JP2508450B2 - Shutter opening / closing mechanism of disk cartridge - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a shutter movably attached to a cartridge containing a disc such as an optical disc or a magneto-optical disc so as to open and close an opening for reading or writing a signal. The present invention relates to a shutter opening / closing mechanism of a disc cartridge which is opened / closed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a disk cartridge containing a recording medium such as an optical disk or a magneto-optical disk, a recording and / or reproducing means such as an optical pickup is provided for recording and reading an information signal on the recording medium. It is known that an opening is provided and a shutter for opening and closing the opening is attached.

6 and 7 show a mechanism for opening and closing the shutter when the disk cartridge having the shutter for opening and closing the opening is mounted in the recording / reproducing apparatus.
There has been proposed a shutter opening / closing mechanism for a disc cartridge as shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 6, the shutter 101 attached to the disc cartridge 100 slides on the surface of the upper half and / or the lower half of the disc cartridge 100 to be opened for recording / reproduction or the like. The opening 103 is opened and closed. The shutter 101 is opened and closed by an arm 104 rotatably arranged in the recording / reproducing apparatus in which the disc cartridge 100 is mounted. That is, when the disc cartridge 100 is inserted into the recording / reproducing apparatus, a pin-shaped engaging protrusion 105 is provided at the tip of the arm 104 so as to stand upright.
However, the shutter 101 is engaged and disengaged with the engaging groove 106 provided in a part of the shutter 101 to open and close the shutter 101.

The arm 104 is rotated by inserting the disc cartridge 100. A biasing means such as a coil spring is attached to the arm 104 to urge the arm 104 so that the disc cartridge 100 is inserted. A biasing force substantially proportional to is applied to the arm 104. Then, when the disc cartridge 100 is sufficiently pushed into the apparatus, the mounting of the disc cartridge 100 at the predetermined mounting position is completed.
In addition, the disc cartridge 100 from the predetermined mounting position
The ejection operation is performed by receiving the restoring force of the urging means for urging the arm 104 and the urging force of the spring disposed in the disc cartridge 100 for urging the shutter 101 in the direction of closing the opening 103. Be seen.

By the way, such an insertion operation of the disc cartridge 100 into a predetermined mounting position is performed by being guided by guide grooves 106, 106 provided on both sides of the disc cartridge 100 on the device side into which the disc cartridge 100 is inserted and engaged. . In a part of the guide grooves 106, 106 for guiding the insertion of the disc cartridge 100, the end of the upper half of the disc cartridge 100 is orthogonal to the main surface of the disc cartridge 100, as shown in the side view in FIG. The leaf springs 107, 107 are provided to push downward. The leaf springs 107, 107 press and support the inserted disk cartridge 100,
The disk cartridge 100 has a function of vertically positioning the disk cartridge 100, and when the disk cartridge 100 is pressed, the disk cartridge 100 is inserted or rubbed by friction or the like.
It has a function of limiting the moving speed of the disc cartridge 100 at the time of ejection. And this leaf spring 10
By applying the braking force by 7, it is possible to control a sharp ejection operation at the time of ejection, and it is possible to control the disk cartridge 100 so as to protrude from the loading / unloading port of the device body by a certain amount during the ejection operation.

[0007]

However, when the leaf spring 107 is used as described above to control the moving speed of the disc cartridge 100 when the disc cartridge 100 is inserted and ejected, the dimensional accuracy of the cartridge and the leaf spring, etc. Therefore, it is difficult to control the moving speed of the disc cartridge 100 to a constant value. In particular, it controls the protruding position from the insertion / removal opening of the disc cartridge during ejection,
It becomes difficult to realize stable ejection operation and protect the disk cartridge.

That is, the disk cartridge 100
Is usually a molded product made of plastic or the like, and the thickness of the disk cartridge 100 itself varies due to the difference in the molding thickness of the plastic material during molding and the dimensional change due to temperature characteristics. Therefore, the pressing force of the leaf spring 107 does not become constant, and the disc cartridge 100
Of the leaf spring 107 during the discharge of
A certain amount of braking is not applied to the disc cartridge 100, which causes variations in the moving speed and the ejected amount.

Further, the urging force to the disk cartridge 100 also varies depending on the dimensional accuracy of the leaf spring 107, and similarly, the frictional force of the leaf spring 107 at the time of ejection also varies, so that the moving speed and the ejection amount vary. Will occur.

