JP2008112542A - Tape cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a tape cartridge which can stably exhibit a write protect function by preventing the tilting of a switching piece with high center of gravity to always keep a proper standing posture. <P>SOLUTION: A corner section room R for housing a switching piece 10 for write protect is disposed in the rear inner corner of a main body case 1. The switching piece 10 includes a main body part 31 long in a vertical direction and having a plug part 30, a tilt regulation piece 32 and a slide leg 33 extended up and down in parallel to one side of the main body part 31, an elastically deformable engaging arm 34. The corner section room R is sectioned by the rear wall 15 of the main body case 1, a guide wall 16 arranged back and forth in parallel with the rear wall 15, and an inner end wall 17 extended from the inner end of the guide wall 16 to the rear wall 15. The height dimensions (h) of the tilt regulation piece 32, the slide leg 33, and the main body part 31 are set almost equal to those (H) of the corner section room R to prevent tilting of the switching piece 10. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a tape cartridge provided with a switching piece for preventing erroneous erasure.

  This type of tape cartridge is known, for example, from Patent Document 1. There, a switching piece is arranged in a triangular corner section provided at the corner of the rear wall of the main body case. The switching piece includes a plate-like vertical slide wall provided facing the operation window, a bottom slide wall extending inward of the case continuously to the lower end of the vertical slide wall, and a rib wall standing on the front surface of the vertical slide wall And an elastically deformable engagement arm formed integrally with the upper part of the vertical slide wall. An identification hole is opened in the bottom wall of the corner section room, and this identification hole is closed or opened by the bottom slide wall so that recording of information signals on the recording tape can be permitted or prohibited. Yes. On the tape drive side, a detection pin for detecting the open / close state of the identification hole is provided.

  In this type of tape cartridge, it is known in Patent Document 2 that a switching piece is provided with a fall prevention plate portion. The fall prevention plate portion is a member equivalent to the rib wall in Patent Document 1, but the upper and lower ends thereof contact the upper wall inner surface of the main body case to prevent the switching piece from falling. Different from rib walls. Note that the upper end of the rib wall in Patent Document 1 is positioned below the elastically deformable engagement arm, and cannot prevent the switching piece from falling down.

  Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-133867 discloses a tape cartridge that can slide-guide a switching piece in a stable state within a limited narrow space. There, a slide groove is provided at the front and rear center of the switching piece, and this slide groove is guided and supported by a guide wall provided at the center of the slide area so as to be slidable to the left and right. An elastically deformable engagement arm for holding the switching position is provided at the lower part of the front wall of the main body part divided by the slide groove, and the engagement arm is attached to the second guide wall with which the engagement arm slides. Engagement recesses are formed at two locations on the left and right sides to allow the protrusions to be engaged.

Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-247002 (paragraph number 0022, FIG. 2) Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-282837 (paragraph number 0011, FIG. 5) JP 2001-319459 A (paragraph number 0015, FIG. 1)

  In the tape cartridge, as described above, the switching piece is arranged in the triangular corner compartment surrounded by the recording tape occupation area in the main body case and the inner corner wall of the main body case. Positioning holes and screw bosses for fastening the upper and lower cases are arranged in the corner compartment. An IC memory in which tape cartridge manufacturing history data and characteristic data are recorded may be provided in the corner compartment. Further, a positioning recess having a V-shaped cross section may be provided on the outer side wall of the corner compartment.

  As described above, in the tape cartridge in which various structures are collectively arranged in the corner compartment, the amount of space for arranging the accidental erasure prevention structure tends to decrease more and more. The left-right width and the front-rear width must be reduced with respect to the dimensions. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, a vertically long rectangular parallelepiped main body 46 having a plug 45 on the bottom surface, a slide leg 47 extending from the bottom of the main body 46 to the side, and an elastically deformable engagement In the switching piece 44 composed of the joint arm 48 and the operation piece 49 bulging and formed on one side of the rear surface of the main body 46, the vertical dimension is larger than the left and right width and the front and rear width, and the center of gravity position is correspondingly increased. It is inevitable that the price increases.

