CA1039848A - Loading and unloading mechanism for flexible magnetic disks - Google Patents

Abstract

LOADING AND UNLOADING MECHANISM
FOR FLEXIBLE MAGNETIC DISKS
Abstract of the Disclosure Mechanism for loading and unloading flexible disks contained in protective envelopes into and from a data recording and reading device for the disks which holds the disks vertically between a drive element and an arbor rotatable on horizontal axes. The mechanism comprises a bin located on top of the recording and reading unit and having a hopper section and a stacker section. Rotatable pick and feed rolls feed a disk in its protective envelope out of the hopper section and downwardly into the recording and reading unit; and, after information has been either read from or recorded on the disk, vertically movable lifter fingers move the disk and protective envelope upwardly to the feed roll which transfers the disk in its envelope into the stacker section of the bin.

Description

18 Background of the In~enli~n 19 The invention relates to magnetic record disks particularly those encased in protective envelopes.
21 Still more particularly, the invention relates to means for 22 loading and unloading such magnetic disk assemblies into and 23 from a magnetic recording and reading unit.
24 Magnetic disks encased in rigidifying and protecting envelopes have previously been proposed, for 26 example, in U. S. Patent No. 3,668,658. Recording and 27 reading mechanism for a magnetic disk cartridge has also 28 been proposed as in U. S. Patent No. 3,593,327. In the ~9 latter patent, a magnetic disk cartridge is insertable through a slot into a drive housing, and such insertion Ros73-003 -~..

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1'~)398~
1 opens a shutter in the cartridge and u~locks a lowering

2 mechanism. Closing of a door to the slot lowers the cart-

3 ridge to set the memory disk on t:o a drive spindle where

4 it is held magnetically. Operation of the drive mechanism then locks the door closed and locks the cartridge down.
6 This insertion of the cartridge into the machine is by 7 hand; and, when another disk is to be read or recorded 8 upon, the first disk cartridge is withdrawn manually from g the machine and a second is inserted manually into the machine.
11 Summary of the Invention 12 It is an object of the present invention to 13 provide improved loading and unloading mechanism for disk-14 envelope assemblies whereby the assemblies are fed conse-cutively from a bin into a recording and raading unit 16 located below the bin and whereby, prior to the feeding of 17 a following disk-envelope assembly, a prior assambly is 18 fed upwardly back into a stacker portion of the bin.
19 In a preferred form, the loading and un loading mechanism of the invention includes a bin for hold-21 ing disk-envelope assemblies in stacked relationship and 22 located above a disk reading-recording unit. The bin in-23 cludes a hopper portion and a stacker portion, and the 24 bottoms of both of these portions are slanted downwardly so that the disk-envelope assemblies tend to move toward 26 one end of the bin. A pick roll is rotatably mounted 27 medially in the bottom of the bin and is rotatable through ~-28 about 100 so as to mo~e the lower edge of a disk-envelope 29 assembly in the hopper portion of the bin over the pic~
roll and on to a rotating friction feed roll and thereby ~ -:' ""'''''''" ' " ' ''' ' ~

1~39~48 1 downwardly into the recording-reading unit. The unit includes a movable cover which carries a rotatable arbor, and the mechanism includes means for closing the cover and moving the arbor through the central open;ng of the disk so as to clamp the disk with respect to the arbor and to a drive menber. The reading or recording action may then take place. ~he unit includes a pair of lifter fingers, and these move upwardly after the reading or recording action has been completed and the cover has been reopened so as to move the disk assembly again into contact with the feed roll, and the feed roll pulls the disk assembly upwardly and moves it over the feed roll into the stacker section of the bin.
Brief Description of the Drawings FIG. 1 is a plan view of a disk-envelope assembly which may be used in the disk reading and recording unit to which the loading and unloading mechanism of the invention is affixed;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the disk reading and recording unit having a bin on its top and incorporating the loading and unloading mechanism of the invention;
FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the reading-recording unit, with the bin being shown in vertical section thereabove; (See Sheet 6 of the drawings) FIG~. 4, 5, 6 and 7 are schematic illustrations showing various stages in the operation of the loading and unloading mechanism, FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the relationship between the states of various electrical switches, etc., ~.

