing. It is intended to provide a cassette.

[0018]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The tape cassette of the present invention for achieving the above object is a flange for mounting a lid body through a hinge portion having a thin wall structure when the lid body is molded with a synthetic resin. Is integrally molded, and the lid is attached to the cassette housing by the mounting flange, and the front opening of the cassette housing is opened and closed by the lid.

In the tape cassette of the present invention constructed as described above, the lid, the thin hinge portion, and the mounting flange are integrally molded of synthetic resin, and the number of parts is one. Then, the lid can be rotatably assembled around the hinge part with respect to the cassette casing by a single assembly step of only attaching the lid to the cassette casing with the mounting flange.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a tape cassette for a video tape recorder will be described below with reference to FIGS. It should be noted that the same structural parts as those in FIGS. 4 to 9 are designated by the same reference numerals to omit redundant description.

First, as shown in FIGS. 1A and 2, the lid 31 is injection-molded with an inexpensive synthetic resin such as polypropylene, and the lid 31 is then fitted with a horizontal plate portion 31a and a vertical plate portion 31b. With, the cross-sectional shape is formed into a substantially L-shape.

Then, at the time of injection molding of the lid 31 made of this synthetic resin, the rear edge 31c of the horizontal plate portion 31a of the lid 31 is formed.
A horizontal strip-shaped mounting flange 33 is integrally formed through a thin-walled hinge portion 32 along substantially the center of the, and a plurality of caulking holes 34 are simultaneously formed in the mounting flange 33 at equal intervals. Mold.

The hinge 32 has a thin-walled structure with shallow V-grooves 35 formed on the upper surface or the lower surface or both upper and lower surfaces thereof, and the lid 31 is attached to the mounting flange 33 with respect to the hinge 32. Is configured to be rotatable in the up and down directions of arrows a and b.

Also, on one end side of the lid 31 in the left-right direction, a spring locking piece 19, a lock claw 22 and the like are simultaneously integrally formed on the lower surface 31d of the horizontal plate portion 31a and the rear surface 31e of the vertical plate portion 31b. There is.

On the other hand, when the upper half 1 is injection-molded with a synthetic resin such as polystyrene, a plurality of vertical pins for caulking are formed on the lower surface 1c of the upper wall 1b along the edge 1d on the front opening 7 side. 36 is integrally molded together with the spring locking pin 18, the lid receiving portion 21, and other structural portions described above.

Then, as shown in FIGS. 1A and 2, a plurality of holes 34 in the mounting flange 33 are formed in the upper half 1.
After being inserted into the plurality of pins 36 of the
As shown in FIGS. 1B and 3, the tips 36a, which are the lower ends of the plurality of pins 36, are swaged to fix the mounting flange 33 to the lower surface 1c of the upper half 1.

At this time, the tips 36a of the plurality of pins 36 can be easily crimped by a very general crimping method such as crushing the tips 36a in the axial direction while heating, and the crimping device can be easily adjusted. Therefore, the time required for the work can be shortened.

As described above, the lid 31 could be attached to the upper half 1 rotatably about the hinge portion 32 in the directions of arrows a and b.

Then, after this, as shown in FIG. 6, the spring locking pin 18 of the upper half 1 and the spring locking piece 1 of the lid 31.
If both ends of the tension spring 20 are locked between the cover 9 and 9, and the lid 31 is rotationally biased in the direction of the arrow b, a series of lid attaching steps can be completed.

Therefore, according to the tape cassette for a video tape recorder of the present invention, the lid 31, the hinge portion 32 having a thin structure, the mounting flange 33 and the plurality of holes 34 are integrally molded with synthetic resin. The lid 31, the hinge portion 32, and the mounting flange 33 are one component. Moreover, the lid 31, the hinge portion 32, and the mounting flange 33 can be molded with an inexpensive synthetic resin such as polypropylene, which is low in cost, and the lid 31 is light in weight. It can promote weight reduction.

Further, when the upper half 1 is injection-molded with a synthetic resin, a plurality of pins 36 are integrally formed on the lower surface 1c of the upper half 1 together with the spring locking pins 18, the lid receiving portion 21 and other structural parts. , These pins 36 to the upper half 1
There is no increase in cost due to integral molding.

