JP2656079B2 - Double-sided head feeder for floppy disk drive - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a double-sided head feed mechanism of a floppy disk drive, and particularly to a head moving path in which upper and lower heads are brought into close contact with both sides of a floppy disk at a loading position. The present invention relates to an improvement in a double-sided head feed mechanism that enables the upper and lower heads to reciprocate along the same path and opens and closes the upper and lower heads when a floppy disk is attached and detached, thereby facilitating insertion and ejection of a disk cartridge.

2. Description of the Related Art Various types of floppy disk drives have been put into practical use in order to read / write a floppy disk, particularly a 3.5-inch type floppy disk or the like, from a magnetic medium contained in a disk cartridge.

In this type of floppy disk drive, a double-sided head type capable of reading / writing information from both sides of the floppy disk is mainly used, and these upper and lower heads move along a head moving path defined in the radial direction of the floppy disk. It is reciprocated.

A general floppy disk drive uses a vertical carriage whose longitudinal axis extends in the direction of the head moving path, and the longitudinal axis of the carriage is arranged so as to coincide with the head moving path. Is reciprocating.

In contrast to such a vertically mounted carriage, a horizontally mounted carriage in which the longitudinal axis of the carriage is arranged in a direction perpendicular to the head moving path has also been proposed in the related art, and used as needed.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in any of the above methods, the upper and lower heads must secure a space for inserting the cartridge when the disk cartridge is attached or detached. In the case of (1), the upper head is opened upward, and the insertion and ejection of the disk cartridge are performed by the gap generated at this time.

Therefore, in the conventional device, there is a problem that the thickness of the floppy disk drive is increased in order to secure a space for the upper head to jump up.

In addition, such a floppy disk drive having such a large thickness has a drawback that it cannot cope with the thinning demanded of recent computers.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional problems,
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved head feed mechanism capable of reducing the thickness of a floppy disk drive and reducing the amount of movement between a loading position and an unloading position of a carrier accommodating a disk cartridge.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method in which a single guide rail is attached to a frame at a position separated by a predetermined distance in parallel with a head moving path defined in a radial direction of a floppy disk. It is characterized by having a horizontal type carriage which is fixed and supports the carriage slidably and swingably on the guide rail.

The carriage has a lower head mounted on one end, and an upper arm to which the upper head is fixed is supported on the other end side so as to be swingable.

The carriage and the upper arm are disposed on the lower side and the upper side of the carrier. The carriage is pushed up by a push-up portion provided on the carrier, and the upper arm is moved when the carrier moves upward from the loading position to the unloading position. Are opened upward, and at the same time, the carriage is opened downward.

[Operation] Therefore, according to the present invention, the carrier moves up and down when the disk cartridge is attached and detached, and the carriage swings around the guide rail at the same time as the carrier moves up and down from the loading position to the unloading position. The lower head mounted on one end of the carriage moves downward, the upper arm swingably fixed to the other end opens upward, and the upper head moves upward. By this double opening operation, it is possible to obtain a sufficient head opening space for attaching and detaching a disk cartridge, even though it is a thin floppy disk drive.

Further, according to the present invention, not only the upper arm but also the carriage performs the opening action, so that the required moving amount of the carrier moving from the loading position to the unloading position can be made smaller than before, and the carrier driving mechanism can be simplified. It is possible to configure easily and without difficulty.

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a cross section of a main part of a floppy disk drive in which a double-sided head feed mechanism according to the present invention is incorporated.
This shows a state where a disk cartridge is inserted in a floppy disk drive in a loading state. Also,
FIG. 2 is a plan view of this embodiment, showing a state where the carriage has been moved to the center of the floppy disk of the disk cartridge in the loading state.

In the figure, a frame 12 includes a carrier 12 as is well known.
Are provided so as to be vertically movable between a loading position and an unloading position. The vertical movement of the carrier 12 is controlled by a slide plate or the like. However, since the carrier mechanism is well known in the related art, description and detailed illustration thereof are omitted in this embodiment.

The carrier 12 itself has a frame shape, and a disk cartridge 14 can be removably mounted therein. The disk cartridge 14 shown in the embodiment is a 3.5-inch type disk cartridge, and a floppy disk 16 is rotatably housed therein as is well known.

In the illustrated floppy disk loading position, the disk cartridge 14 is positioned by a plurality of reference pins 18 and 20 provided on the frame 10.

