JP2674469B2 - Auto player - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an auto player capable of high-speed access to a recording medium such as an auto player for automatically playing a disc, which is particularly compact and
The present invention relates to an auto player that is lightweight and can be configured simply.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An auto player having an elevating section for selectively and automatically playing a recording medium such as a disk comprises a vertically stacked stocker for housing a plurality of recording media and a recording / playback section for playing the recording media. .

The elevating unit moves to a selected position in the stocker and moves up and down in order to move the recording medium in and out of the stocker and transfer the recording medium between the stocker and the recording / reproducing unit. The lifting / lowering operation is performed with the recording / playback unit disposed at the lower position of the unit.

The elevating section is provided with an elevating and lowering driving section composed of a belt or the like on an elevating table which is loaded with a recording medium and moves up and down. This lift drive unit can stop at a fixed position against the weight of the lift table by adopting a large reduction ratio with respect to the drive shaft, and the disk advancing and retracting mechanism on the lift table moves the disk at the commanded height position. Exchange recording media such as the mounted handling tray with the stocker,
Moves up and down for delivery to the recording / playback section below.

[0005]

However, while the ascending / descending distance is increased in response to the increase in the height dimension due to the increase in the stocker storage disk, the access time is required to be shortened because the performance interruption is disliked. Therefore, it takes a lot of time to move up and down depending on the conventional drive unit with a large reduction ratio.
Further, when the disc is loaded into or unloaded from the stocker, the vibration may cause the lift table to move, which may impose a force on the tray or the disc advancing / retreating mechanism.

To solve these problems, a balance mechanism that balances the weight of the elevator is used as a method for easily performing high-speed elevator drive control. This balance mechanism is slidable with a guide rail that guides in the vertical direction. An elevating weight having a predetermined weight is required, and this elevating weight increases the weight of the entire auto player, otherwise it causes an increase in the dimension in the height direction, and the elevating stand does not move when the disc is taken in and out. Since it is necessary to separately provide a fixing means,
Inevitably, the device becomes complicated and the manufacturing cost increases.

It is an object of the present invention to easily and compactly construct an elevating part of an auto player capable of accommodating a large number of recording media and capable of accessing each recording medium at high speed. The object is to simply configure the fixing means of the elevating part that allows the recording medium to be reliably taken in and out.

[0008]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a first aspect of the present invention relates to a stocker for vertically accommodating a plurality of recording media, a recording / reproducing section for inputting / outputting information to / from the recording media, and these stockers. In an auto player provided with a vertically movable elevator for transferring a recording medium between a recording / reproducing unit, the elevator of the automatic player is provided with a elevator via a deceleration rotation mechanism that is interlocked with the elevator operation. A swing arm that swings corresponding to the range of motion is provided, and a spring that gives a substantially constant acting force in the direction of canceling the weight of the lift table is connected to the swing arm.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a vertically stacked stocker for accommodating a plurality of recording media, a recording / reproducing unit for inputting / outputting information to / from the recording media, and a vertically movable elevator for transferring the recording media between them. In the above-mentioned auto player having an openable and closable gate for holding a recording medium in the stocker inside the stocker, the elevator section of the auto player is linked with the gate of the stocker to A lock body was provided to lock the lifting operation.

[0010]

According to the present invention, the spring acting on the swing end of the swing arm causes the swing arm to receive a substantially constant torque within its swing range, and this torque corresponds to the swing motion. Since a substantially constant load is applied in the entire lifting range of the lifting platform that moves up and down, if this load is made equal to the weight of the lifting platform, lifting control can be performed in both vertical directions without receiving the weight load of the lifting platform. Become.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the gate is opened when the recording medium is taken in and out between the elevator and the stocker, and the lock body operates in conjunction with the gate, whereby the elevator is
It is fixed so that it does not move when inserting or removing the disc, without requiring complicated control.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of a system configuration including an auto player according to the present invention.