  As described above, when the switching piece 44 having a high center of gravity position is switched or when the switching is completed, the whole is easily tilted to the left or right. In particular, as shown by a solid line in FIG. 6, in the state where the identification hole 51 opened in the main body case 50 is closed with the plug portion 45 of the main body portion 46, the end edge of the plug portion 45 falls into the identification hole 51, 44 may be tilted greatly. In the state where the switching piece 44 is tilted, the detection result by the detection pin provided in the tape drive may vary, and the erroneous erasure prevention function may not be stably exhibited.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a tape cartridge that can reliably prevent the switching piece having a high center of gravity from tilting and can always stand upright in an appropriate posture, thereby stably exhibiting an erroneous erasure prevention function. It is in.

  The tape cartridge of the present invention is provided with a corner compartment R for accommodating a switching piece 10 for preventing erroneous erasure at the rear inner corner of the main body case 1 for accommodating the wound recording tape 2. The switching piece 10 has a vertically long main body portion 31 having a plug portion 30 on the bottom surface, a tilt regulating piece 32 and a slide leg 33 that are continuously extended in parallel to the upper and lower ends of one side of the main body portion 31, and tilting. An elastically deformable engaging arm 34 disposed between the restricting piece 32 and the slide leg 33 is included. The corner compartment R includes a rear wall 15 of the main body case 1, a guide wall 16 disposed parallel to the rear wall 15, and an inner end wall 17 extending from the inner end of the guide wall 16 toward the rear wall 15. It is divided by. The rear wall 15 of the main body case 1 facing the corner compartment R, the operation window 18 for sliding the switching piece 10 and the identification hole 20 opened and closed by the plug portion 30 of the switching piece 10 are opened on the bottom wall, respectively. It is. Therefore, the vertical dimension h of the tilt regulating piece 32 and the slide leg 33 and the vertical dimension h of the main body 31 are set to be substantially the same as the vertical dimension H of the corner compartment R.

  The front and rear thicknesses of the tilt restricting pieces 32 and the slide legs 33 that are continuously provided along the rear surface of the main body 31 are set smaller than the front and rear thicknesses of the main body 31. Between the rear wall 15 and the inner end wall 17 of the main body case 1, an exit / retreat port 22 that slide-guides the tilt regulating piece 32 and the slide leg 33 is formed.

  A moderation body 23 that elastically deforms the engaging arm 34 is provided on the outer surface of the exit / exit 22 facing the sliding area of the engaging arm 34. A moderation protrusion 36 that rides on the moderation body 23 is formed on the engagement arm 34. Accordingly, the moderation protrusion 36 is engaged and held by the moderation body 23 at both ends of the slide area of the switching piece 10.

  In the present invention, the rear wall 15 of the main body case 1, the guide wall 16 disposed in parallel with the rear wall 15, and the inner end wall 17 extending from the inner end of the guide wall 16 toward the rear wall 15 Then, the corner compartment R was partitioned, and the main body 31 of the switching piece 10 disposed in the corner compartment R was guided and supported by the rear wall 15 and the guide wall 16 so as to be slidable in the left and right directions. In addition, the tilt restricting piece 32 and the slide leg 33 are continuously extended in parallel to the upper and lower ends on one side of the main body 31, and the vertical dimension h of the tilt restricting piece 32, the slide leg 33 and the main body 31 is set to the corner section chamber. It was set to be approximately the same as the vertical dimension H of R.

  As described above, according to the switching piece 10 provided with the tilt regulating piece 32 separately from the slide leg 33, the tilt regulating piece 32 contacts the inner surface of the upper wall of the upper case 1a even if the switching piece 10 tries to tilt during the sliding operation. It is possible to prevent the entire switching piece 10 from being tilted by the contact of the slide leg 33 with the bottom wall of the lower case 1b. Therefore, even if the switching piece 10 has a high center of gravity, the entire switching piece 10 can always be held upright in an appropriate posture, and the identification hole 20 can be accurately closed by the plug portion 30, thereby detecting pin P It is possible to eliminate variations in the detection result due to the erroneous erasure prevention function stably.

