JP2627921B2 - Storage shelf for magnetic tape cartridges - Google Patents

Description

[Contents] Outline Industrial application field Conventional technology (FIGS. 7 to 10) Problems to be solved by the invention (FIG. 11) Means for solving the problems (1st. (FIG. 1) Action Embodiment (FIGS. 1 to 6) Effect of the Invention [Outline] A storage rack having a storage chamber for storing magnetic tape cartridges provided in a hierarchy and having a front-tilted magnetic field Even if you store the tape cartridge,
An object of the present invention is to prevent the front end face of the cartridge from jumping out of the storage chamber without stopping the cartridge. A guide means for guiding the engaging portion to the concave portion when transported is provided.

[Industrial applications]

The present invention relates to a storage shelf mainly for storing a magnetic tape cartridge which is movably conveyed by an automatic handling mechanism, and more particularly to a storage shelf capable of storing a magnetic tape cartridge having a front end inclined. .

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a large-capacity storage device (mass storage system) has been developed along with an increase in the capacity of a database, and is being used. In such a large-capacity storage device, a storage shelf for storing a large number of magnetic tape cartridges is provided.The magnetic tape cartridge is stored in this storage shelf, and a magnetic tape cartridge required by a mechanical hand is taken out from the storage shelf. A kind of automatic warehouse configured to carry and set a magnetic tape cartridge to a read / write station, read / write the magnetic tape cartridge, take out the read / write from the read / write station, and store it in a storage shelf. It is configured by the system.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, as this type of storage shelf, for example,
The storage shelves disclosed in the 5982 publication are known, and are used in an automatic warehouse system in which a magnetic tape cartridge is automatically taken in and out by an automatic handling mechanism.

As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the storage shelf s includes storage rooms 2 for storing magnetic tape cartridges (hereinafter referred to as “cartridges”) arranged in rows and in a hierarchical manner. The cartridge 1 to be stored is, for example, a flat rectangular parallelepiped for a video tape. A central part of the lower partition 3 and the upper partition 4 (lower partition 3 of the adjacent upper storage chamber) of each of the storage chambers 2 can pass a mechanical hand (not shown) of an automatic handling mechanism for holding the cartridge 1. Has been resected. As shown in FIG. 8, the distal ends of the partitions 3 and 4 are formed to rise as stoppers 5 so that the distal end surface 1a of the cartridge 1 placed on the lower partition 3 can stop.

Then, when storing the cartridge 1, the cartridge 1 is gripped from above and below by a mechanical hand and brought into the storage chamber 2. The brought cartridge 1 is placed on the lower partition 3 of the storage room 2 and stored in the storage room 2. In the stored state, the cartridge 1 can stop against the stopper 5, so that even if the storage shelf s is tilted or vibrates due to an earthquake or the like, the cartridge 1 is prevented from jumping out of the storage room 2. When taking out the cartridge 1, the cartridge 1 is gripped from above and below by a mechanical band, the cartridge 1 is lifted from the lower partition 3, and pulled out from the storage chamber 2. And while holding, for example,
It is transported to the cartridge read / write station of the automatic warehouse system.

Incidentally, in addition to the above-mentioned cartridges, for example, there are cartridges as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 (a), (b) and (c). The cartridge 10 accommodates the tape in a single roll, and the leader block 11 controls the tape.
It is a type that draws out 12 and uses it. The cartridge 10 has a front end 13 extending from the bottom surface 14 to the front end surface.
The front end 13 is formed by inclining toward 15 to form an inclined portion 16 so that the front end 13 can be easily grasped to facilitate manual handling. Further, in the cartridge 10, the front end 13 is provided on both sides 17 with a concave portion for positioning with respect to a device such as a regenerator.
18 are formed. The front and rear surfaces 18a and 18b of the concave portion 18 rise vertically to the bottom surface 14 of the cartridge 10.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, in the case of the conventional storage shelf s, when the above-described front-inclined cartridge 10 is stored, when the storage shelf s is tilted or vibrated due to an earthquake or the like,
There is a problem that the cartridge 10 may jump out of the storage chamber 2.

As shown in FIG. 11, when the tip 16a of the inclined portion 16 is higher than the stopper 5 as shown in FIG. Slides on the upper edge of the stopper 5 and jumps out as it is.

In order to solve this, for example, as shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG.
It is also conceivable to be able to strike against the front end face 15 of 10. However, in this case, the opening of the storage chamber 2 becomes narrow, which hinders the taking in and out of the cartridge 10.

Therefore, a technical problem of the present invention is to stably store a cartridge in a storage chamber and prevent the cartridge from protruding from the storage chamber.