The auto player 1 selects a disc from among a large number of contained discs based on a command and performs recording / reproducing for the selected disc, and processes the operation command of the auto player 1 and the recording / reproducing information. It is connected to the control unit 2 which performs. The control unit 2 includes a remote controller operation unit 3, an audio / video input / output device (not shown), and the like.

FIG. 2 is a rear side perspective view showing the internal structure of the auto player according to the embodiment of the present invention.

The auto player 1 has a multistage stocker 4 capable of accommodating a plurality of discs as recording media in a freely retractable manner on its front side, and selectively ejects the discs of the stocker 4 to move up and down. A raising / lowering unit 5 for performing and a recording / reproducing unit 6 for recording / reproducing information on the disc transferred by the raising / lowering unit 5 and the like are provided on the rear surface side, and a player control unit (not shown) for controlling the operation of the auto player Equipped with.

In order to accommodate a large number of discs and to make the outer shape of the device compact, the stocker 4 has a multi-stage accommodation groove (50 stages in this embodiment) formed in one stocker, and two units are arranged side by side. Place in parallel. The front side of the stocker 4 forms an operation port 7 for taking in and out a disc set in the handling tray.

The elevating part 5 is a tray advancing / retreating mechanism 9 for loading / unloading a disc corresponding to each of the stockers 4 arranged side by side.
And a guide mechanism 11 for guiding the lift table 10 in the vertical direction and a lift drive mechanism 12 using a belt. Further, the lifting table 10 is provided with a clamp 13 for fixing each disk.

The recording / reproducing section 6 comprises a slide base 14 which can move laterally between predetermined positions, a turntable 15 provided on the slide base 14, a laser pickup 16 and the like, and is arranged below the elevating section 5. To be done. The slide base 14 is
It has a guide rail 17 for guiding and wheels 18, and moves laterally corresponding to the position of the disk held in the lifting table 10 of the lifting unit 5.

The slide base 14 of the recording / playback section 6 serves as a feed means 19 for laterally moving the slide base 14 and a positioning means for engaging the slide base 14 when the slide base 14 is in the predetermined position to fix the slide base 14. Lock lever 20 of.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing the lifting drive mechanism according to the invention, FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a main part of the lifting drive mechanism, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the lifting lock part, and FIG. 6 is a function of the lifting lock part. It is a front view shown.

In FIG. 3, the lifting drive mechanism 12 includes a prime mover 21, a belt 22, a three-stage reduction gear train 23, a prime mover 24, upper and lower pulleys 25 and 26, and a toothed belt connected to the elevator 10. Elevating belt part 28 consisting of 27
And a torque applying portion 32 capable of supplying a substantially constant torque by the swinging arm 30 biased by the spring 29 and the reduction gear 31.

In FIG. 4, an upper pulley 25 forming a toothed belt wheel of a lifting belt portion 28 is provided with a large-diameter gear 25a and a small-diameter gear 25b coaxially, and the large-diameter gear 25a is a reduction gear forming a driving portion 24. Row 23 meshes, small diameter gear 25b
Is a large-diameter gear 3 of the reduction gear 31 that forms the torque adding portion 32.
1a meshes.

The oscillating arm 30 of the torque applying portion 32 has an oscillating end 30 which receives the force of a spring 29 centered on the support shaft 30a.
b and a fan-shaped gear 30c that meshes with the small-diameter gear 31b of the reduction gear 31 on the opposite side.

The rocking arm 30 has a small-angle rocking range A which is interlocked with the lifting / lowering operation of the lift table 10 by the reduction gear 31 and is decelerated and linked to the lifting stroke. The variation of the distance R from the line of action of force to the support shaft 30a and the variation of the total length L of the spring 29 can be made small, and a substantially constant torque is generated in the entire swing range.
By applying this torque to the upper pulley 25, the weight of the lifting table 10 is approximately balanced.