  When the tilt restricting piece 32 and the slide leg 33 are continuously provided along the rear surface of the main body portion 31 and the front and rear thicknesses of both 32 and 33 are set smaller than the front and rear thicknesses of the main body portion 31, the switching piece. When the tilt restricting piece 32 and the slide leg 33 are advanced from the exit / exit opening 22 to the outside of the corner compartment R by the slide operation 10, a small gap between the winding area Z of the recording tape 2 and the rear wall 15 is used. Thus, even if the tilt restricting piece 32 and the slide leg 33 can be slid and the amount of space for arranging the erroneous erasure preventing structure is small, a sufficient left / right stroke of the switching piece 10 can be secured to allow writing. The status and write-protected status can be clearly identified. By sliding and guiding the tilt regulating piece 32 and the slide leg 33 at the exit / retreat port 22, there is also an advantage that when the switching piece 10 is switched, it is possible to prevent a part of the switching piece 10 from tilting back and forth.

  A moderation body 23 is provided on the outer surface of the exit / retreat port 22, a moderation projection 36 that rides on the moderation body 23 is provided on the engagement arm 34, and the moderation projection 36 is engaged and held by the moderation body 23 at both ends of the slide area of the switching piece 10. Then, when a switching operation of the switching piece 10 is performed, a click feeling can be given to clarify that the switching piece 10 has switched between the write-permitted state and the write-inhibited state, and the switching piece 10 is reliably positioned at each switching position. Can be held.

(Example) FIGS. 1-5 shows the Example of the tape cartridge based on this invention. In FIG. 2, the tape cartridge has a pair of hubs 3 and 3 for winding the recording tape 2 on the left and right sides of the horizontally long main body case 1. A tape loading pocket 5 is formed in the center of the front portion of the main body case 1, and the recording tape 2 is guided and supported along the inner surface of the front lid 7 by tape guides 6 and 6 disposed on both sides of the front portion. Yes. In order to protect the tape when not in use, the front surface of the pocket 5 is covered with a front lid 7 that can swing open and close, and the lower surface of the pocket 5 is covered with a shutter 8 that slides back and forth. Reference numeral 9 denotes a spring that closes the shutter 8 and urges it freely.

  The main body case 1 is composed of a hollow case in which an upper case 1a and a lower case 1b are joined together in a lid shape, and a switching piece 10 for preventing accidental erasure is accommodated in one of the corner compartments R partitioned at the rear inner corner. It is. The upper case 1a and the lower case 1b are fastened and fixed by four screws 12, and bosses 13 for screwing the screws 12 adjacent to the left and right corner compartments R are integrally formed.

  In FIG. 3, the corner compartment R that accommodates the switching piece 10 includes a rear wall 15 of the main body case 1, a guide wall 16 that is arranged in parallel with the rear wall 15 in the front-rear direction, following the right side wall of the main body case 1, The guide wall 16 is divided horizontally and horizontally by an inner end wall 17 extending perpendicularly from the inner end to the rear wall 15. As shown in FIG. 4, the rear wall 15 portion facing the corner compartment R is formed to be thinner than the other rear wall portions, and an operation window for sliding the switching piece 10 in the concave portion 15a. 18 is open. The stability of the switching piece 10 can be improved by increasing the front-rear thickness of the main body 31 by the amount provided with the recess 15a.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, a slide recess 19 is formed in the bottom wall of the corner compartment R corresponding to the slide area of the switching piece 10, and the slide recess 19 is identified on the case side end side. A hole 20 is opened. A positioning hole 21 is formed in a vertically penetrating manner inside the bottom wall of the corner compartment R adjacent to the identification hole 20. The previous boss 13 is integrally formed on the front side of the guide wall 16. An exit / exit 22 is formed between the rear wall 15 and the inner end wall 17, and a moderation wall (moderation body) 23 parallel to the rear wall 15 is formed continuously with the outer surface of the exit / exit 22. . The moderation wall 23 is formed only on the lower case 1b side, and also serves as a guide wall for the slide leg 33 of the switching piece 10.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the switching piece 10 has a vertically long rectangular parallelepiped main body portion 31 having a plug portion 30 on the bottom surface, and a tilt restriction that is continuously extended vertically from the upper and lower left ends of the main body portion 31. The piece 32 and the slide leg 33, the elastically deformable engagement arm 34 disposed between the tilt restricting piece 32 and the slide leg 33, and a vertically long shape that bulges along the rear right edge of the main body 31. The operation piece 35 is integrally provided.

