JP2001256706A - Optical disk drive device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an optical disk drive assembly which is capable of smoothly open and close the shutter of a disk cartridge without the generation of worn powder, etc., and is improved in reliability. SOLUTION: A casing 30 of the device is provided with a disk tray 36 freely movable between a drawing-out position and a retraction position. The disk cartridge 10 having the shutter 22 freely openable and closable in a direction orthogonal with the moving direction of the disk tray is loaded at disk tray. The front end of the disk tray is provided with a shutter opening/closing member 52 freely movable in parallel to the opening/closing direction of the shutter. The casing is internally provided with a guide rail 70 for moving the shutter opening/closing member according to the movement of the disk tray. When the disk tray moves from the drawing-out position to the retraction position, the shutter opening/closing member moves to the opening/closing direction and the shutter is opened by the shutter opening/closing member.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical disk drive for receiving a disk cartridge containing an optical disk as an information storage medium and performing information processing on the optical disk.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, optical disks have been widely used as information storage media. Some of such optical disks include
In order to prevent the optical disk from being damaged, adhered with dirt, and the like, an optical disk used in a state of being housed in a disk cartridge is provided.

[0003] Such a disk cartridge usually has a flat case in which an optical disk is accommodated, and windows are formed on both sides of the case to expose the optical disk. A shutter for opening and closing the window is slidably attached to the case.

On the other hand, an optical disk drive for reading and writing information from and to the optical disk is
It has a rectangular box-shaped housing provided with an insertion port on the front surface, and a tray on which a disk cartridge is placed. This tray is provided inside the housing so as to be able to be pulled in and out through the insertion port. . Inside the housing, a shutter opening / closing mechanism that opens and closes the shutter of the disk cartridge, a turntable that supports the optical disk, an optical head that reads and writes information on the optical disk, a motor that drives the turntable, and a motor mounted on the turntable A clamp holder or the like for clamping the placed optical disk is provided.

When operating the optical disk drive, the disk cartridge is placed on the tray in the pulled-out state, and then the tray is pulled into the housing together with the cartridge by the tray drive mechanism. Then, the shutter of the cartridge is opened by the shutter opening / closing mechanism. When the optical disk reaches a predetermined position, the turntable rises to support the optical disk, and the optical disk is pressed against the clamp holder and held at the predetermined position. In this state, the turntable is driven to rotate, and information is read or written by the optical head.

Generally, a shutter of a disk cartridge is provided so as to be openable and closable in a direction orthogonal to a direction of insertion into an optical disk drive. According to the optical disk drive, the shutter opening / closing mechanism has a rotatable shutter opening / closing arm. The shutter opening / closing arm contacts the shutter of the inserted disk cartridge, and moves the shutter in the insertion direction. And in the opposite direction, is pushed by the cartridge and pivots to open the shutter.

[0007]

However, in the optical disk drive of the above construction, when the shutter opening / closing arm is pressed by the disk cartridge, the shutter receives a force in the direction of opening the shutter from the shutter opening / closing arm, and at the same time, Depending on the angle of the shutter opening / closing arm, a force in the direction of pressing the shutter or the shutter holding member against the case of the cartridge, that is, a force in the direction opposite to the direction of inserting the cartridge is received.

Therefore, the shutter or the shutter holding member moves while being pressed against the cartridge body, so that friction occurs between them. Therefore, the possibility of generating abrasion powder increases by repeating the opening and closing operations of the shutter. If such frictional powder is generated inside the disk cartridge, the frictional powder easily adheres to the surface of the optical disk, and the frequency of errors in the storage / reproduction operation increases.

Conventionally, in order to solve the above problem, the surface of the optical disk is regularly cleaned with a commercially available media cleaner, but handling of the disk cartridge becomes troublesome. It is also conceivable to use a special material that is resistant to abrasion as the shutter. However, in this case, there is a problem that the manufacturing cost of the disk cartridge increases.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide an optical disk drive device which can open and close a shutter of a disk cartridge smoothly without generating frictional powder and the like, and which has improved reliability. Is to do.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, an optical disk drive according to the present invention comprises a cartridge main body having a window for accommodating an optical disk and exposing the optical disk; An optical disk drive for receiving a disk cartridge provided with a shutter movably provided in a predetermined opening / closing direction and opening / closing the window and performing information processing on the optical disk includes a housing and the disk cartridge. A shutter for opening and closing the shutter between a drawer position at which the disk cartridge is attached and detached and a draw position at which the disk cartridge is located at a predetermined load position in the housing; A tray provided on the housing so as to be reciprocally movable in a direction substantially orthogonal to the When, in accordance with the movement of the retracted position from the drawn-out position of the tray, it is characterized by comprising, a shutter opening and closing mechanism for opening the shutter by applying a force only to the opening and closing direction on the shutter.

According to the optical disk drive of the present invention, the shutter opening / closing mechanism is provided on the tray so as to be movable in a direction parallel to the opening / closing direction of the shutter, and is loaded on the tray. A shutter opening / closing member that engages with the shutter of the disc cartridge, and a driving member that is provided in the housing and moves the shutter opening / closing member in a shutter opening direction in accordance with the movement of the tray from the drawn position to the drawn position. According to the optical disk drive device having the above configuration, the shutter opening / closing mechanism is configured such that when the disk tray is moved from the drawn position to the drawn position,
In conjunction with this, a force is applied to the shutter of the disk cartridge only in a direction along the opening and closing direction of the shutter to open the shutter. Therefore, when the shutter is opened and closed, no reaction force is exerted on the shutter of the disk cartridge and the cartridge body in the moving direction of the tray. As a result, the friction between the shutter and the case is reduced, and the generation of friction powder and the like is prevented. be able to. As a result, it is possible to prevent a malfunction at the time of recording / reproduction due to friction powder or the like, and to obtain a highly reliable optical disk drive.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an optical disk drive according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. First, a disk cartridge loaded in the optical disk drive will be described.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the disk cartridge 10 has a flat rectangular case 12 containing an optical disk 14 as a disk-shaped recording medium. Case 12 functioning as cartridge body
Is a pair of half cases 13a having substantially the same structure,
13b.

The upper and lower walls of the case 12 facing the surface of the optical disk 14, ie, the half case 13
The optical disks 14 are provided on the main walls 11a and 11b of the optical disks 14a and 13b.
The windows 16 for accessing the web are formed and face each other. Each window 16 is provided with a case 12
From the center of the case 12 in the insertion direction A of the disk cartridge 10 into the optical disk drive described later, to the vicinity of the front end surface 12a of the case 12.

Optical disk 14 housed in case 12
Is provided with a center hole 19 and a clamp region 18 located around the center hole. The center hole 19, the clamp area 18, and a part of both surfaces of the optical disk 14 are exposed through the window 16.

On the case 12, a double-sided integrated shutter 22 for opening and closing the window 16 is slidably mounted. The shutter 22 has a pair of rectangular shielding plates 22a for opening and closing the window 16 respectively, and a connecting plate 22b connecting the front ends of the shielding plates and facing the front end surface 12a of the case. It is formed in a U-shape. The shutter 22 is connected to the front end surface 12 of the case 12.
It is attached so as to sandwich both surface sides of the case 12 from the side a. The shutter 22 is provided on the connecting plate 22b.
An engagement projection 23 for opening and closing the cover is formed.

As shown in FIG. 1, the shutter 22 is located on both sides of the closing position for closing the window 16 and the closing position as shown by a solid line and a two-dot chain line in FIG. It is slidable between the two open positions to be opened in a direction parallel to the front end surface 12a of the case 12, that is, in an opening and closing direction B orthogonal to the insertion direction A of the disk cartridge 10. The shutter 22 is in case 1
2, the shutter 16 is always urged toward the closed position by two shutter springs (not shown) disposed on both sides of the window 16.

Of the surfaces of the half cases 13a and 13b,
An area where the shielding plate 22a of the shutter 22 slides is formed as a shallow rectangular recess 15, and a window 16 is also formed in this recess. Also, the half cases 13a, 13b
Has a projection 17 for retaining from the center of the rear end of the recess 15 to the vicinity of the window 16, and this projection 17 engages with the free end of the shielding plate 22a to engage with the shielding plate. Is held in the recess 15.

The main wall 11 of each half case 13a, 13b
The label affixing part 6 is continuously formed in the center of the rear end part and the center part of the rear end face of 11a and 11b. Slots 26 for positioning the disk cartridge 10 with respect to the tray of the optical disk drive are formed at the rear ends of both side walls 12b and 12c of the case 12, respectively, and formed at the front ends of the side walls 12b and 12c. Are formed with recesses 27 for hooking a loading mechanism on the optical disk drive side. In addition, through holes for various detections are formed in the half cases 13a and 13b.

Next, the above-described disk cartridge 10
An optical disk drive that receives information and reads or writes information on the optical disk 14 will be described. As shown in FIG. 3, the optical disk drive includes a substantially rectangular housing 30, and a bezel 32 is provided at the front opening of the housing.
Are fitted to each other to form a front wall. This bezel 32
An elongated rectangular insertion port 34 for inserting and removing the disk cartridge 10 into and out of the housing 30 is formed.