In FIG. 5, a gate 33 is provided on the rear surface side of the stocker 4 so as to open and close both end portions (only one side portion thereof is shown) of the stocker 4. The upper part of the gate 33 is the driving part 2.
A lock body 33a facing the belt 22 of No. 4 is formed. The gate 33 has an oblique elongated hole 33b, and the lower portion thereof is connected to the swing lever 34 via a vertical movement cam mechanism 34a. 35
Is a detection mechanism such as a limit switch for controlling the swing range.

The gate 33 normally closes the end of the stocker 4 and serves as a stopper when the recording medium is pushed into the stocker 4 from the front side of the auto player. Stocker 4
When the recording medium is transferred between the lift table 10 and the lift table 10, the rocking lever 34 is operated by a driving unit (not shown), and the recording medium is moved upward through the vertical movement cam mechanism 34a.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 6, the gate 33 is moved in the left-right direction by the guide action of the slanted elongated hole 33b, and the gate 33 is at the position B where the passage of the recording medium is not disturbed.
Lock body 3 that is retracted to and integrated with the gate 33
3a causes the belt 2 of the drive unit 24 to move by its ascending movement.
2 contacts the lower surface. Therefore, the lifting / lowering unit 5 is locked by the lifting / lowering unit 28 via the lifting / lowering belt unit 28 connected to the lifting / lowering driving unit 24.

The operation of the elevating part of the automatic player having the above-mentioned structure will be described below.

When a recording / playback command is sent to the auto player 1 via the control unit 2 by the operation of the remote controller operation unit 3 of FIG. 1, the elevating unit 5 of FIG. 2 moves up and down to take out the disc of the stocker 4. .

At this time, the driving unit 24 of the lifting drive mechanism 12 of FIG. 3 drives the pulley 25 on the upper side of the lifting belt unit 28, and lifts the lifting platform 10 via the toothed belt 27 meshing with the pulley 25. At the same time, the torque applying portion 32 that meshes with the pulley 25 is moved up and down by the swing arm 30 urged by the spring 29 and the reduction gear 31.
Supplies torque in the direction of canceling the force of gravity falling.

The swing arm 30 of FIG. 4 swings within a small angle range A corresponding to the entire lifting / lowering stroke of the lift table 10, and in this swing range A, the total length L of the spring 29 and this spring 29. The change in product with the action radius R of the swing arm 30 is small, and the tangential force corresponding to the weight of the lift 10 causes the lift drive mechanism 12 to move its weight over the entire lift stroke of the lift 10. Is hardly affected by.

Therefore, since the load on the prime mover 21 is reduced, it is possible to use a small motor, and it is not necessary to perform a complicated control process that takes into consideration the condition difference between rising and falling for high speed control. Any control method can be used.

If the action radius R is small, the amount of displacement in the circumferential direction at the time of rocking is suppressed, and the amount of change with respect to the total length L of the spring is small. It is possible to improve the balance accuracy with.

Next, when the lift table 10 reaches the disk position related to the recording / playback command, the swing lever 34 of FIG. 5 is driven to swing, and the rear surface side of the stocker 4 is moved through the vertical movement cam mechanism 34a. The blocking gate 33 is moved up. Along with the opening operation of the gate 33 by the guide action of the oblique long hole 33b, the lock body 33a integrated with the gate 33 moves upward,
The belt 22 of the lifting drive unit 24 is brought into contact with the belt 22. Therefore,
The lifting and lowering unit 5 is locked by the lifting and lowering unit 28 via the lifting and lowering belt unit 28 connected to the lifting and lowering drive unit 24.

When the gate 33 is closed after the disk is pulled into the lift table 10 in this state, the lock body 33a moves downward together, and the lift portion 5 is unlocked and driven downward. The recording and reproducing section 6 is reached.