[Means for solving the problem]

The technical means of the present invention for solving this problem is to form a storage chamber 40 for storing the magnetic tape cartridge 10 from a support wall 41 and a partition wall 43 provided in a hierarchy, and each support wall 41 has a magnetic chamber. The tape cartridge 1 is placed, and the central portion of each support wall 41 is cut off to provide a passage hole 46 through which the mechanical hand 30 for transporting the cartridge 10 passes, and the cartridge 10 transported by the mechanical hand 30 is In the storage shelves to be stored, in each storage room 40, an engaging portion 47 that engages with the concave portion 18 formed in the cartridge 10 is formed, and a guide projection 51 is provided at the left and right corner of each storage room 40 to The upper end of the projection forms a guide means 50 of the cartridge 10 inclined downward toward the inside, and guides the engaging portion 47 to the recess when the cartridge 10 is transported.

[Action]

According to this means, when the magnetic table cartridge is transported to the storage chamber by the mechanical hand 30,
For example, when the cartridge 10 is located near one of the partition walls 43 in the storage chamber, the cartridge 10 abuts on the upper end of the guide protrusion 51, and the upper end of the guide protrusion 51 is inclined inward and downward. The side edge 14a of the cartridge 10
Is lowered along the upper end of the guide projection 51, and
Since 51 is symmetrical, the cartridge 10 is centripetally lowered toward the center of the storage chamber 40. This allows the guide projection
The concave portion 18 of the cartridge 10 is accurately guided to the engaging portion 47 by the guide means 51, and the concave portion 18 is engaged with the engaging portion 47. In the engaged state, even if the cartridge attempts to jump out of the storage chamber due to an earthquake or the like, the concave portion is restrained by the engaging portion, so that the cartridge is pressed without stopping the front end surface.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, a storage shelf according to an embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the storage shelf S according to the embodiment is provided with storage chambers arranged in rows and in a hierarchy, and as shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. Ninth
(FIG. 10 and FIG. 10).

In the system 20 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, reference numerals 21 and 22 denote a left garage and a right garage, respectively, which are provided at both ends of the apparatus. A honeycomb frame 23 has storage shelves S for the cartridges 10 provided on both wall surfaces, and a guide rail 25 for an accessor 24 described later is provided at an upper portion and a lower portion. The honeycomb frame 23 has a read / write station (not shown) for reading / writing the cartridge 10 and a new cartridge from the outside.
An entry station 26 for loading the cartridge 10 and an exit station 27 for discharging an unnecessary cartridge 10 to the outside are provided. The accessors 24 are provided on the left and right, respectively, and move in the honeycomb frame 23 along the rails 25 in the row direction H of the storage shelves S described later, with the garages 21 and 22 as home positions. The accessor 24 is provided with a mechanical hand 30.

As shown in FIG. 5, the mechanical hand 30 is provided with a fixed finger 31 and a cartridge provided with the fixed finger 31 so as to be able to approach and separate from the fixed finger 31.
And a movable finger 32 for gripping the upper and lower sides of the movable finger 10.
33 is a slider provided on the fixed finger 31 for slidably supporting the movable finger 32, and 34 is a mechanical hand for bringing the cartridge 10 into contact with the front end face 15 of the cartridge 10.
A contact roller that is positioned with respect to 30. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the mechanical hand 30
Is moved in the hierarchical direction V of the storage shelf S by the elevating device 35, and is advanced and retracted into the storage shelf S by the advance / retreat device 36.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, a storage shelf S according to an embodiment of the present invention used in this system includes storage rooms 40 arranged in rows and arranged in a hierarchy. The storage room 40 includes a support wall 41 on which the cartridge 10 is mounted, a ceiling wall 42 (a support wall 41 of an adjacent upper storage room 40) forming a ceiling, and an adjacent storage room 40 in the row direction H. The accessor 24 is formed of a partition wall 43 for partitioning and a fixed wall 44 for fixing an end portion of each of the walls 41, 42, 43, and forms an opening 45 for the accessor 24 to take the cartridge 10 in and out. Further, the support wall 41 (the ceiling wall 42) and the central portion of the fixable 44 are cut off, and the passage holes 46 through which the fingers 31, 32 of the mechanical hand 30 can pass.
Is formed. In addition, as shown in FIG.
The vertical distance Lv between the partition wall 43 and the ceiling wall 42 is formed larger than the vertical width Cv of the cartridge 10, while the horizontal distance Lv between the partition walls 43 and the partition walls 43.
Lh is formed to be larger than the width Ch of the cartridge 10.