The optical disk drive includes a disk tray 36 for loading and unloading the disk cartridge 10 into and from the housing 30. The disc tray 36 has a substantially rectangular plate-shaped tray body 42 and a rectangular plate-shaped front panel 44 provided at the front end of the tray body.
And are integrally provided. Then, the disc tray 36
Form a loading section 38 comprising a recess for accommodating the disk cartridge 10. This loading section 38
It is formed in a rectangular shape having a width substantially equal to that of the disk cartridge 10. An open / close switch 41 for pulling out and pulling in the disk tray 36 is provided on the front panel 44, and the tray body 4
2 has an access opening 39 opened in the loading portion 38.
Are formed.

The disk tray 36 having the above-described structure is
3 through an insertion port 34 between an extraction position drawn out of the housing shown in FIG. 3 and a later-described drawing position drawn in the housing by a guide mechanism and a tray driving mechanism provided in the housing 0. It is movable along the direction A. Then, the disc tray 36 is moved to the housing 30.
From the loading unit 3 by pulling out from the
8 is exposed, and the disk cartridge 10 can be attached to and detached from the loading section. Further, by moving the disk tray 36 to a predetermined retracted position in the housing 30, the disk cartridge 10 is loaded in the housing 30, and information can be read from and written to the optical disk 14. At this time, the disk cartridge 10 is loaded into the loading portion 38 of the disk tray in a state where the insertion direction A matches the moving direction A of the disk tray 36.

As shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, a cartridge holding member 48 in the form of a bridge is provided at the leading end of the disk tray 36 in the insertion direction to hold the leading end of the loaded disk cartridge 10. Extending along the width direction. Further, a shutter opening / closing member 52 that constitutes a part of the shutter opening / closing mechanism 50 is provided at a distal end of the disc tray 36 in the insertion direction. The shutter opening / closing member 52 is formed in an elongated rectangular shape, and its longitudinal direction is orthogonal to the moving direction A of the disc tray 36,
That is, the shutter 22 is provided so as to coincide with the opening / closing direction B of the shutter 22. In the disc tray 36, a guide rail 54 and a guide groove 56 extending in parallel with the opening / closing direction B are integrally formed at the tip of the bottom wall of the tray main body 42. The shutter opening / closing member 52 is guided by the guide rail 54 and the guide groove 56 in the opening / closing direction B, and is provided movably between a closed position illustrated and an open position described later. Note that the guide rail 54 and the guide groove 56 constitute a first guide portion in the present invention.

The shutter opening / closing member 52 has a pressing claw 58 protruding toward the disk cartridge 10 loaded in the disk tray 36, a hook 60 protruding in a direction opposite to the pressing claw, and is orthogonal to the bottom surface of the disk tray. And a guide pin 62 as an engagement projection protruding in the direction.

When the disc cartridge 10 is loaded on the disc tray 42, the pressing claws 58 are engaged with the end faces of the engaging projections 23 provided at the tip of the shutter 22. A tension spring 64 functioning as a biasing member is provided between the hook 60 of the shutter opening / closing member 52 and a spring receiver 63 provided on the disc tray 42. Then, the shutter opening / closing member 52 is urged in the direction of the closing position shown by a tension spring 64 and is held at the closing position by abutting against a stopper 65 provided on the disc tray 36. The closing position of the shutter opening / closing member 52 is set substantially at the center of the disk tray 42 in the width direction.

On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 3, 4, 6 and 7, a shutter opening / closing mechanism 50 for opening / closing the shutter 22 of the disk cartridge 10 is provided with a shutter opening / closing member 52 in accordance with the movement of the disk tray 36. And the guide rail 70 is fixed to the inner surface of the top wall 30 a of the housing 30. The guide rail 70 functioning as a driving member extends perpendicular to the top wall and has a guide surface 72 for guiding the guide pin 62 of the shutter opening / closing member 52. The guide surface 72 functioning as a second guide portion extends obliquely from a substantially central portion in the width direction of the housing 30 toward the right side wall of the housing in FIG. 4, that is, intersects with the moving direction A of the disk tray 36. Guide surface 72a extending in the direction
And a second guide surface 72b extending substantially parallel to the right side wall following the first guide surface.

As shown in FIG. 7, the optical disk 14 housed in the disk
Is provided with a clamper 74 that engages with the center hole 19. A drive system 76 for the optical disk 14 is provided at the bottom of the housing 10. The drive system 76 includes a turntable 78 for supporting and rotating the optical disk 14 in the disk cartridge 10, and an optical head (not shown) for reading and writing information from and to the optical disk.