Therefore, in view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention, regardless of which disc cartridge is used,
A shutter opening / closing mechanism for the disc cartridge, which provides stable braking to the disc cartridge to be ejected, enables the disc cartridge to be ejected reliably at a constant speed, and is easily mounted on the recording / reproducing apparatus. Is to provide.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is a cartridge for accommodating a disk and having an opening for recording and / or reproducing an information signal on the disk. In a shutter opening / closing mechanism of a disk cartridge for opening / closing the shutter of a disk cartridge having a shutter movably attached to open / close the opening, the opening / closing mechanism faces the insertion direction of the disk cartridge and faces the front side of the cartridge. A shutter opening / closing arm that has an engaging means that engages with a part of the front wall of the shutter and that is rotated by the disk cartridge that is inserted; and the opening / closing arm that rotates in the ejecting direction of the disk cartridge. Urging means for urging dynamically, and the shutter opening / closing arm are connected,
A damper means for constantly braking the rotation of the shutter opening / closing arm by the biasing means when the disc cartridge is ejected is provided.

[0012]

The shutter opening / closing mechanism of the disk cartridge according to the present invention is a damper means for constantly applying a braking force to the shutter opening / closing arm which is rotated by receiving the urging force of the urging means when the disk cartridge is ejected. Is provided, the rotation speed of the shutter opening / closing arm rotated by the urging means is controlled during the ejecting operation of the disc cartridge.

[0014]

Specific embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Prior to the description of the shutter opening / closing mechanism of the disk cartridge according to the present invention, the disk cartridge 2 in which the shutter opening / closing operation is performed by the shutter opening / closing mechanism will be described. This disc cartridge 2 is configured by accommodating a disc 2a such as an optical disc or a magneto-optical disc, which is a disc-shaped recording medium, in a cartridge 11 formed by abutting and coupling a pair of upper and lower halves. And the disk cartridge 2
The cartridge 11 constituting the above is provided with an opening 17 for recording and / or reproducing an information signal that exposes a part of the signal recording area of the disc 2a housed here to the outside over the inner and outer circumferences. There is. The openings 17 are formed at positions facing the upper and lower surfaces of the disc cartridge 2, respectively.

The disk cartridge 2 also includes
Across the upper surface, lower surface and front surface 18 of the cartridge 11,
A shutter 3 that slides on the surface of the cartridge 11 to open and close the opening 17 is provided. This shutter 3
The front wall corresponding to the front surface 18 of the disc cartridge 2 is provided with a notch portion 13 for engaging with a shutter opening / closing engaging projection 14 which is attached to the tip end side of a shutter opening / closing arm 4 to be described later. Notched. The notch 13 is formed in the middle of the front wall of the shutter 3.

The disc cartridge 2 is not limited to the double-sided type depending on the disc 2a housed therein, but may be a single-sided type. Further, in the double-sided type disc cartridge 2, the opening / closing direction of the shutter 3 is not limited to one direction with respect to the disc cartridge 2 and may be opened in both directions. When the disc cartridge 2 is a double-sided type, the shutter opening / closing arms 4 are provided as a pair as shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. 1, and either one of them is provided depending on the surface to be used by the disc cartridge 2. The engaging projection 14 provided on the shutter opening / closing arm 4 is engaged with the notch 13 of the shutter 3.

The shutter opening / closing arm 4 which is urged to rotate by the tension spring 7 constituting the shutter opening / closing mechanism according to the present invention is moved by the tension spring 7 when the disc cartridge 2 is inserted into the recording / reproducing apparatus. The disc cartridge 2 is rotated against the biasing force, and has a function of moving the shutter 3 in the direction of opening the opening 17 with this rotation. 2 is discharged, the shutter 3 is moved in the direction in which the opening 17 is in the original closed state, and the tension spring 7 of the shutter opening / closing arm 4 is moved.
It has a function of pushing out the disc cartridge 2 itself toward the ejection side with a rotational urging force that rotates by receiving the elastic return force of.

Such a shutter opening / closing arm 4 has a shutter 3 attached to the disc cartridge 2 at its tip.
Is provided with an engaging projection 14 for engaging with the notch 13 of the disk cartridge 2, and when the disk cartridge 2 is inserted and ejected,
The movement of the disc cartridge 2 is controlled via the engagement protrusions 14.