On the side of the closed portion 45 of the storage chamber 40, the support wall 41 and the partition
Engagement projections 47 are formed at both left and right corners of the cartridge 43 as symmetrical engagement portions that engage with the concave portions 18 of the cartridge 10, respectively. As shown in FIG. 4, both engaging projections 47 have a distance M between the tips of the engaging projections 47 smaller than the width Ch of the cartridge 10 and a distance M between the wall surfaces Co of both bottom wall surfaces 18c of the concave portion 18. Are also formed to be slightly larger. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the height E of the portion of the engaging projection 47 that enters the recess 18 is larger than the height F of the tip 16a of the inclined portion 16 in the cartridge 10. Is also formed low.

As shown in FIG. 1, the guide means 50 is composed of four guide projections 51 provided symmetrically left and right on the corner portion inside the engagement projection 47, respectively. The guide protrusion 51 is formed slightly higher than the engagement protrusion 47. As shown in FIG. 4, the distance N between the tips of the guide projections 51 is formed slightly larger than the width Ch of the cartridge 10. The upper end of each projection 51 is inclined downward and inward, and has a semicircular cross section.

Accordingly, when the cartridge 10 is stored by this system, the accessor 24 moves to a read / write station, an entry station, or the like, and the mechanical hand 30 holds the cartridge 10 from above and below at the site.

Next, the accessor 24 moves within the honeycomb frame 23 along the in-row direction H of the storage shelves S, and the mechanical hand 30 moves.
Is positioned in the row of the designated storage shelf S and stopped.

At this position, in the accessor 24, the mechanical hand 30 moves along the hierarchical direction V of the storage shelf S, is positioned in front of the designated storage room 40, and as shown in FIG. Stop so that the bottom surface 14 is positioned higher than the upper edge of the engagement projection 47.

Next, the mechanical hand 30 advances toward the inside of the storage chamber 40, and the concave portion 18 of the cartridge 10
It stops when it is located almost directly above.

Then, as shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, the movable finger 32 of the mechanical hand 30 separates from the slide-teeth fixing finger 31, passes through the passage hole 46 of the support wall 41, and enters the lower storage chamber 40.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 6, the cartridge 10 is about to be placed on the support wall while being supported by the movable finger 32.

At this time, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, if the cartridge 10 conveyed by the mechanical hand 30 is located near one of the partition walls, first, the guide projection 51 is slightly smaller than the engagement projection 47. Therefore, the side edge 14a of the bottom surface 14 of the cartridge 10 abuts on the upper end of the guide projection 51 (FIG. 6). Then, since the upper end of the guide protrusion 51 is inclined downward toward the inside, the side edge 14a
Is lowered along the upper end of the guide projection 51. Moreover, since the guide projections 51 are symmetrical, the cartridge 10
Descends centripetally toward the center of the storage room 40 (arrow R)
Will be.

When the side edge 14a comes to the leading end position of the guide protrusion 51, the cartridge 10 is located substantially at the center of the storage chamber 40, and the interval N between the leading ends of the guide protrusion 51 is the width of the cartridge 10.
Since it is larger than Ch, the side edge 14a comes off the guide projection 51 and falls downward as it is.

In this case, since the cartridge 10 is located substantially at the center of the storage chamber 40, the position of the concave portion 18 of the cartridge 10 is
The cartridge is aligned with the position 47, is engaged with the engagement projection 47, and the bottom surface 14 of the cartridge 10 is placed on the support wall 41 (FIG. 6).

That is, since the position of the cartridge 10 is corrected to the center position, as shown in FIG.
10 descends while being located near one of the partition walls, and on one side of the cartridge 10, the concave portion 18 does not engage with the engagement protrusion 47, and the bottom surface 14 is caught on the engagement protrusion 47, and the other side of the cartridge 10 In this case, the situation in which the bottom surface is placed on the support wall and the cartridge 10 is inclined to cause an engagement error is prevented.

In the state where the cartridge 10 is stored in the storage chamber 40, as shown in FIG. 5, the distal end of the engaging projection 47 is in the concave portion 18 and faces the front and rear surfaces 18a, 18b of the concave portion 18. ing. Therefore, even if the storage shelf S swings due to an earthquake or the like and the cartridge 10 tries to jump out of the opening portion 45 of the storage chamber 40, the front and rear surfaces 18a and 18b of the concave portion 18 are engaged.
Therefore, it does not move in the storage room 40, and the situation of jumping out is suppressed. Further, the cartridge 10 which has been erroneously engaged (FIG. 6) may be ejected because it cannot be pressed by the engagement projection 47. However, since the erroneous engagement is prevented as described above, The situation that jumps out is small.

When the cartridge 10 is placed on the support wall 41 of the storage chamber 40, the mechanical band 30 retreats from the storage chamber 40 (fifth embodiment).
Arrow A in the figure. Then, the accessor 24 moves to bring the mechanical band 30 to the next destination.