As shown in FIG. 2, a pulley 22 that rotates integrally with the rotary hub of the floppy disk 16 is rotatably provided substantially at the center of the floppy disk drive, and the pulley 22 is rotated by a spindle motor 24 via a belt 26. Is rotated, a desired rotating action is given to the floppy disk 16.

The upper and lower heads are in close contact with both sides of the floppy disk 16, and the upper and lower heads are indicated by reference numerals 28 and 30 in the figure. As is well known, these upper and lower heads 28 and 30 need to integrally reciprocate along a head moving path 100 (FIG. 2) defined in the radial direction of the floppy disk 16. An improved double-sided head feed mechanism for moving the vertical heads 28 and 30 is provided.

In order to carry out the reciprocating movement along the above-described head moving path 100 while carrying the two heads 28 and 30, the lower head 30 is mounted and fixed to one end of the carriage 32 via a lower head mounting plate 34, The upper head 28 is fixed to an upper arm 36 that is swingably supported by the carriage 32.

The carriage 32 is swingably and swingably supported with respect to a guide rail 38. In the present invention, the guide rail 38 is positioned at a predetermined distance in parallel with the head moving path 100. Consists of a single guide rail fixed at 10. Although not shown in detail, the guide rail 38 is formed of a round bar whose both ends are firmly fixed to the frame 10 and serves as a swing shaft of the carriage 32 described later in the present invention, which is a feature of the present invention. This allows a double opening operation of a certain carriage and an upper arm.

The carriage 32 is formed by bending a flat plate in the embodiment, and is disposed below the carrier 14, and a rack plate 40 fixed to a part of the carriage 32 is engaged with a pinion 44 of a feed motor 42. The upper and lower heads 28, 30 can reciprocate along the head moving path 100 via the carriage 32 and the upper arm 36 by the rotation of the feed motor 42.

As described above, the carriage 32 has a lower head
30 is fixed, and in the embodiment, the lower head 30 is fixed.
Is fixed to the lower head mounting plate 34 via a lower head substrate 45 by bonding or the like. The other end of the carriage 32 extends upward bypassing the carrier 12 and has one end forming an upper arm fixing portion 32a.

On the other hand, the upper arm 36 connects the upper head 28 to the upper head substrate 46.
And an upper arm mounting spring 48 made of a leaf spring is fixed to the other end. The free end of the upper arm fixing spring 48 is
It is extended to a, and one end side is firmly fixed by the arm retainer 50.

Therefore, the upper arm 36 is swingably supported by the carriage 32 on the upper surface side of the carrier 12.

As is apparent from FIG. 2, one end of each of the arm legs 36a and 36b provided on both side surfaces of the upper arm 36 extends to the upper surface of the upper arm fixing portion 32a, so that the position of the upper arm 36 with respect to the carriage 32 is correct. It has established. Further, the two arm springs 52 held by the upper arm fixing portion 32a are
The upper arm 36 is placed between the upper arm 36 and the upper arm 36, and constantly urges the upper arm 36 toward the carriage 32, so that the upper and lower heads 28, 30 are in close contact with both surfaces of the floppy disk 16 in a loading state.

In the present invention, when the carrier 12 moves upward from the loading position to the unloading position, the upper arm 36 is opened upward, and at the same time, the lower head 30 mounting side of the carriage 32 is opened downward, To this end, in the present invention, the carrier 12 is provided with a raised portion, and the raised portion in the embodiment is a carriage 12.
Is formed by a carriage push-up spring 54 fixed to the upper surface of the carriage. The carriage push-up spring 54 has a substantially L-shape, and one long side thereof is fixed to the upper surface of the carrier 12, and the other short side extends close to the lower surface side of the upper arm fixing portion 32 a of the carriage 32.

Therefore, the push-up spring 54 can push up the carriage 32 upward at a position opposite to the upper and lower heads 28 and 30 with respect to the guide rail 38.

Further, according to the present embodiment, the upper arm 36 is provided with the upper arm height adjuster 56, and when the carrier 12 moves upward to the unloading position, the upper surface of the carrier 12 is directly The upper arm 36 comes into contact with the upper arm height adjuster 56 and moves upward against the arm spring 52.

The embodiment of the present invention has the above configuration, and its operation will be described below.

In FIG. 1 described above, the carriage 32 does not contact the carriage push-up spring 54 at all, and similarly, the upper arm 36 does not contact the upper arm height adjuster 56.
A closing urging force by an arm spring 52 is applied between the carriage 32 and the upper arm 36.