: . . : . ; ~. ' -~3~ 8 1 with respect to the relative positions of the parts illustrated in FIGS.
4, 5, 5 and 7 located above FIG. 8;
FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the reading-recording unit with various parts being exploded from the unit so as to clearly illustrate other parts of the unit; (Drawing Sheet 5) FIG. 10 is a perspective view of the bin, with various parts being exploded therefrom so as to clearly illustrate other partsi FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a frame within the recording-reading unit for receiving each of the disk-envelope assemblies as the disk-envelope assembly is moved downwardly from the bin into the unit;
FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a cover carrying a rotatable arbor and swingable toward the frame of FIG. 11 so as to clamp a magnetic disk in position for reading from or recording on the disk;
FIG. 13 is a top plan view of the bin, FIGS. 14 and 15 are side elevational views (taken from opposite sides) of certain cam mechanism carried by the recording-reading unit;
FIG. 16 is a top plan vie~ of the cam mechanism taken on line 16-16 of FIG. 15i FIG. 17 is a sectional view on an enla~ged scale taken on line 17-17 ~
of FIG. 13; and ~:
FIG. 18 is a top plan view of a certain mechanical connectlon in the reading and recording unit and taken from line 18-18 of FIG. 3.
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1 Description of the Preferred Embodiment 2 Referring now to FIG. 1, in particular, the 3 magnetic disk assembly 18 utilized by the automatic loader 4 of the invention may be seen to comprise a magnetic disk 20 disposed within a protective square envelope 22. The 6 disk 20 is of a suitable thin flexible material, and the 7 envelope 22 may be of rigid vinyl sheet material of .010 8 inch thickness, for example. The disk 20 has a central 9 opening 24, and the envelope 22 has larger central openings ~
26 in its two thicknesses. In addition, the envelope 22 11 has radial slots 28 in its two thicknesses. An assembly 12 of this type is disclosed in U. S. Patent No. 3,668,658 13 issued June 6, 1972, which may be referred to for more 14 detail.
The automatic loader of the in~ention com-16 prises a bin 30 for receiving the assemblies 18 and located ~ -~
17 on top of and supported by a disk drive unit 32.
18 The bin 30 has a pair of disk assembly 19 separators 34 on opposite sides thereof, and the separators 34 divide the bin 30 into a hopper 30A and a stacker 30B.
21 The bin 30 has a bottom 36 which slants downwardly from one 22 side of the bin to the other, from hopper 30A to stacker 23 3GB. The inner surfaces of the bottom 36 provide a down-24 wardly extending ramp 36A for the hopper 30A and a down-wardly extending ramp 36B for the stacker 30B. Pads 37 of 26 low friction material are fixed to the bottom 36.
27 A pair of feed rolls 38 fixed on a shaft 39 2~ and a pair of pick rolls 40 fixed on a shaft 41 are rota-29 tably disposed by means of these shafts in opposite sides of the bin bottom 36. The rolls 38 and 40 are disposed in Ro973-003 ~5~