  The tilt restricting piece 32 and the slide leg 33 are continuously provided along the rear surface of the main body 31, and the front and rear thicknesses of both 32 and 33 are set smaller than the front and rear thickness of the main body 31. It is. In this embodiment, the front and rear thicknesses of the tilt regulating piece 32 and the slide leg 33 are set to be slightly less than half of the front and rear thickness of the main body 31. As described above, the thicknesses of the tilt regulating piece 32 and the slide leg 33 are set small so that the tilt regulating piece 32 and the slide leg 33 move outward from the corner compartment R as shown by an imaginary line in FIG. This is to prevent the leading ends of both 32 and 33 from approaching the winding area Z of the recording tape 2 in the state of the above. As shown in FIG. 5, the vertical dimension h of the tilt regulating piece 32 and the slide leg 33 and the vertical dimension h of the main body 31 are the same, and are set to be substantially the same as the vertical dimension H of the corner compartment R. Actually, the former dimension h is set slightly smaller than the latter dimension H. This dimensional difference may be a gap that allows the switching piece 10 to slide back and forth without resistance, and is, for example, 0.5 mm or less.

  The engaging arm 34 is formed so that the front surface thereof is flush with the front surface of the slide leg 33, and the front-rear thickness of the arm portion is approximately half of the front-rear thickness of the slide leg 33, and can be elastically deformed in the front-rear direction. It is as. A triangular moderation protrusion 36 is integrally formed on the front surface of the engaging arm 34 near the protruding end. When the moderation protrusion 36 rides on the previous moderation wall 23, the engagement arm 34 is elastically deformed toward the rear of the case. Further, at both ends of the slide area of the switching piece 10, the moderation protrusion 36 is engaged and held at the end of the moderation wall 23 or the end of the inner end wall 17 to restrict the free movement of the switching piece 10. Yes.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the switching piece 10 loads the main body 31 into the corner compartment R in a state where the tilting restriction pieces 32 and the protruding ends of the slide legs 33 face the exit / exit 22. In this assembled state, the operation window 18 is closed by the main body 31 and a face wall continuous to the main body 31, and the identification hole 20 is plugged on the lower surface of the main body 31 as shown in FIG. It is blocked by. Therefore, in the state where the tape cartridge is loaded in the tape drive, the detection pin P of the tape drive is received by the plug portion 30 and cannot enter the corner compartment R. Only in this write-permitted state, the information signal recorded on the recording tape 2 can be erased and a new information signal can be written.

  When the operation piece 35 is slid to the left along the operation window 18 from the above state, the tilt regulating piece 32 and the slide leg 33 are guided to the exit / exit 22 and advance to the outside of the corner compartment R, At the same time, the moderation protrusion 36 rides on the moderation wall 23 and elastically deforms the engagement arm 34. When the operation piece 35 is further slid leftward, the moderation protrusion 36 gets over the moderation wall 23 and the engagement arm 34 returns to the free state by its own elasticity. In this state, the main body 31 is received by the inner end wall 17 and the identification hole 20 is completely opened. Therefore, the detection pin P of the tape drive can enter the corner compartment R through the identification hole 20, and the information signal recorded on the recording tape 2 cannot be erased, so that writing is prohibited. At this time, as indicated by an imaginary line in FIG. 4, one side of the moderation protrusion 36 is engaged and held at the end of the moderation wall 23, so that the switching piece 10 does not return to the write permission state.