Therefore, the upper and lower heads 28 and 30 are in close contact with the upper and lower surfaces of the floppy disk 16 at a predetermined pressure at the loading position shown in the figure.

On the other hand, when removing the disk cartridge 14 from the carrier 12, as is well known, the carrier 12 moves upward from the loading position shown in FIG. 1 to the unloading position shown in FIG. When the disk cartridge 14 is taken out at the unloading position, the upper and lower heads 28 and 30 must be separated from the floppy disk 16 and retreated from the area where the disk cartridge 14 is taken out.

Conventionally, the disk cartridge 14 moves upward and separates from the lower head 30. At this time, only the upper head 28 opens upward to form a take-out area for the disk cartridge 14. In the apparatus, there is a problem that the vertical movement distance of the disk cartridge 14 must be increased, and as described above, there is a disadvantage that the thickness of the floppy disk increases.

The present invention eliminates such a conventional disadvantage. As is apparent from FIG. 3, when the carrier 12 is moved upward, the carriage push-up spring 54 first fixes the upper arm of the carriage 32. Push the part 32a upward. Subsequently, the carrier 12 itself contacts the upper arm height adjuster 56 and pushes it upward.

As is clear from the unloading position in FIG.
The upward push-up of the upper arm fixing portion 32a of the carriage 32 by the above-described carriage push-up spring 54
2 is caused to swing clockwise about the guide rail 38 in the figure.

Accordingly, the lower head 30 located on the opposite side of the upper arm fixing portion 32a across the guide rail 38 withdraws from the loading position shown in FIG. In addition, even if the amount of upward movement of the carrier 12 is reduced, a space is created in which the disk cartridge 14 can be sufficiently removed from the carrier 12 without colliding with the lower head 30.

Of course, at this time, the upper arm 36 is opened upward by the contact of the upper arm height adjuster 56 with the carrier 12 as described above, and the upper head 28 can be sufficiently retracted from the disk cartridge 14 as in the related art. it can.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the disk cartridge 14
This has the effect of creating a sufficient space for taking out the carrier by reducing the amount of upward movement of the carrier 12.

In the above-described embodiment, the carriage push-up spring 54 having resiliency is used to move the carriage 32 upward and open the lower head 30 downward. Of course, in the present invention, the carriage push-up spring 54 is used. The portion can have any other shape, and the push-up portion can directly push up the upper arm 36 to swing the carriage 32 using the push-up force as it is.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the position of the push-up portion is provided at a position opposite to the upper and lower heads with respect to the guide rail.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the carrier opens the carriage downward and the upper arm upward when the disk cartridge is unloaded. It is possible to move away from the head and move the carrier from the loading position to the unloading position less, so the floppy disk thickness is reduced without providing extra extra space in the floppy disk frame. There is an advantage that you can.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a principal part showing a preferred embodiment of a floppy disk drive incorporating a double-sided head feed mechanism according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of a principal part of FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing a state when the loading state is shifted from an unloading state to a loading state. 10 Frame 12 Carrier 14 Disk cartridge 16 Floppy disk 28 Upper head 30 Lower head 32 Carriage 36 Upper arm 38 Guide rail 52 Spring lift-up spring

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A disk cartridge containing a floppy disk is detachably mounted and has a carrier which can take a loading position and an unloading position by moving up and down, and both sides of the floppy disk in a loading state. A double-sided head feed mechanism of a floppy disk drive in which the upper and lower heads that are in close contact with each other can reciprocate along a head moving path defined in the radial direction of the floppy disk, at a position separated by a predetermined distance in parallel with the head moving path A single guide rail fixed to a frame with a carrier, a carriage disposed below the carrier, slidably and swingably supported by the guide rail, and a lower head mounted on one end side; and the carrier The upper end of the carriage is swingably supported by the other end of the carriage, and the upper head is fixed. An upper arm, and a push-up portion provided on the vertically moving carrier and capable of pushing up the other end of the carriage at a position opposite to the upper and lower heads with respect to the guide rail, and loading the carrier. When moving upward from the position to the unloading position, the push-up portion pushes up the other end of the carriage, swings the carriage around the guide rail as a fulcrum, and raises the upper head together with the upper arm fixed to the other end. A double-sided head feed mechanism for a floppy disk drive, wherein the lower head mounted on one end of the carriage is moved downward while moving the lower head in the same direction.