Then, the plurality of holes 3 of the mounting flange 33
4 is inserted into the plurality of pins 36 of the upper half 1 and the lid body 31 is rotatably assembled in the upper half 1 in a single assembling process by simply crimping the tips 36a of the pins 36. You can

Moreover, the caulking method of the tips 36a of the plurality of pins 36 can be a very general method, so that the caulking work for the caulking of the mounting flange 33 to the upper half 1 can be performed very easily. And it can be done in a short time.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments shown in the drawings, and various modifications can be made based on the technical idea of the present invention.

For example, in the drawing, the mounting flange 33 is fixed to the upper half 1 by caulking with a plurality of pins 36, but the mounting flange 33 is screwed to the upper half 1 with a plurality of screws inserted into the plurality of holes 34. It is also possible to adopt a method of doing so.

The present invention is not limited to tape cassettes for video tape recorders, but can be applied to tape cassettes for various recording / reproducing devices for recording / reproducing various information by various recording / reproducing methods. .

[0037]

The tape cassette of the present invention constructed as described above has the following effects.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, the lid, the thin-walled hinge portion, and the mounting flange are integrally molded with a synthetic resin so that the number of parts is one. Since it is possible to assemble the lid body with respect to the cassette housing rotatably around the hinge part in a single assembly process by simply attaching it to the cassette housing,
The hinge pin which was conventionally required can be omitted, the troublesome work of inserting the thin hinge pin into the pair of thin cylindrical portions 11 of the lid can be omitted, and after inserting the hinge pin into the pair of cylindrical portions,
The troublesome work of crimping the outer ends of the pair of cylindrical portions can be omitted. Therefore, the number of parts, the number of processing steps and the number of assembly steps are small, the lid can be easily attached to the cassette housing, and the cost can be significantly reduced. In addition, the hinge part and the mounting flange can be integrally molded with an inexpensive synthetic resin such as polypropylene, so that a lid body that is cheaper and lighter than a conventional lid body obtained by pressing a metal plate can be obtained. As a result, the weight of the cassette housing can be reduced.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a plurality of caulking pins are integrally formed on the upper half of the cassette housing made of synthetic resin, and a plurality of caulking holes formed on the mounting flange are formed on the upper half of the upper half. By inserting the pins into the pins and crimping the tips of these pins to fix the mounting flange to the upper half, the mounting flange can be clamped to the upper half very easily. It is extremely easy to attach the lid to the half. Moreover, as a method for crimping the plurality of pins in the upper half, a very general method in which the tips of these pins are crimped in the axial direction while being crimped can be adopted. It is easy to perform the crimping work of these pins easily and accurately.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an enlarged cross-sectional side view of essential parts for explaining an embodiment of a tape cassette of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing a lid body and an entire upper half structure for explaining an embodiment of a tape cassette of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a state in which a lid body is assembled to the upper half of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a tape cassette for a video tape recorder, which is an example of a prior application of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view showing the entire structure of the lid and the upper half of the tape cassette for a video tape recorder which is a prior application example of the present invention.

6 is a perspective view showing a state where a lid body is assembled to the upper half of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a partially cutaway side view illustrating a method of inserting and tightening a hinge pin into a pair of cylindrical portions of the lid body shown in FIGS. 5 and 6.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view illustrating the work of FIG. 7.

9 is an enlarged cross-sectional side view of a main part for explaining the work of inserting the hinge pin shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 into the groove of the upper half and caulking.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Upper half 1b Upper half upper wall 1c Lower half upper wall 2 Lower half 3 Cassette housing 4 Magnetic tape 7 Front opening 31 Lid 31a Lid horizontal plate 31b Lid vertical plate 32 Hinge 33 Mounting Flange 34 Mounting Flange Hole 35 V Groove 36 Caulking Pin 36a Caulking Pin Tip

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A lid for molding is integrally formed on a lid formed of synthetic resin via a hinge portion having a thin wall structure, and the lid is attached to a cassette housing by the attachment flange. A tape cassette characterized in that the hinge opening is rotated with respect to the cassette housing to open and close a front opening of the cassette housing. 2. A plurality of pins for caulking are integrally formed on the upper half of a cassette casing formed of synthetic resin, and a plurality of holes formed in the mounting flange are inserted into the plurality of pins. 2. The tape cassette according to claim 1, wherein the tip of the pin is crimped to fix the mounting flange to the upper half.