As described above, the gate 33 serves as a stopper when the disc is pushed into the stocker 4 from the front side so as to prevent the disc from jumping out to the raising / lowering region of the elevator, and at the high speed of the elevator. Even when vibration occurs due to the operation, the disk in the stocker can be kept at a predetermined position to avoid interference with the lift table.

Further, by constructing the lock body integrally with the gate, the lifting portion can be locked with a simple structure, so that the disc can be surely taken in and out with respect to vibration and the like. Therefore, it is possible to cope with the speeding up of the loading / unloading operation of the disc.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the ascending / descending position detecting means according to the first embodiment, and FIG. 8 is a view similar to FIG. 7 according to the second embodiment.

The fixed side of the ascending / descending position detecting means according to the first embodiment of FIG. 7 is composed of two kinds of slit bodies 35 and 36 in which concave and convex slits are continuously formed. These slit bodies 35 and 36 are divided into 10-step heights of the recording medium holding groove of the stocker 4, and the slit bodies 35 and 36 are vertically arranged facing the elevator table at the center portion on the stocker 4 side or the left and right side portions of the elevator table. Is provided in the direction.

The slit pitch of the large slit body 35 corresponds to the height of 10 steps of the recording medium holding groove of the stocker 4,
Further, the small slit body 36 corresponds to the same stage, and detection units 37 and 38 formed of a transmitted light sensor straddling the slit bodies 35 and 36 are provided on the elevation table side thereof.

The large and small slit bodies 35, 36 of the ascending / descending position detecting means constructed as described above detect the ascending / descending amount by counting the number of passing slits from the reference position,
By performing high-speed raising / lowering control corresponding to the count of the detection unit 37 of the large slit body, and subsequently performing positioning control corresponding to the count of the small slit body side, the selective raising / lowering operation of the recording medium in the stocker 4 can be performed quickly. It is possible to select and elevate the selection.

The ascending / descending position detecting means 39 according to the second embodiment of FIG. 8 forms a slit body 39 with large and small slits 39a and 39b. The slit 39a is the large slit body 35 of FIG.
The detection unit 40a that is formed to have the same pitch as that of No. 1 and that straddles the same slit row and the detection unit 40b that straddles the slit body 39b are provided on the elevating table side, and thus the first configuration is achieved with a compact configuration.
The same operation as the ascending / descending position detecting means of the embodiment can be performed.

FIG. 9 is a front perspective view showing the lifting guide portion of the lifting table 10.

The elevating guide section 11 is composed of left and right guide rods 11a and 11b provided upright on the side of the auto player and left and right sliding sections 10a and 10b of the elevating table 10. By providing the sliding portion 10b on the right side slidably via the pins 10c, 10c formed on the right side of the lifting platform 10, a smooth guide function is provided without being influenced by the parallelism between both rods. Can be secured.

FIG. 10 is a plan view of the disc handling tray, FIG. 11 is an exploded perspective view of the tray positioning means in the stocker, FIG. 12 is an exploded perspective view of the tray advancing and retracting hook positioning means, and FIG. 13 is a tray and hook. It is a plan view showing the positional relationship of.

In FIG. 10, a disc handling tray 41 has a recording / reproducing access hole 41b formed in a concave portion 41a in which a disc is to be fitted, and the front and rear end edges are symmetrically bent and formed with bent notches 41c and 41d and both sides. It is a hard resin molded body having V-shaped notches 41e and 41e at the ends.

The tray 41 has notches formed at both front and rear edges so that the notch 41c at the front edge serves as a knob for loading and unloading the tray from the stocker, and the notch 41d at the rear edge advances and retracts the tray. Since it forms an engaging portion for performing, the disc replenishment / replacement operation and the disc selecting operation by the elevating table can be divided into the front and the rear of the stocker,
Therefore, the degree of freedom in the configuration of the auto player can be improved.

In FIG. 11, on the side surface of the stocker 4, a positioning claw 4a that engages with the V-shaped notch 41e of the tray 41 and a leaf spring 4b that elastically urges the tip of this claw 4a.
And a fixed body 4c for fixing the leaf spring 4b.