On the other hand, when taking out the cartridge 10 from the storage room 40, the accessor 24 moves in the honeycomb frame 23 along the row direction H of the storage shelf S, and positions the mechanical hand 30 in the specified row of the storage shelf S. .

Furthermore, in the accessor 24, the mechanical hand
30 moves along the hierarchical direction V of the storage shelves S, stops before the designated storage room 40, and the same positional relationship with the storage room 40 at the time of storage.

The mechanical hand 30 advances in the storage chamber 40 until the front end face 15 of the cartridge 10 contacts the contact roller 34 with the movable finger 32 separated.

Then, the movable finger 32 of the mechanical hand 30 slides and approaches the fixed finger 31, passes through the passage hole 46 of the support wall 41, and enters the storage chamber 40 where the cartridge 10 is located (arrow B in FIG. 5).

Then, the movable finger 32 lifts the cartridge 10 and holds the cartridge 10 together with the fixed finger 31 from above and below. In this case, the concave portion 18 of the cartridge 10 is disengaged from the engagement projection 47, and the cartridge 10
Is located higher than the engagement projection 47.

Thereafter, the mechanical hand 30 retreats from the storage chamber 40 (arrow A in FIG. 5). In this case, since the bottom surface 14 of the cartridge 10 is positioned higher than the engagement protrusion 47, the cartridge 10 does not collide with the engagement protrusion 47.

In this embodiment, since the height E of the portion of the engagement projection 47 that enters the recess 18 is smaller than the height F at the position of the tip 16a of the inclined portion 16 in the cartridge 10, the cartridge 10 The amount of lifting of the bottom surface 14 of the floor from the support wall 41 is small, and the storage room 40
Can reduce the vertical width Lv dimension. Therefore, the vertical width Lv
Since the size of the storage shelves S can be increased by the smaller size, the storage density of the cartridges 10 in the storage shelves S can be increased to increase the storage efficiency. That is, conventionally,
As shown in FIG. 11, if the stopper 5 is formed higher than the position of the tip end 16a of the inclined portion 16 in order to prevent the cartridge 10 from jumping out, the cartridge 10
As the amount of lifting the bottom surface 14 of the storage chamber increases, the opening width of the opening of the storage chamber becomes narrow, and it becomes impossible to pull out the cartridge 10 from the opening.
For this reason, in the related art, the length Lv of the storage room must be increased, and the number of storage shelves S is reduced accordingly. In the present embodiment, this is solved.

Then, the accessor 24 moves to bring the mechanical hand 30 to the next destination.

In the above-described embodiment, the front-inclination type cartridge is accommodated. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Any type of cartridge can be accommodated as long as the concave portion is formed.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, when the cartridge is stored in the storage chamber, the position of the cartridge is corrected to the center position, and the concave portion of the cartridge is accurately guided to the engagement portion, so that the cartridge is securely inserted into the engagement portion. And the cartridge is restrained by the engaging portion, so that it is possible to prevent the cartridge from jumping out of the storage chamber due to an earthquake or the like. In particular, there is nothing to stop the front end of the cartridge,
This is extremely useful for storing a front tilt type cartridge.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a main part of a storage shelf according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an automatic warehouse system to which the storage shelf according to the embodiment is applied, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view corresponding to line III-III in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is a front view showing a storage shelf according to the embodiment, and FIG. 5 is V- in FIG.
6 is a sectional view corresponding to the line V, FIG. 6 is a diagram corresponding to FIG. 4 showing the operation of the storage shelf, FIG. 7 is a perspective view of an essential part showing an example of a conventional storage shelf,
FIG. 8 is a view showing the stored state, FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing an example of a magnetic tape cartridge applied to the present invention,
FIGS. 10 (a), (b) and (c) are front, right and bottom views, and FIG. 11 is a view showing a conventional problem. S: Storage shelf 1,10: Cartridge 18: Recess 40: Storage chamber 47: Engagement projection 50: Guide means 51: Guide projection

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A storage chamber for accommodating a magnetic tape cartridge is formed from support walls and partition walls provided in a hierarchy, and a magnetic tape cartridge is mounted on each support wall, and a central portion of each support wall is provided. Is provided with a passage hole through which a mechanical hand for transporting the cartridge passes, and a storage shelf for storing the cartridge conveyed by the mechanical hand is engaged with a recess formed in the cartridge in each storage chamber. An engaging portion is formed, and guide projections are provided at left and right corners of each storage chamber, and upper ends of the projections form guide means for the cartridge inclined downward toward the inside, and when the cartridge is transported. A storage shelf for a magnetic tape cartridge, wherein the engaging portion is guided to the concave portion.