JP2000163916A - Disk cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a disk cartridge that prevents errors in insertion into a disk drive. SOLUTION: On a sidewall 12 in the normal inserting direction of the body case 2 that is inserted into the loading port 13 of a disk drive, a recess 11 is provided that allows the entry of an error in insertion preventive projection 14 installed in the inner depth of the loading port 13. When the disk cartridge is inserted into the loading port 13 of the disk drive, from the side wall 12 with the recess 11 provided, since the preventive projection 14 introduced into the recess 11, enabling the cartridge to be inserted down a prescribed depth. When the disk cartridge is erroneously inserted into the disk drive, from the sidewall 16 opposite from the sidewall 12 or from the sidewall 17, 18 adjacent to the side wall 12, then, the sidewall 16 or 17, 18 comes in contact with the preventive projection 14, so that the cartridge from being inserted fully down to the prescribed depth will not occur.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to a disk cartridge represented by a magneto-optical disk.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A disk cartridge of this type includes a disk for recording information signals, a main body case for accommodating the disk, and a shutter for opening and closing a signal reading / writing window opened in the main body case. And
The main body case is formed in a square shape that makes the vertical dimension and the horizontal dimension almost the same, and the insertion direction to the disk drive is difficult to understand, so an insertion direction indication mark such as an arrow is printed or stamped on the surface of the main case. It is common that it is given.

[0003]

However, as a disk drive, especially a portable disk drive (disk player) becomes smaller, thinner and lighter, the disk cartridge becomes smaller. The mark has to be displayed in a small size, making it difficult to see.In addition, the printed insertion direction indication mark fades away due to rubbing with other objects as it is used, and the insertion direction to the disk drive tends to be incorrect. was there.

An object of the present invention is to solve such a problem, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a disk cartridge which can prevent erroneous insertion into a disk drive even if the disk cartridge is downsized. is there.

[0005]

The present invention relates to a disk cartridge having a disk 1 for recording information signals and a main body case 2 accommodating the disk 1 as shown in FIG. Side wall 1 on the regular insertion direction side of main body case 2 inserted into loading port 13
2 is characterized in that a concave portion 11 is provided in the inside of the loading port 13 to allow the erroneous insertion preventing projection 14 to be introduced.

[0006]

When the disk cartridge is inserted into the loading slot 13 of the disk drive D from the side wall 12 having the concave portion 11, the erroneous insertion preventing projection 14 is provided as shown in FIG.
Can be inserted into the recess 11 so that the disk cartridge can be inserted into the disk drive D to a predetermined insertion depth.

However, the disc cartridge is turned 180 degrees in the direction opposite to the normal direction of insertion so that the recess 11
When the disk drive is erroneously inserted into the disk drive from the side wall 16 opposite to the side wall 12 having the side wall 12, the side wall 16 comes into contact with the erroneous insertion prevention protrusion 14 on the disk drive side as shown in FIG. Can not be inserted completely,
In this imperfect insertion state, the side wall 12 with the recess 11
Is projected from the loading port 13, so that it is possible to easily confirm that this is an erroneous insertion. Further, the main body case 2 is oriented in a direction different from the normal insertion direction by 90 °, that is, the side wall 17 or 18 adjacent to the side wall 12 having the concave portion 11.
This is also the case when the disk drive is mistakenly inserted into the disk drive.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of a disk cartridge according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1 and 2
, A disk cartridge comprises a disk 1 such as a magneto-optical disk for recording information signals,
And a main body case 2 that accommodates in a rotatable state,
For example, what is commonly called a minidisc.

The main body case 2 is formed by joining an upper case 2a and a lower case 2b, each of which is made of plastic, in a lid-like manner, and the vertical dimension W and the horizontal dimension W 'are formed in a square shape having substantially the same dimensions. I have. Upper and lower cases 2a and 2b
The signal reading and writing window 3 is opened on one side of the left and right sides of
The window 3 can be opened and closed by a shutter 4 slidably mounted on the main body case 2 in the front-rear direction. The shutter 4 is urged to move freely by a spring (not shown), and is locked and held by a lock mechanism at the closed position. As shown in FIG. 2, a disk drive hole 6 for opening a hub 5 mounted at the center of the disk 1 is opened at the center of the lower surface of the lower case 2b.

In FIGS. 2 and 6, at the lower left and right corners of the lower surface of the lower case 2b near the front end, when the main body case 2 is inserted into the disk drive D from the front end side and loaded, as shown in FIG. A positioning reference hole 7 into which the positioning pin P on the drive side is inserted is provided. One of the left and right positioning reference holes 7, 7 is formed as a round hole, and the other is formed as an elongated hole. In forming the positioning reference hole 7, a recess 8 is formed on the lower surface of the lower case 2b, and the positioning reference hole 7 is formed near the center of the recess 8. As shown in FIG. 6, when the disk cartridge C is loaded into the disk drive D, the positioning pin P on the disk drive side is inserted into the positioning reference hole 7 and the seat provided at the base end of the positioning pin P protrudes. 9, the lower surface of the lower case 2b is received. At this time, a portion of the positioning pin P below the seat 9 is accommodated in the recess 8. Thereby, as shown in FIG. 6, the disk drive D can be made thinner by the depth dimension a of the recess 8 and downsized.

Each of the left and right recesses 8 is formed to have an opening 8a that opens to the left and right outside of the main body case 2. Accordingly, when the disk cartridge C is loaded into the disk drive D from the front end side as shown in FIG. 7, the engaging portions 10a of the loading members 10 on the disk drive side are recessed from the laterally outer side in the left-right direction. 8 through the opening 8a, and each loading member 1
0 engaging portion 10a engages with the front side wall 8b of each recess 8;
The disk cartridge C is automatically pulled in the direction of arrow Q in the disk drive D and loaded. When removing the disk cartridge C from the disk drive D, the engaging portion 10a of the loading member 10
c, and the automatic removal of the disk cartridge C is performed.