The pawl 4a is a resin molded body for ensuring slidability with the tray 41, the mounting base has an inclined surface 4d, and a metal leaf spring 4b is mounted on the inclined surface 4d. . A plurality of tip ends of the claws 4a and the leaf springs 4b are provided (for example, 1 for each tray 41 in the stocker 4).
Each tray 41 has an individual positioning function.

In FIG. 12, the elevating table 10 is provided with a tray advancing / retreating mechanism 9 for taking a tray in and out of a stocker. The tray advancing / retreating mechanism 9 has hooks 9a that can move back and forth with respect to the lifting table 10, guide grooves 9b that are fixed to the lifting table 10 and that guide both sides of the tray 41,
A guide groove 9c for guiding the advance / retreat of the hook 9a, a positioning claw 9d made of a metal leaf spring having elasticity, and the like are provided.

At the base of the hook 9a, an arm 9f for receiving an advancing / retreating drive force stands up and a V-shaped notch 9e for engaging the positioning claw 9d is formed. The hook 9a formed by the V-shaped notch 9e and the positioning claw 9d
The holding position is set to a predetermined position near the position where the tray advancing / retreating mechanism 9 is most advanced from the elevating table 10 toward the stocker side.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 13, when the hook 9a is positioned with respect to the lift table, the hook 9a is positioned in the bent notch 41d at the rear edge of the tray 41 positioned with respect to the stocker. Approximately equal clearances C and D are secured from the peripheral edge of the notch 41d in the front-rear direction of the tip of the hook 9a.

The tray advancing / retreating mechanism 9 having the above-described structure has the hook 9a in the bent notch 41d of the tray 41.
Pushes the peripheral edge of the notch 41d at the front side of the tip of the hook 9a when returning the tray to the stocker.

When the hook 9a further advances to reach the vicinity of the predetermined position, the positioning claw 4a on the stocker side engages with the V-shaped notch 41e of the tray to position the tray, and the lifting table 10 is also provided. The side positioning claw 9d engages with the V-shaped notch 9e of the hook 9a to position the hook 9a.

As described above, by the respective positioning actions, substantially equal clearances are provided before and after the hook 9a so as not to hinder the lifting operation of the hook 9a in the bent notch 41d of the tray 41 during the lifting operation of the lifting table 10. C and D are secured.

Therefore, with the above-mentioned simple positioning mechanism, the positional relationship can be easily defined without requiring highly accurate positioning control.

[0058]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, in the auto player provided with the elevating table for transferring the recording medium between the stocker and the recording / reproducing section, the elevating table has the ascending / descending operation range. By providing a swinging arm that performs a swinging motion in conjunction with each other and a spring that gives the swinging arm a substantially constant acting force in the direction of canceling the weight of the lifting platform, the lifting platform is provided via the swinging arm. Since a substantially constant load acts on the lifting platform in the entire lifting range, the load is taken to be approximately the same as the weight of the lifting platform to reduce the height of the lifting unit and to raise and lower with a small high-speed motor. It is possible to control up and down in both directions in common.

Therefore, the auto player according to the present invention can be constructed compactly by suppressing the height dimension of the auto player capable of accommodating a large number of recording media, and the elevation control thereof can be simplified. Becomes

According to a second aspect of the present invention, it is provided with an elevating platform that can move the recording medium between the stocker and the recording / reproducing unit, and an openable gate that holds the recording medium in the stocker. In addition, since a lock body is provided in the auto player that locks the lifting operation of the elevator in conjunction with the gate, when the gate is opened when the recording medium is taken in and out between the elevator and the stocker, this gate is The lock body operates in conjunction with this, and the lift is fixed so that it does not move.