In the optical disk driving device having the above-mentioned structure,
When loading the disk cartridge 10, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the open / close switch 41 is pressed to pull out the disk tray 36 from the housing 30 to a predetermined pull-out position, exposing the loading portion 38. In this state, the loading section 38
Is loaded with a disk cartridge 10.

When the disc tray 36 is pulled out, the shutter opening / closing member 52 of the shutter opening / closing mechanism 50 is opened.
Is held in the closed position by being urged by the tension spring 64. Then, the disc cartridge 10 is loaded into the loading portion 38 of the disc tray such that the insertion direction A thereof matches the moving direction A of the disc tray 36 and the front end surface of the cartridge is on the housing 30 side. As a result, the disk cartridge 10 is held in the disk tray 36, and the engagement protrusion 23 of the shutter 22 is positioned adjacent to and opposed to the pressing claw 58 of the shutter opening / closing member 52.

When the open / close switch 41 is pressed in this state, a tray driving mechanism (not shown) is activated, and the disc tray 36 is opened.
Is moved along the movement direction A from the drawn-out position shown to the drawn-in position shown in FIGS. When the disc tray 36 moves toward the retracted position, the guide pin 62 of the shutter opening / closing member 52 comes into contact with the first guide surface 72a of the guide rail 70, and thereafter, the first guide surface 72a and the second guide surface 72a 2 guide surface 7
Move along 2b.

As a result, the shutter opening / closing member 52 receives a force in the direction opposite to the insertion direction A and a force in the opening / closing direction B. Therefore, the shutter opening / closing member 52 is connected to the extension spring 6.
4 is moved to the open position along the opening and closing direction B against the urging force of No. 4. When the shutter opening / closing member 52 moves to the open position, the guide pin 62 abuts on the second guide surface 72b of the guide rail 70, and thereafter moves along the second guide surface 72b until the disk tray 36 reaches the retracted position. To hold the shutter opening / closing member 52 at the open position.

As shown in FIG. 8, when the shutter opening / closing member 52 moves from the closed position to the open position, the shutter 22 of the disk cartridge 10 is pressed by the pressing claw 58, and moves from the closed position in conjunction with the shutter opening / closing member. After moving to the open position, it is held in the open position. As a result, the window 16 of the disk cartridge 10 is opened, and the optical disk 14 can be accessed. In this way, the shutter 22 of the disk cartridge 10 is opened in conjunction with the movement of the disk tray until the disk tray 36 moves from the drawn position to the drawn position.

As shown in FIG. 7, when the disk tray 36 moves to the retracted position, the clamper 74 faces the center hole 19 of the optical disk 14 through the window 16 of the disk cartridge 10. At the same time, the lifting mechanism of the drive system 76 is driven, and the turntable 78 is moved to the disk tray 36.
Through the access opening 39 of the disc cartridge 10 and the window 16 of the disc cartridge 10 to support the optical disc 14 and press it against the clamper 74. As a result, the optical disk 14 is supported in a state where it is separated from the inner surface of the case of the disk cartridge 10, and can be driven to rotate. Then, in this state, the turntable 78 is driven to rotate the optical disk 14, and information is read from or written to the optical disk by an optical head (not shown).

On the other hand, when taking out the disk cartridge 10 from the optical disk drive, the disk tray 3
Press the open / close switch 41 of No. 6. Then, after the turntable 78 and the clamper 74 return to the initial positions, the tray drive mechanism (not shown) operates, and the disk tray 36 is moved from the retracted position to the extended position.

As the disc tray 36 moves, the guide pins 62 of the shutter opening / closing member 52 move along the second guide surface 72b and the first guide surface 72a of the guide rail 70. Then, the shutter opening / closing member 52 is moved from the open position to the closed position by the urging force of the tension spring 64 and is held at the closed position. At the same time, the shutter 22 of the disk cartridge 10 moves from the open position to the closed position following the shutter opening / closing member 52, and closes the window 16. When the disc tray 36 is pulled out to the pull-out position, the disc cartridge 10 can be taken out from the disc tray.

According to the optical disk drive configured as described above, the shutter opening / closing mechanism 50 includes the shutter opening / closing member 52 movably provided in a direction parallel to the opening / closing direction B of the shutter 22. The shutter of the disk cartridge 10 is opened by moving the shutter opening / closing member 52 in the opening / closing direction using the movement of the tray 36. When the shutter 22 is opened, the shutter opening / closing member 52 receives a reaction force in the moving direction of the disc tray 36. Since the shutter opening / closing member is provided on the disc tray 36, the above-mentioned reaction force is applied to the shutter 22. Not transmitted.

Therefore, when the shutter 22 is opened and closed, a force acts on the shutter 22 and the case 12 of the disk cartridge 10 only in the shutter opening and closing direction B. as a result,
Friction between the shutter and the case can be reduced, and generation of friction powder and the like can be prevented. As a result, it is possible to prevent a malfunction at the time of recording / reproduction due to friction powder or the like, and to obtain a highly reliable optical disk drive. Further, it is not necessary to use a special material for the shutter, and it is possible to reduce the manufacturing cost of the disk cartridge.

Further, since the shutter opening / closing mechanism 50 uses the moving force of the disc tray 36 to open the shutter, there is no need to provide a special driving mechanism, and the structure is simplified and the manufacturing cost is reduced. Can be.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be variously modified within the scope of the present invention. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the guide rail is used as a driving member for moving the shutter opening / closing member, but an opening / closing arm or the like provided rotatably may be used. The disc tray may be configured to be manually moved from the drawn-out position to the pushed-in position, and the shapes and structures of the disc tray and the shutter opening / closing member can be variously modified as necessary.

[0041]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the shutter opening / closing member movably provided in a direction substantially parallel to the shutter opening / closing direction of the disk cartridge exerts a force on the shutter only in the opening / closing direction. Therefore, the shutter of the disk cartridge can be smoothly opened and closed without generating frictional powder and the like, and an optical disk drive with improved reliability can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a disk cartridge loaded in an optical disk drive.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the disk cartridge in a state where a shutter is opened.

FIG. 3 shows a state in which a disc tray is pulled out.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an optical disk drive according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the optical disk drive in a state where the disk tray is pulled out.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged plan view showing a front end of the disc tray.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a front end portion of the disc tray and a shutter opening / closing mechanism.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the optical disk drive in a state where the disk tray is drawn into a housing.

FIG. 8 is a plan view of the optical disk drive in a state where the disk tray is pulled into a housing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Disc cartridge 12 ... Case 14 ... Optical disk 16 ... Window 22 ... Shutter 30 ... Housing 34 ... Insertion opening 36 ... Disc tray 42 ... Tray body 50 ... Shutter opening / closing mechanism 52 ... Shutter opening / closing member 54 ... Guide rail 58 ... Pressing Claw 62: Guide pin 64: Tension spring 70: Guide rail 72a: First guide surface 72b: Second guide surface

Claims (5)

[Claims] A cartridge body containing an optical disk and having a window for exposing the optical disk;
An optical disk drive that receives a disk cartridge provided with a shutter movably provided in a predetermined opening / closing direction in the cartridge main body and opens and closes the window, and performs information processing on the optical disk; It has a loading portion on which the disk cartridge is mounted, and between a pull-out position where the disk cartridge can be attached and detached and a pull-in position where the disk cartridge is located at a predetermined loading position in the housing,
A tray provided on the housing so as to be reciprocally movable in a direction substantially perpendicular to the opening / closing direction of the shutter; and, in accordance with the movement of the tray from the drawing position to the drawing position, the shutter is moved only in the opening / closing direction. An optical disk drive, comprising: a shutter opening / closing mechanism that opens a shutter by applying a force to the optical disk drive. 2. The shutter opening / closing mechanism, wherein the shutter opening / closing mechanism is provided on the tray so as to be movable in a direction parallel to the opening / closing direction of the shutter and engages with a shutter of a disk cartridge loaded in the tray. And a driving member provided in the housing and configured to move the shutter opening / closing member in a shutter opening direction in accordance with the movement of the tray from the drawing position to the drawing position. An optical disk drive according to claim 1. 3. The shutter opening / closing member is movably provided between a closing position for closing the shutter and an opening position for opening the shutter. The shutter opening / closing mechanism is formed on the tray and opens and closes the shutter. A first guide portion extending in a direction parallel to the direction and guiding movement of the shutter opening / closing member, and an urging member for urging the shutter opening / closing member toward the closed position. 3. The optical disk drive according to claim 2, wherein: 4. The shutter opening / closing member has an engagement projection.
The drive member is fixedly provided in the housing, and engages with the engagement protrusion in accordance with the movement of the tray from the extraction position to the extraction position, and moves the shutter opening / closing member in a shutter opening direction. 3. The optical disk apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a second guide section for guiding the optical disk. 5. The shutter according to claim 1, wherein the second guide portion extends obliquely with respect to a moving direction of the tray and guides the shutter opening / closing member between the closed position and the open position. 5. The optical disk drive according to claim 4, further comprising: a second guide surface for holding the optical disk at an open position.