The main body case 2 is provided with a recess 11 for the purpose of preventing erroneous insertion into the disk drive D. As shown in FIGS. 2 to 5, the concave portion 11 is provided on a side wall 12 which is a side of the main body case 2 in the normal insertion direction. In the illustrated example, the recess 11 is formed so as to open forward and downward from the left and right lower ends on the outer surface of the front side wall 12 to the lower surface of the lower case 2b. As shown in FIG. 8, it is preferable that the concave portion 11 is formed to have a front widened shape so that the erroneous insertion preventing projection 14 provided inside the loading slot 13 of the disk drive D can be easily introduced.

The recess 11 is formed so as to be continuous with the front side of the recess 8 around the positioning reference hole 7 as shown in FIG. At this time, as shown in FIG. 5, the recess 11 is formed so that the depth of the recess is deeper than that of the recess 8, so that the abutting wall surface 15 is formed inside the recess 11.
When the erroneous insertion prevention protrusion 14 is completely introduced into the boss, the erroneous insertion prevention protrusion 14 abuts against the abutting wall surface 15. If the recess 8 and the recess 11 are formed continuously as described above, the recess 8 is formed when the lower case 2b is molded with plastic.
As the projection provided on the molding die for molding the recess 11, it is sufficient to provide one stepped projection, which is advantageous in that the production of the mold can be simplified accordingly. However, the recess 8 and the recess 11 are not necessarily limited to being formed continuously, and the recess 11 is provided on the front side wall 12 of the main body case 2 at a position completely separated and independent from the recess 8. It can also be provided.

When the disk cartridge C is inserted into the loading slot 13 of the disk drive D from the side wall 12 having the concave portion 11, the erroneous insertion preventing projection 14 is introduced into the concave portion 11 as shown in FIG. It can be inserted to a predetermined insertion depth. At this time, if the predetermined depth of the disk cartridge C is obtained at the same time that the erroneous insertion prevention projection 14 abuts against the abutting wall surface 15 of the concave portion 11, the erroneous insertion prevention projection 14 The predetermined depth regulating member can also be used. However, when the predetermined depth regulating member of the disk cartridge C is provided separately, it is not always necessary to provide such an abutting wall surface 15 inside the recess 11.

If the insertion direction of the disk cartridge C is erroneously inserted into the disk drive D from the rear side wall 16 opposite to the front side wall 12 having the concave portion 11, as shown in FIG. Since the rear side wall 16 abuts against the erroneous insertion prevention protrusion 14 on the side of the disk drive C, the disk cartridge C cannot be completely inserted to a predetermined insertion depth, and the front side wall 12 having the concave portion 11 is inserted into the disk drive D. Projecting from the loading port 13 of the camera, the user can know that the insertion is erroneous, thereby prompting the user to restart the insertion. The same can be said when the disk cartridge C is erroneously inserted into the disk drive D from the left side wall 17 or the right side wall 18.

In the above embodiment, since the recess 11 is formed only near the lower end of the side wall 12, it is advantageous to provide the recess 11 with sufficient strength of the case, but it is not limited to this. The recess 11 may be formed over the entire length of the wall 12 in the vertical direction. Also, if a pair of left and right concave portions 11 is provided, the stability is excellent, but the present invention is not limited to this, and at least one concave portion 11 may be provided.
The present invention is particularly effective in a disk cartridge in which the vertical and horizontal dimensions W and W 'are set to be substantially the same and it is difficult to determine the gripping direction. However, the vertical dimension W and the horizontal dimension W' make one of them longer than the other. The same applies to rectangular ones.

[0017]

According to the present invention, the concave portion 11 is provided in the side wall 12 of the main body case 2 on the side of the normal insertion direction to allow the insertion of the erroneous insertion preventing projection 14 on the disk drive D side. This is advantageous in that erroneous insertion into a disk drive can be reliably prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an entire disc cartridge.

FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the entire disc cartridge.

FIG. 3 is a front view as viewed from a direction indicated by an arrow X in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a side view seen from the direction of arrow Y in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a positioning reference hole portion in a used state.

FIG. 7 is a bottom view of the disk cartridge in a state where the disk cartridge is automatically drawn into the disk drive.

FIG. 8 is a schematic bottom view showing a state where the disk drive is properly inserted into the disk drive.

FIG. 9 is a schematic bottom view showing a state where the disk cartridge is erroneously inserted into a disk cartridge.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 disc 2 body case 7 positioning reference hole 8 recess 11 recess 12 side wall 13 loading port 14 erroneous insertion prevention protrusion

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A disc 1 for recording an information signal
And a main body case 2 accommodating the disk 1. The main body case 2 to be inserted into the mounting opening 13 of the disk drive D is provided on the side wall 12 on the regular insertion direction side.
3. A disc cartridge provided with a concave portion 11 provided at the inner part of the inside 3 to allow introduction of an erroneous insertion preventing projection 14. 2. The disk cartridge according to claim 1, wherein a projection wall 15 against which an erroneous insertion prevention projection 14 abuts is provided inside the recess 11. 3. A recess 8 is provided around an opening of a positioning reference hole 7 opened in the lower surface of the main body case 2, and the recess 11 is provided continuously to the recess 8. Disk cartridge. 4. The disk cartridge according to claim 1, wherein a vertical dimension W and a horizontal dimension W ′ of the rectangular main body case 2 are set to be substantially the same.