The shutter opening / closing arm 4 has a rotating shaft 19 at the rear of the mounting position of the disk cartridge 2 and has a structure of rotating about the rotating shaft 19, but is integrated with the shutter opening / closing arm 4. A tension spring 7 stretched between a spring attachment piece 15 that is attached in a static manner and a spring locking piece 8 that is provided on the apparatus side is rotationally biased in the direction of arrow X in FIG. The rotation biasing position of the shutter opening / closing arm 4 by the tension spring 7 is indicated by a chain line in FIG. 1 by contacting one side of the shutter opening / closing arm 4 with the rotation position restricting projection 16 provided on the apparatus side. It is restricted to the position shown.

The shutter opening / closing arm 4 is in an initial state in which the disc cartridge 2 is not inserted at all when the shutter opening / closing arm 4 is in a position where the rotation biasing position is regulated by contacting the rotation position regulating projection 16. When the shutter opening / closing arm 4 is in this position, the engaging projection 14 provided at the tip of the shutter opening / closing arm 4 faces the notch 13 provided in the shutter 3 of the disc cartridge 2 inserted into the recording / reproducing apparatus. It is in a position where it can be engaged with the notch 13.

In this state, when the disc cartridge 2 is inserted into the recording / reproducing apparatus, the engagement protrusion 14 at the tip of the shutter opening / closing arm 4 engages with the notch 13 provided in the shutter 3. From here, when the disk cartridge 2 is further inserted into the recording / reproducing apparatus and mounted at the cartridge mounting position in the recording / reproducing apparatus, the shutter opening / closing arm 4 resists the urging force of the tension spring 7 and is indicated by an arrow Y in FIG. Angle to direction θ
The shutter 3 is rotated by an amount to move the shutter 3 to a position where the opening 17 is completely opened. Then, the shutter opening / closing arm 4 extends the tension spring 7 and is held in a state where the tension spring 7 accumulates the elastic return force.

The pushing force for ejecting the disc cartridge 2 by the shutter opening / closing arm 4 is distributed in the disc cartridge 2 in addition to the elastic restoring force of the tension spring 7 for urging the shutter opening / closing arm 4 to rotate. A spring force such as a shutter return spring that is provided to urge the shutter 3 in the direction of closing the opening 17 becomes a combined force.

A semicircular shape for transmitting the load of the damper mechanism 1 described later to the shutter opening / closing arm 4 is provided on the rotary shaft 19 side provided on the base end side of the shutter opening / closing arm 4 having the above-described structure. The arm fixing gear 5 is attached. The semi-circular arm rotation gear 5 is formed in a semi-circular shape centering on the rotation shaft 19, and as shown in FIG. 2, a gear portion 5a is formed on a disk-shaped peripheral side surface. The output gear 6 of the damper mechanism 1 is meshed with the gear portion 5a of the rotary gear 5 so as to be connected to the damper mechanism 1.

Next, the damper mechanism 1 for braking the rotation of the shutter opening / closing arm 4 via the arm rotating gear 5 to realize a constant discharge amount and discharge speed of the disc cartridge 2 will be described. In the damper mechanism 1, as described above, the gear portion 5a of the arm rotation gear portion 5 and the output gear 6 of the damper mechanism 1 are meshed with each other to be coupled to each other, so that the above-described braking is applied. It has become. That is, a load is applied to the output gear 6 when the output gear 6 rotates due to an internal structure to be described later, and the load is transmitted to the shutter opening / closing arm 4 via the arm fixing gear 5, and the rotation speed of the shutter opening / closing arm 4 is changed. The biasing force of the tension spring 7 attached to the shutter opening / closing arm 4 (may include the biasing force of the return spring of the shutter 3).
And the load of the damper mechanism 1 and the weight of the disc cartridge 2 are balanced. Therefore, for example, the ejection speed and the ejection amount at the time of ejecting the disc cartridge 2 are determined depending on the rotation speed of the shutter opening / closing arm 4 which is rotated by receiving the elastic return force of the tension spring 7. Since the values are uniform as described above, the discharging speed and the discharging amount of the disc cartridge 2 become desired constant values, and an ideal discharging operation is realized.