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1~39848 _ slots 42 provided in the bottom 36. An annulus or bearing 2 43 has a nip with each of the feed rolls 3~ and is rota-3 tably disposed on the shaft 41.
4 The feed rolls 38 are provided with flippers 44 fixed thereto adjacent opposite ends of the shaft 39.
6 Each of the separators 34 has a pivotal connection ~6 with 7 an arm 48 fixed to the pick roll shaft 41, and each sepa-8 rator 34 has a return bent shield portion 50 which is located g closer to the adjacent feed roll 38 than is the major por-tion of the separator. The pick rolls 40 are each provided 11 with a radially extending ledge 40A located adjacent to the 12 pivotal connection 46 with a separator.34. The ledges 40A
13 have a depth slightly less than the thickness of the assembly 14 18. The rotary motion of the pick rolls~40 is limited to about 100 by means of pairs of dowels 48A and 48B extending ~ ., 16 inwardly from the sides of the bin 30 and located so that an 17 arm 48 may contact the dowels.
18 Each of the separators 34 at its upper end 19 is connected to a reciprocable guide member 52 that has a pin and slot connection 54 with the adjacent side of the 21 bin 30. Each of the reciprocating members 52 has a curved ~:
22 portion 52A that overlies the stacker 30B and has a pick 23 edge 52~ on its opposite side. A throat knife or block 56 24 is located on each of the sides of the bin 30 adjacent to the picX edge 52B of the associated separator 34.
26 A pair of support springs 58 extend down 27 into the hopper 30A and overlie the adjacent upper edge of 28 the bin 30. A sta~ker switch 60 and a hopper switch 62 29 are respectively disposed on the ramps 36B and 36A forming the bottoms of the stacker and hopper; and a jam switch 64 .

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1 is dispo~ed below the bite of one of the rolls 38 and a 2 bearing ~3.
3 The feed rolls 38 are driven from a revers- :
4 ible drive el~ctric motor 66 through shaft 39. The rolls 38 and 40 are drivingly coupled together by means of a 6 magnetic slip clutch 68 and a pair o~ intermeshing gears 7 70 and 72. The gear 72 is fixed on shaft 39, and gear 70 8 drives shaft 41 through clutch 68.
9 The disk drive unit 32 comprises a vertical ~ .
disk assembly support 74 having a shaft 76 rotatably dis- ::
11 posed therein. A pulley 78 is fixed on one end of the ~ ;
12 shaft 76 and the other end of the shaft 76 is formed with 13 a radially extending disk drive hub portion 80 surrounding 14 a countersunk opening 81. A drive motor 82 is fixed with respect to the part 74, and a drive belt 84 extends be~
16 tween the motor 82 and the pulley 78.
17 A door or cover 86 is swingably mounted 18 with respect to the part 74 by means of pins 87 extending 19 through clearance holes 87A in cover 86, and a U-shaped 20 actuator 88 is swingably mounted on the cover 86. A lever 21 90, which is swingably mounted at one end at 92 with respect ~ , :
22 to a stationary base 94, has its other end swingably con-23 nected with the actuator 88. A tapered collet or arbor 95 24 is rotatably carried by the cover 86 and is so shaped and located that it will fit in the opening 81-when the cover 26 is moved toward or closed with respect to the support 74.
27 A disk lifter lever 96, which is pivoted at 98 to a vertical 28 standard 100, has a pair of spaced fingers 102 that extend 29 through correspondingly spaced openings 103 in the support 74 so that the fingers 102 underlie and support a disk 31 assembly 18 which is positioned within the support 74. ~

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A motor ~3~s ~lxed to the s~andard 100 and 2 has cams 106, 108 and 110 fixed on its output shaft 112.
3 The lifter lever 96 has a follower roller 114 on one end 4 that cooperates with the cam 106, and the lever 90 has a follower roller 116 that cooperates with the cam 110.
6 motor reverse switch 118, an unload home switch 120 and a 7 load home switch 122 are fixed to the standard 100; and 8 these cooperate with the cam 108.
9 Information is written on or read from a disk 20 by means of a magnetic head 124 moved vertically 11 by means of a lead screw~126. The screw 126 may be driven 12 by any suitable motor (not shown). A pressure pad assembly 13 128 is positioned opposite the head 124 and holds a disk 14 20 in contact with the head 124. - - :
Whe~ a disk assembly 18 is located in the 16 unit 32, the disk assembly 18 lies in vertical slots 74A
17 and 74B in support 74, and the collet 95 extends through 18 the disk opening 24 and into the countersunk opening 81 in 19 the end of the shaft 76. The disk 20 is clamped between the collet 95 and the hub portion 80, and the motor 82 21 drivingly rotates the disk 20. At this time, information ~
22 is read from and written on the magnetic disk 20 using the :
23 magnetic head 124 and connections thereto (not shown), with 24 the magnetic head 124 operating through one of the elongate slots 28 to be in contact with a surface of the disk 20.
26 After these operations, ~he motor 104 is :;
27 energized so as to drivingly rotate the cams 106, 108 and 28 110. As is illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 8, after a ten degree 29 rotation of these cams; the door 86 begins to swing open.
In particular, this is due to the action of the cam 110 on :.