Therefore, it is possible to simply configure the fixing means capable of fixing the lifting table so that it does not move only when the disk is taken in and out, without requiring complicated lifting drive control.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a system configuration example including an auto player according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a rear side perspective view showing the internal structure of the auto player according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a lifting drive mechanism according to the invention.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a main part of the lifting drive mechanism.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a lifting lock unit.

FIG. 6 is a front view showing the operation of the lifting lock part.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing an ascending / descending position detecting means according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a view similar to FIG. 7 according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a front perspective view showing a lifting guide portion of the lifting table 10.

FIG. 10 is a plan view of a disc handling tray.

FIG. 11 is an exploded perspective view of a tray positioning unit in the stocker.

FIG. 12 is an exploded perspective view of a tray advancing / retreating hook positioning means.

FIG. 13 is a plan view showing the positional relationship between the tray and the hook.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Auto player, 2 ... Control unit, 3 ... Remote control operation part, 4 ... Stocker, 4a ... Positioning claw, 4b ... Leaf spring, 4c ... Fixed body, 4d ... Inclined surface, 5 ... Elevating part, 6 ... Recording part , 7 ... operation port, 9 ... tray advance / retreat mechanism, 9a ... hook, 9b ... guide groove, 9c ... guide groove, 9d ... positioning claw,
9e ... V-shaped notch, 9f ... Arm, 10 ... Lifting table, 10
a ... sliding part, 10b ... sliding part, 10c ... pin, 11 ... guide mechanism, 11a ... guide rod, 11b ... guide rod, 12 ... lifting drive mechanism, 14 ... slide base, 17
... guide rail, 19 ... feeding means, 21 ... motor, 22
... belt, 23 ... reduction gear train, 24 ... driving part, 25 ... pulley, 25a ... large-diameter gear, 25b ... small-diameter gear, 26 ... pulley, 27 ... toothed belt, 28 ... lifting belt part, 29
... Spring, 30 ... Oscillating arm, 30a ... Spindle, 30b ... Oscillating end, 30c ... Fan gear, 31 ... Reduction gear, 31b ... Small diameter gear, 32 ... Torque applying section, 33 ... Gate, 33a ...
Lock body, 33b ... Oblique slot, 34 ... Swing lever, 34
a ... vertical movement cam mechanism, 35 ... large slit body, 36 ... small slit body, 37 ... unevenness detecting section, 38 ... unevenness detecting section, 3
9 ... Elevating position detecting means, 39a ... Slit, 39b ... Slit body, 40a ... Detecting part, 40b ... Detecting part, 41 ... Disc handling tray, 41c ... Bending cutout, 4
1d ... Bent cutout, 41e ... V-shaped cutout, A ... Swing range, B ... Position that does not hinder passage of recording medium, C ... Clearance, D ... Clearance, L ... Spring total length, R ... Working distance.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Naoki Shibuya, 3-12 Moriya-cho, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (72) Manabu Taguchi 3-12 Moriya-cho, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Within Victor Company of Japan (56) References JP-A-63-16463 (JP, A) JP-A-2-301063 (JP, A) Actual development: Sho-64-35561 (JP, U)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A stocker for accommodating a plurality of recording media vertically, and a recording / reproducing unit for inputting / outputting information to / from the recording media.
In an auto player equipped with an elevating platform that moves a recording medium between these stocker and recording / reproducing unit,
The elevator table of the auto player is provided with a swing arm that performs a swing operation corresponding to the operating range of the elevator table via a deceleration rotation mechanism that is interlocked with the elevator operation. An auto player, characterized in that a spring is connected to give a substantially constant acting force in the direction of canceling the weight. 2. A vertically stacked stocker for accommodating a plurality of recording media, and a recording / reproducing unit for inputting / outputting information to / from the recording media.
In the auto player, which is provided with an elevating platform that can move the recording medium between them and is movable up and down, and an openable gate that holds the recording medium in the stocker on the side of the elevator, An automatic player, characterized in that a lock body is provided in the lift section for locking the lifting operation of the lift table in conjunction with the gate of the stocker.