  As described above, if the tilt restricting piece 32 is provided continuously on the upper portion of the main body 31 separately from the slide leg 33, the tilt restricting piece 32 may be placed on the upper case 1a even if the switching piece 10 is about to tilt during the slide operation. Since the tilting is regulated by coming into contact with the inner surface of the wall, the entire switching piece 10 does not tilt. Therefore, even if the switching piece 10 has a high center-of-gravity position, the entire switching piece 10 can be held upright in an appropriate posture, and the identification hole 20 can be accurately closed by the plug portion 30, thereby enabling the detection pin P to The detection result can be optimized, and the erroneous erasure prevention function can be stably exhibited.

  In the above embodiment, the moderation body 23 is formed in the shape of a wall, but it is not necessary. For example, a pair of left and right pins can be erected near both ends of the slide stroke of the moderation protrusion 36 to form the moderation body 23. In that case, the switching arm 10 can be held in position by providing the engaging arm 34 with a recess replacing the moderation protrusion 36 and engaging the recess with a pair of left and right pins.

  The present invention can also be applied to a so-called single reel type tape cartridge having a single tape reel inside the main body case. Of course, the present invention can also be applied to a tape cartridge in which two tape reels are arranged inside the main body case. When the front and rear width of the main body case has a margin, all of the sliding regions of the tilt regulating piece 32 and the slide leg 33 can be guided by the guide wall corresponding to the moderation wall 23.

It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows an erroneous erasure prevention structure. It is an internal top view which shows schematic structure of a tape cartridge. It is a disassembled perspective view which shows an erroneous erasure prevention structure. It is the sectional view on the AA line in FIG. It is the BB sectional view taken on the line in FIG. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the erroneous erasure prevention structure which concerns on a comparative example.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main body case 15 Back wall 16 Guide wall 17 Inner end wall 20 Identification hole 22 Exit / exit 30 Plug part 31 Main body part 32 Tilt-regulating piece 33 Slide leg R Corner section room

Claims (3)

In the rear inner corner of the main body case that accommodates the wound recording tape, there is a corner compartment that accommodates a switching piece for preventing accidental erasure,
The switching piece includes a vertically long main body portion having a stopper portion on a bottom surface, a tilt regulating piece and a slide leg that are continuously extended in parallel to an upper end and a lower end on one side of the main body portion, and the tilt regulating piece, An elastically deformable engagement arm disposed between the slide legs,
The corner section chamber is defined by a rear wall of the main body case, a guide wall disposed in parallel with the rear wall in the front-rear direction, and an inner end wall extending from the inner end of the guide wall toward the rear wall. Has been
An operation window for sliding the switching piece and an identification hole opened and closed by the plug portion of the switching piece are opened on the rear wall and the bottom wall of the main body case facing the corner section room, respectively. And
The tape cartridge in which the vertical dimension of the tilt regulating piece and the slide leg and the vertical dimension of the main body are set to be substantially the same as the vertical dimension of the corner compartment. The front and rear thicknesses of the tilt restricting piece and the slide leg that are continuously arranged along the rear surface of the main body part are set smaller than the front and rear thicknesses of the main body part,
The tape cartridge according to claim 1, wherein an exit / retreat opening for slidingly guiding the tilt regulating piece and the slide leg is formed between the rear wall and the inner end wall of the main body case. A moderation body that elastically deforms the engagement arm is provided on the outer surface of the exit / exit facing the sliding area of the engagement arm,
The engaging arm is formed with a moderation protrusion that rides on the moderation body,
The tape cartridge according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the moderation protrusion is engaged and held by the moderation body at both ends of the slide area of the switching piece.

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