Now, the damper mechanism 1 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 3. In the damper mechanism 1, the output gear 6 that meshes with the arm fixing gear 5 of the shutter opening / closing arm 4 on the base 31. The intermediate gear 32 and the worm gear 33 are attached to the worm gear 3 respectively.
A damper member 34 that forms a load is attached to the shaft of No. 3. The base 31 includes the gears 6, 32, 3
3 and the like are arranged at predetermined positions, and the lid portion 30 is attached so as to house the gears 6, 32, 33 when used. The output gear 6 is an arm rotation gear 5 fixed to the shutter opening / closing arm 4 as described above.
And has a large diameter spur tooth gear portion 6a and a small diameter spur tooth gear portion 6b which are coaxial with each other. Gear 6
The part b is a mechanism that meshes with the arm rotation gear 5. The intermediate gear 32 is a gear for transmitting the rotation of the output gear 6 to the worm gear 33, and is a gear for transmitting the load of the damper member 34 attached to the worm gear 33 to the output gear 6. This intermediate gear 32 also has a large diameter spur gear portion 32a and a small diameter spur gear portion 32b that are coaxial with each other.
b meshes with the spur gear portion 6a of the output gear 6. The worm gear 33 is for transmitting rotation to the intermediate gear 32 to the damper member 34, and the spiral gear portion of the worm gear 33 meshes with the spur gear portion 32 a of the intermediate gear 32.

The damper member 34 attached to the rotary shaft of the worm gear 33 has an elastic piece 36 made of an elastic material in a predetermined shape inside a cylindrical body 35. The structure and operation of the damper member 34 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4A and 4B, which are sectional views taken along the line AA of FIG. The substantially S-shaped elastic piece 36 has a slight distance Δt from the inner peripheral wall 35 a, and the substantially S-shaped elastic piece 36 forms the rotary shaft 3 of the worm gear 33.
7 is fitted and arranged. As shown in FIG. 4A, the elastic piece 36 has a distal end portion 3 of the elastic piece 36.
When the rotary shaft 37 of the worm gear 33 is rotating or is not rotating in the direction r in FIG. 4A, which is a direction in which 8 and 38 do not precede, a slight distance Δt from the inner peripheral wall 35a is maintained. Therefore, the elastic piece 36 is
The coefficient of friction between the inner peripheral wall 35a and the inner peripheral wall 35a does not become so large, and the degree of load thereof does not become large. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4B, the tip end portions 38, 3 of the elastic piece 36 are
When the rotation shaft 37 of the worm gear 33 is rotating in the s direction in FIG.
A centrifugal force corresponding to the rotation acts on the elastic piece 36, and the tip portions 38, 38 thereof come into contact with the inner peripheral wall 35a, and this becomes a frictional force at the time of rotation, which is in the s direction in FIG. 4B. The rotation increases the load. Therefore, the damper member 34
Can generate a load depending on the rotation direction from the operation of the elastic piece 36 housed inside, and
The rotation direction in which the load is large as shown in FIG. 4B is set in the gears 5, 6, 32 by the operation of the shutter opening / closing arm 4 when the disc cartridge 2 is ejected.
Rotation shaft 37 of worm gear 33 transmitted via 33
When the disk cartridge 2 is ejected, the shutter opening / closing arm 4 is subjected to desired braking from the increased load of the damper member 34 due to the rotational movement thereof, as described above. The discharging operation is performed at a constant rotation speed. Moreover, in the shutter opening / closing mechanism of the present embodiment, when the disk cartridge 2 is inserted, the load on the damper member 34 is reduced, so that the disk cartridge 2 can be smoothly inserted.

As another example of the damper mechanism having such a directivity, a damper mechanism as shown in FIG. 5 can be used. The damper mechanism 51 shown in FIG. 5 has a fixed engagement member 52 fixed to the apparatus main body and the like, and has a large-diameter and / or small-diameter spur gear portion 53 that rotates and engages with the fixed engagement member 52. Rotating member 55 having rotating body engaging portion 54
It consists of The rotating member 55 and the fixed engaging member 52 are engaged with each other in a groove and a protrusion to make the rotating member 55 rotatable with respect to the fixed engaging member 52. A material for applying a load, such as silicon oil 56, is present in the grooves of the portions 52 and 54,
Therefore, it can function as a damper mechanism that applies a load during rotation. The damper mechanism 51 is connected to the spur gear portion 53 of the damper mechanism 51 with respect to the arm rotating gear 5 fixed to the shutter opening / closing arm 4 used for opening / closing the shutter 3 of the disc cartridge 2. By arranging so as to mesh with each other, the rotation of the shutter opening / closing arm 4 is braked, and a desired ejection speed or ejection speed of the disc cartridge 2 can be realized.

Also, by mounting a one-way clutch on the large-diameter and / or small-diameter spur gear portion 53, the damper mechanism 51 also increases when ejecting the disc cartridge 2 and reduces it at other times. This load can be supplied to the shutter opening / closing arm 4.