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1 the swing arm 90 that is coupled to ~he door 86 khrough the 2 actuator 88. The load home switch 122 is actuated by the 3 cam 108 at 10 rotation, and this switch may be used for 4 starting a counter in an attached computer (not shown). -At about the time that the door 86 is com- ;;
6 pletely open (at 51 rotation of the camsl, the lifter 7 lever 96 begins to lift the disX assembly 18 upwardly in ~:
8 the unit 32; and the assembly 18 actuates the jam switch 9 64 as the assembly 18 moves ~oward the bite between the :~
rolls 38 and bearings 43. At 72 rotation of the cams, 11 a check may be made to determine if the jam switch 64 is 12 open. If the switch 64 has not been opened by the assembly13 18 moving upwardly, the operation should be stopped and ;~
14 the motor 104 should be de-energized at this time. ;
When the lifter arm 96 reaches its highest 16 position, the disk assembly 18 is fed into the bite between 17 the rolls 38 and bearings 43; and, in particular, the disk ~
18 assembly 18 moves upwardly between the rolls 38 and bearings - :
19 43 starting at about 86 of cam rotation (see FIG. 8). The .
feed rolls 38 are driven from the motor 66 through the shaft 21 39, and rolls 38 move the assembly 18 upwardly into the ..
22 stacker 30B and into contact with the separators 34 and into 23 contact with the curved surfaces 52A of the guide members ~.
24 52. The curved surfaces 52A direct the upper edge of the assembly 18 downwardly, toward the lower end of the bin 30.
26 When the lower edge of the assembly 18 passes through the 27 nip of the rolls 38 and bearings 43, the flippers 44 engage 28 the bottom edge of the assembly 18 and move it across the 29 rolls 38 on to the ramp 36B. The assembly 18 then slides .
downwardly on the ramp 36B of the stacker 30B ~see ~IG. 5) , ,': ' '' . '',' ' ~: ' ~ ., ' . - .

1~398~3 until the assembly 18 contacts the end of the bin 30 at the 2 end of the ramp 36B or else contacts one or more assemblies 3 18 that have been previously put into the stacker 30B. This 4 assembly 18 thus either begins or continues the filling action of the stacker 30B. This unloading cycle ends at 6 about 159 of cam rotation (see FIG. 8).
7 The flippers 44 are of yieldable material 8 so that the flippers 44 yield as they strike the assembly 9 18 as it moves upwardly between the rolls 38 and bearings 43, prior to the lower edge of the assembly 18 passing 11 through the bite between the rolls 38 an,d bearings 43. The 12 shield portions 50 of the separators 34 are located just 13 above the pick rolls 40 (in their FIG. 3 positions) and are 14 at the limit of their movement in the cl,ockwise direction as seen in FIG. 3 as an assembly 18 moves into the stacker 16 30B as just described, so as to assure that the assembly 18 17 cannot fall back into the bite between the rolls 38 and 18 bearings 43 even though the flippers 44 may have some lack ~
19 of registration with the bottom edse of the assembly 18 as ~ -the assembly is being moved over the rolls 38 by the flip- , 21 pers 44. It should be noted that the motor 66 is in direct ~' 22 drive with the feed rolls 38 and thereby drives these rolls 23 as long as the motor 66 is energized. The pick rolls 40 are 24 driven through the gears 70 and 72 and the magnetic clutch 68 so that the rolls 40 may be stationary even though the 26 feed rolls 38 are in continuous rotation. The magnetic -27 clutch 68, during the unloading operation as just described, 28 urges the pick rolls 40 and shaft 41 in the clockwise 29 direction as seen in FIG. 3; and rolls 40 are at this time :~
held in their FIG. 3 positions by one of the arms 48 Ros73-003 -10-:~)3~8~ ~
1 bearing against the dowel 48A. The clutch 68 may be a 2 hysteresis type of magnetic clutch and continuously slips.
3 A load cycle commences at 180 of rotation 4 of the cams 106, 108 and 110 undex the driving action of the motor 104 (see FIG. 6). A collection of the disk 6 assemblies 18 is held in contact with the separators 34 7 in the hopper 30A by means of the support springs 58~ -8 During the continued rotation of the cam 108, the feed roll 9 switch 118 is opened ~at.199 of rotation of the cam 108), and the effect of the opening of the switch 118 is to 11 reverse the direction of drive of the motor 66 and thereby 12 reverse the direction of rotation of the rolls 38 and shaft 13 39. Pick rolls 40 and shaft 41 then rotate in the counter- ¦
14 clockwise direction as seen in FIG. 3 under the driving lS action of gears 70 and 72 and of clutch 68. This rotation 16 of shaft 41 and thus of arms 48 moves the separators 34 17 downwardly with respect to the ramp 36A, with the dowel 48B
18 being contacted by one of the arms 48 and thus limiting 19 rotation of the shaft 41. During this rotation of the shaft ~.-20. 41, the ledges 40A on the pick rolls 40 contact the lower :~
21 edge of a disk assembly 18 and move the lower edge of this -`
~2 assembly 18 over the rolls 40 and bearings 43, and into the 23 bite between the rolls 38 and bearings 43. It is important 24 that the clutch 68 be of the slip type to allow for low ac-celeration starting, yet assure positive drive of the shaft 26 41; so that, when the pick rol~s 40 begin their motion, they 27 will not dislodge the disk ~ssemblY 18 from the ledges 40A.
28 The feeding of more than one of the disk 29 assemblies 18 at a time out of the hopper 30A into the bite between the rolls 38 and bearings 43 is preven~ed by the ~: ~0973-003 ;

98~8 1 edges 52B on th~ membe.rs 52 and the throat blocks 56. ~he 2 edges 52B have a thickness only sl.ightly less than the 3 thickness of an assembly 18, and the throat blocks 56 are 4 separated from the bottom surfaces of the edges 52B by a distance only slightly greater than the thickness of an 6 assembly 18. Therefor~, as the parts 52 reciprocate up-7 wardly as the pick rolls 40 initially rotate in the counter-8 clockwise direction as seen in FIG. 3, only a first disk 9 assembly 18 in a stack of ~he assemblies 18 in the hopper 30A may move across the pick rolls 40 and into the nips 11 between the rolls 38 and bearings 43. ,The blocks 56 prevent 12 upward movement of the subsequent ones of the disk assemblies 13 18 with the hopper 30A and hold the subsequent disk assem-14 blies from moving across the rolls 40. The disk assembly 18 entering the bites between the rolls 38 and bearings 43 16 moves downwardly into the slots 74A and 74B, and this 17 downward movement of an assembly 18 is completed between 18 288~ and 294 of the cams 106, 108 and (see FIG. 8). The 19 assembly 18 leaves the bites of the rolls 38 and bearings 20 43 and drops downwardly to the limit of its movement in 21 the support 74 into contact with ledges 74C at the bo-ttoms 22 of slots 74A and 74~. The lifter arms 102 are, during 23 this phase of the operation, located just below ledges -24 74C at the lowermost limits of their movement. The opening 24 in the disk 20 then is approximately in align- ~
26 ment with the collet 95 and with the center of the shaft ~-27 76.
28 As the assembly 18 moves downwardly through 29 the nips between the rolls 38 and bearings 43, the assembly 18 actuates the jam switch 64. It will be observed from RO973-003 -12- .

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1 FIG. 8 that the jam switc~ 3~open be~ween about 225 and 2 288 of rotation of the cams 106, 108 and 110. At 241 .
3 rotation of the cam 108, a check may be made to determine 4 if the jam switch is clo~ed; if it is closed, the operation is stopped. If the disk assembly 18 being fed at this time 6 is the last disk assembly 18 within the hopper 30A, the 7 hopper switch 62 is closed at this time; and this has the 8 effect of preventing any subsequent disk assembly feeding 9 action by the rolls 38.
At 294 rotation of the cams 106, 108 and 11 110, the cover 86 begins.to close (see FIGS. 7 and 8), this 12 being under the action of the cam 110 effective on the 13 swinging arm 90. At this time, the disk assembly 18 is 14 resting on the lifter fingers 102, and its central opening 24 is in approximate alignment with the collet 95. During 16 continued rotation of the cam 108, the switch 118 is closed;
17 and this has the effect of reversing the drive of the `
18 motor 66 and reversing the direction of rotation of the 19 rolls 38. The separators 34 and the pick rolls 40 are ~'.
20 thus moved back to their starting positions in which they 21 are illustrated in FIG. 3. At 313 rotation of the cam ~:
22 108 under drive by the motor 104, a check is made to :~
23 determine if the jam switch 64 is open. If the jam switch 24 64 is open, the operation stops. .
At 349 movement of the cams 106, 10% and 26 110 (see ~IG~ 8), the cover 86 is completely closed; and .
27 the load home switch 122 is actuated by the cam 108. The .. ~ .
28 actuation of the switch 122 has the effect of de-energizing ~.
29 the motor 104 and also notifies the using system that a disk assembly 18 is loaded. At this time, the disk 20 of ~ .-"

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1 an assembly 18 is gripped between the collet 95 and the 2 surface 80, and the motor 82 drives the disk 20 so that 3 information may be either read from or written on the 4 disk.
It will thus be apparent that the bin 30 and 6 associated structure constitutes an automatic loader for 7 the disk drive unit 32, loading and unloading the flexible 8 disks 20 (including the protective envelopes 22) into the g disk drive unit 32 where the disks can be written upon or read. ;
11 The hopper 30A of the bin 30 may simply be 12 loaded with the assemblies 18 in a stack; and the machine -13 may then be left unattended, if desiredL allowing the :~
14 attached computer or other machine to co~trol the motors 66 and 104 in such a manner that successive disks 20 are 16 processed by the disk drive unit 32. The data to be re-17 corded or read from each of the disks 20 may be quite 18 variable; but, regardless of this fact, using the attached ~-19 machine or computer to so control the motors allows all of ~`
the disks 20 within the hopper 30A to be processed without 21 operator attention. Using this mode of control, the oper- .
22 aior need only check periodically to ensure that the hopper 23 30A and stacker 30B are properly filled or emptied. In 24 addition, as the autoloader operates, additional assemblies 18 may be added to the hopper 30A and removed from the .
26 stacker 30B without stopping the functioning of the disk 27 drive unit 32. -28 In brief, in attaining this advantageous 29 operation, it will have been noted that the unit 32 includes the swingable cover 86 and the lifter fingers 102 both ,, . : , . - : . : , - ~ , ~3984~ `
1 actuated by motor 104 by means of cams 106 and 110. The 2 bin 30 is mounted directly over and on top of the unit 32 3 and consists of the hopper 30A, stacker 30B and the feed 4 rolls 38 (cooperating with bearings 43) for feeding assemblies downwardly and upwardly, into and out of the unit 32. In 6 attaining the advantageous operation, in brief, first the .
7 cover 86 is opened, being swung about its pivots 87. The 8 fingers 102 then move a disk assembly 18 upwardly within ;
9 the slots 74A and 74B to the nips between the rolls 38 and bearings 43. The rolls 38 frictionally engage and move the .
11 disk assembly 18 being recovered from the unit 32 all the 12 way into the bin 30, and the flippers 44 move the disk over .l 13 ~he rolls 38 and into the stacker 30B. Subsequently, a new ~;
14 disk assembly 18 is loaded into the disk drive 32, with the ledges 40A on the pick rolls 40 moving a disk assembly 18 16 out of the hopper 30A over the rolls 40 and into the bite 17 between the rolls 38 and bearings 43. The rolls 38 fric- .
18 tionally engage and move the disk assembly 18 downwardly `~
19 until it is all the way into the disk drive unit 32, resting on the ledges 74C; and then the cam 110 closes the 21 cover 86 so that the disk 20 is gripped between the drive -~
22 surface 80 and the collet 95. The reading or writing oper-23 ation on the disk may then proceed. Switches 60, 62 and .
24 64 are provided for detecting loading malfunctions.
The separators 34 effectively isolate the 26 hopper 30A from the stacker 30B. The separators 34 are 27 oscillatable with the pick rolls 40 so as to assure that .
28 an assembly 18 moves downwardly into the disk drive unit .. . .
29 32 only from the hopper 30A and moves back only into the stacker 30B. The bottoms 36A and 36B of the hopper 30A
.

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1 and stacker 30s are slanted downwardly as shown so th~t 2 the disk assemblies 18 slide downwardly in the hopper 30A
3 against the pick rolls 40 and slide downwardly toward the 4 left end of the bin 30 as seen in FIG. 3 when in the stacker 30B. The sprin~s 58 bearing on assemblies 18 in the hopper 6 30A eliminate the need for a "card weight" in the hopper 7 30A. The throat knife 56 assures that only a single assembly 8 18 at a time may move over the pick rolls 40 and into the 9 bite between the rolls 38 and bearings 43.
The reversible drive motor 66, directly 11 driving the feed shaft 39, is the primary impelling 12 mechanism resulting in this advantageous operation. The 13 pick shaft 41 is indirectly driven by means of the ~ears 14 70 and 72 and the clutch 68. The clutch~68 is a hysteresis type of clutch so that the shaft 41 and pick rolls 40 may ~:
16 only have about 100 of rotation, being limited by one of 17 the arms 48 contacting the dowels 48A and g8B. The feed 18 rolls 38 are in continuous rotation along with the shaft 39 19 as long as the motor 66 is energized, and these rolls co-acting with the bearings 43 assure the complete upward and 21 downward movement of the assemblies 18 as the assemblies 22 are being moved i;l'CO and out of the disk drive unit 32.
23 After a disk 20 is all the way down into the 24 unit 32, the motor 66 reverses and moves the pick rolls 40 and the separators 34 back to their starting positions; and, 26 in these positions, the separators 34 prevent manually in-27 serting disk assemblies 18 into the bites of the rolls 38 ~.-28 and bearings 43 or into the stacker 30B. The lower motor 29 104 and cam 106 then close the cover 86 which positions the disk 20 and allows it to turn within the envelope 22.

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1 Switch 120 actu~ted by the cam 108 indicates that this 2 portion of the cycle is complete and that the disk 20 is 3 ready for reading or writing. Upon completion of the 4 activity of the disk drive unit 32, the disk 20 will be unloaded by the autoloader. The cover 86 is opened by the 6 lower motor 104 rotating cam 106, and rotation of cam 110 7 simultaneously takes place so as to move the lifter fingers 8 102 to lift the assembly 118 in the unit 32 into the nips 9 of the rolls 38 and bearings 43. The height of the envelope 22 is less than the distance between the ledges 74C and the 11 nips between the feed rolls 38 and bearings 43 so that the 12 lever 96 and fingers 102 are required to move the assembly 13 18 upwardly in a first phase of movement. The rolls 38 are 14 now turning in the opposite direction from that in which they turned for feeding a disk assembly 18 into the unit 32, 16 and the disk assembly 18 thus comes out of the unit 32 and 17 is positioned on the opposite side of the separators 34 and 18 falls in the stacker 30B. The flexible fingers 44 assure that 19 the motion of the assembly 18 is completed over the rolls 38 into the stacker 30B.
21 It will be noted that the control of the 22 entire assembly is located in the disk drive unit 32. The ;-23 lower motor 104, in particular, constitutes the control 24 for the entire unit and drives each of the cams 106, 108 :
and 110 at one revolution per cycle, and a cycle may for 26 example require approximately 5 seconds. All of the cams 27 106, 108 and 110 rotate together at this one revolution 28 per cycle, and the cam 106 closes the door 86, the cam 110 29 operates the lifter fingers 102 and the cam 108 operates the control switches 118, 120 and 122 used by the using ~'J3~3413 system for logic purposes. In particular~ actuation of 2 the switch 118 reverses the direction of drive of the 3 upper motor 66. sy the use of this cam and switch approach, 4 the logical sequenTjcl operation of the mechanism is self-contained with onl~lpolling of switches 60, 62, 64, 120 and 6 122 required of the using system. The autoloader and disk 7 drive unit 32 is turned on, or a cycle is started, by the 8 using system which may at this time supply a voltage to the 9 motors 66 and 104, with the lower motor 104 driving the cams 106, 108 and 110 and the upper reversible motor 66 turning -~
11 the feed rolls 38. , :~

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Claims (6)

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A recording system utilizing record disks adapted to have information recorded on faces thereof and each being contained in a protective envelope, said recording system comprising a stationary support adapted to receive one of said disk containing envelopes in substantially vertical disposition, a drive member rotatably mounted in said support on a substantially horizontal axis and adapted to have engagement with a record disk held by said support by means of the disk envelope for driving the disk for transfer of information to or from the disk, motor means for rotatably driving said drive member and thereby driving a record disk in engagement therewith, a bin located above said stationary support and having a hopper section and a stacker section, driving means associated with said bin for engaging with one of said disk containing envelopes within said hopper section and moving the disk and envelope downwardly into said support for driving engagement of said disk with said drive member, and means for moving the disk and envelope upwardly out of said support and out of engagement with said drive member and back into said bin and into said stacker section thereof after an information transfer operation has been completed.

2. A recording system as set forth in claim 1, said means for moving the disk and envelope downwardly out of said hopper section of said bin and then back again into said stacker section of said bin including a friction roll frictionally engaging the envelope, and a reversible motor for driving said friction roll in one direction for moving the disk and envelope downwardly and in the other direction for moving said disk and envelope upwardly.

3. A recording system as set forth in claim 2, said recording system including a separator within said bin for separating said hopper section from said stacker section and movable under the control of said reversible motor for opening said hopper section to a disk and envelope to allow said friction roll to move the disk and envelope downwardly and movable to a different position for opening said stacker section to allow said friction roll to move the disk and envelope back upwardly and into said stacker section.

4. A recording system as set forth in claim 3, said means for moving a disk and envelope from said hopper section downwardly including a pick roll having a picking surface thereon to engage with the envelope as the pick roll rotates so as to move the disk containing envelope into contact with said friction roll, gearing for connecting said friction roll with said pick roll and releasable clutching means for allowing said pick roll to have less than one revolution of rotation as the pick roll moves from a position moving a disk and its envelope from said hopper section and back again into its origi-nal position for picking a subsequent disk and its envelope out of said hopper section.

5. A recording system as set forth in claim 4 and including abutment means for limiting the rotation of said pick roll to less than said one complete revolution, and driving means connecting said pick roll and said separator so that said separator oscillates from its position allowing a disk and envelope to be moved out of said hopper section to its position allowing a returning disk and envelope to move into said stacker section.

6. A recording system as set forth in claim 2 and including a pick roll in driving relationship with said friction roll, said bin having a bottom slanting downwardly from said hopper section to said stacker section and said friction roll and pick roll being located in the bottom of said bin, said pick roll having a ledge for engaging with the bottom edge of a disk containing envelope in said hopper section so as to move this bottom envelope edge over the pick roll and into engagement with said friction roll, a bearing element coaxial with said pick roll and having a nip with respect to said friction roll so that the friction roll is effective to move the disk and envelope downwardly into said support and upwardly therefrom, and a flexible flipper arm rotatable with said friction roll and effective for engaging the bottom edge of a disk containing envelope as the envelope moves upwardly between said friction roll and bearing element so that the flipper arm moves the disk and envelope over the friction roll and into said stacker section.