As described above, since the shutter opening / closing mechanism of the disk cartridge according to the present invention is provided with the damper mechanism 1 for braking the rotation of the shutter opening / closing arm 4,
The rotation speed of the shutter opening / closing arm 4 is determined by the tension spring 7
Is determined by the balance between the elastic return force of the disk cartridge 1 and the load of the damper mechanism 1 and the weight of the disk cartridge 2.
The influence on the biasing force due to the thickness of the disc cartridge 2 and the like is extremely small. Therefore, the ejection speed of the disc cartridge 2 is not affected by the size of the disc cartridge 2 and the like, and has a desired value according to the rotation speed of the shutter opening / closing arm 4, and its ejection amount is as shown in FIG. With a constant value as shown by the distance L, an ideal discharging operation is realized.

Further, conventionally, the urging force of the tension spring 7 or the like, which is the rotational urging means of the shutter opening / closing arm 4, has been strictly designed and attached in view of the discharge amount, the discharge speed or the load at the time of insertion. As described above, in the shutter opening / closing mechanism of the disk cartridge of the present embodiment, since the damper mechanism 1 is provided, the force of the spring as the rotation urging means of the shutter opening / closing arm 4 is designed with some margin. Therefore, an ideal movement operation of the disc cartridge 2 is realized, and the shutter opening / closing arm 4 is provided.
The degree of freedom in designing the rotational urging force of is also increased.

Further, as described above, the damper mechanisms 1, 5
First, when the disc cartridge is ejected, the direction of rotation so that the braking force becomes larger than that when the disc cartridge is inserted is given, so that the load brakes the rotation of the shutter opening / closing arm 4 at the time of ejection so that the desired force is obtained. Since the discharging operation is realized and the load is small at the time of insertion, it is possible to realize a quick and smooth insertion operation.

As described above, according to the present invention, when the disc cartridge is ejected, the shutter opening / closing arm which is rotated by receiving the urging force of the urging means is connected with the damper means for constantly applying the braking when the disc cartridge is ejected. Therefore, during the ejecting operation of the disc cartridge, the rotation of the shutter opening / closing arm is braked so that the ejecting operation of the disc cartridge can be performed at a constant speed at a relatively low speed.

Since the shutter opening / closing arm is always braked by the damper means when the disc cartridge is ejected, a steep disc cartridge ejecting operation is prevented, and a large impact may be given to the disc cartridge and the shutter opening / closing arm. It can be prevented. Therefore, the disk cartridge and the shutter opening / closing arm can be protected.

In particular, according to the present invention, since the damper means for braking the shutter opening / closing arm is connected to the shutter opening / closing arm, the braking force of the damper means can be reliably transmitted to the shutter opening / closing arm. Therefore, the braking force of the damper means can be accurately transmitted to the shutter opening / closing arm, and the shutter opening / closing arm can be braked accurately and reliably. Therefore, a more stable ejection operation of the disc cartridge is realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a shutter opening / closing mechanism of a disc cartridge according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial side view of the shutter opening / closing mechanism.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing an example of a damper mechanism that constitutes a shutter opening / closing mechanism according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG. 3, in which (a) shows one state of the elastic piece and (b) shows another state of the elastic piece.

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view showing another example of the damper mechanism used in the mechanism of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing a shutter opening / closing mechanism of a conventional disc cartridge.

FIG. 7 is a side view of the shutter opening / closing mechanism.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,51 Damper mechanism 2 Disc cartridge 3 Shutter attached to the disc cartridge 4 Shutter opening / closing arm 5 Arm rotating gear 6 Output gear 7 Tension spring 13 Notch portion 14 Engaging protrusion

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A disc having a shutter for accommodating the disc and movably attached to a cartridge having an opening formed therein for recording and / or reproducing an information signal on the disc to open and close the opening. A shutter opening / closing mechanism for a disc cartridge that opens and closes the shutter of the cartridge has an engaging means that is engaged with a part of a front wall of the shutter that faces the front side of the cartridge and that faces the insertion direction of the disc cartridge. A shutter opening / closing arm that is rotated by the disk cartridge that is inserted, a biasing unit that biases the opening / closing arm to rotate in the ejecting direction of the disk cartridge, and is connected to the shutter opening / closing arm. The shutter opening / closing mechanism by the urging means at the time of ejecting the disk cartridge A shutter opening / closing mechanism for a disk cartridge, the damper opening / closing mechanism comprising: