JP3281274B2 - Auxiliary equipment for lens cleaner for optical recording media - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an auxiliary device for a lens cleaner for an optical recording medium, and more particularly, to cleaning a pickup lens for reading data written on an MD (mini-disc) optical disk. The present invention relates to an auxiliary device used when a lens cleaner having a large number of cleaning brushes implanted on a recording surface of an optical disk housed in a shell is used as a wet type.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, as a medium for recording data, a CD-ROM
Optical disks such as are widely used. Generally, CD-RO
For M, if a pickup lens for reading data written on the recording surface is dirty, a reading error may occur. For this reason, conventionally, as shown in FIG. 3, a lens cleaner 30 for cleaning a pickup lens has been proposed.

This lens cleaner 30 has basically the same form as a normal CD-ROM, and has a plurality of cleaning brushes 32 implanted on a recording surface 31 thereof. Cleaning brush 32
Are implanted at predetermined intervals along a spiral line centered on the rotation center 33 on the recording surface 31. When such a lens cleaner 30 is inserted into the CD-ROM drive and rotated, each cleaning brush 32 is attached to the pickup lens.
Sequentially contact, thereby cleaning the pickup lens. When the pickup lens is extremely contaminated, the cleaning liquid is impregnated into each cleaning brush 32 with a brush 34 to clean the pickup lens as a wet cleaner.

[0004]

By the way, in recent years, an MD (mini-disc) in which an optical disc is housed in a shell having a substantially thin box shape is becoming widespread. The MD has an opening in the shell that exposes the center of rotation of the optical disk, and a shutter that exposes the recording surface of the optical disk. A drive shaft provided on the drive side is engaged with the rotation center of the optical disk through an opening. The shutter is released from the closed state by pressing a claw in a groove formed on the end face of the shell.

[0005] Even in such an MD, it is necessary to periodically clean the pickup lens, and it is conceivable that a plurality of cleaning brushes are planted on the recording surface of the optical disk, similarly to the lens cleaner 30 described above. . However, in the case of MD, because of the structural reason that the optical disk is housed in the shell, when wet-cleaning the pickup lens, unless the claw in the groove formed in the shell is pressed to open the shutter, There is a disadvantage that the cleaning brush cannot be impregnated with the cleaning liquid. Further, even if the shutter is opened, the cleaning brush does not always appear at that position. Therefore, in order to impregnate the cleaning brush with the cleaning liquid, it is necessary to rotate the optical disk.

For this reason, when cleaning the MD pickup lens by a wet method, an auxiliary device of a lens cleaner capable of easily opening a shutter provided on a shell and rotating an optical disk with respect to the shell in this state. It has been demanded. The present invention has been made in order to satisfy such a demand, and has as its object to provide an MD in which a shutter is locked by predetermined locking means.
When the cleaning liquid is applied to the cleaning brush of the lens cleaner for the optical recording medium for cleaning the pickup lens for reading the data from the (optical recording medium), the shutter lock means is released and the rotation of the optical disk is performed. It is an object of the present invention to provide an auxiliary device that can easily perform the above.

[0007]

To achieve the above object, the present invention comprises a shell formed in a thin box shape, and an optical disk rotatably housed in the shell, wherein the shell has An opening for exposing the rotation center of the optical disc and an openable / closable shutter for exposing a part of the recording surface of the optical disc are provided, and the closed state of the shutter presses a claw in a groove formed on an end face of the shell. An optical recording medium having the shell and the optical disk for cleaning a pickup lens for reading data from the optical recording medium which is released by performing the cleaning, and a cleaning brush being implanted at a predetermined position of the optical disk. An auxiliary device used when a wet lens cleaner is used. The auxiliary device is inserted into a groove formed in an end surface of the shell, and A pressing piece capable of pressing the claw, and an engaging portion capable of engaging the rotation center portion of the optical disc and rotating the recording medium, wherein the engaging portion is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape. And the pressing piece is provided integrally along the axis of the engaging portion.

In this case, the pressing piece may be formed in, for example, a bar shape, a plate shape, a hook shape, or the like, and may have any shape and shape as long as it can be inserted into the groove to press the claw. On the other hand, the engaging portion is formed, for example, in a cylindrical shape or the like, and an engaging hole or an engaging protrusion engageable with a rotation center portion of the recording medium is provided on an outer peripheral surface or an inner peripheral surface. The shape, form, etc. are arbitrary as long as they can be engaged with the rotation center of the recording medium. And these pressing pieces and the engaging portion, for example, when the engaging portion is cylindrical,
The pressing piece may be provided along the axis of the engaging portion, or the pressing piece may be provided so as to extend along the radial direction of the engaging portion, and the material is appropriately selected from synthetic resin, metal, and the like. do it. When the rotation center of the recording medium is a metal body, a magnet piece may be attached to the pressing piece, and the magnet may be attracted to the rotation center to rotate the recording medium. Further, an elastic piece such as rubber may be attached to the engaging portion, and this elastic piece may be pressed against the center of rotation of the recording medium, and the recording medium may be rotated by the friction coefficient of the elastic piece. In the present invention, since the pressing piece and the engaging portion are integrally formed, the conventional demand can be satisfied, thereby achieving the above object.

Further, since the engaging portion is substantially cylindrical and the pressing piece is integrally formed along the axis of the engaging portion, the entire shape is substantially rod-shaped, and the lens cleaner is formed of an MD.
When housed in a case, the auxiliary device can be housed in the surplus space.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a lens cleaner 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The lens cleaner 10 is for cleaning a pickup lens that reads data recorded on an MD (mini-disc), and is a thin box-shaped shell 1 like an ordinary MD.
1 and a rotatable optical disc 1 housed in a shell 11
2 is provided. Generally, there are two types of MD shells, one for reproduction only and the other for recording and reproduction. The shell 11 of the present embodiment employs a reproduction-only shell.

The shell 11 is provided with an opening 14 for exposing a rotation center portion 13 of the optical disk 12 and a shutter 16 for exposing a recording surface 15 (see FIG. 1B) of the optical disk 12. ing. Shutter 1
6 is a claw 18 in a groove 17 formed on the end face of the shell 11.
Is pressed to release the closed state. In the lens cleaner 10, a plurality of cleaning brushes 19 are implanted on a recording surface 15 of the optical disc 12. Cleaning brush 19
Are provided at predetermined intervals along a helical line centered on the rotation center 13 on the recording surface 15 as in the case of the lens cleaner for CD-ROM described above. Therefore,
The lens cleaner 10 can dry-clean the MD pickup lens.

In this embodiment, the lens cleaner 10 is provided with an auxiliary device 20 constructed according to the present invention.
Thereby, the closed state of the shutter 16 is released, and the optical disk 12 is rotated with respect to the shell 11.
The assisting device 20 includes a pressing piece 21 capable of pressing the claw 18 and an engaging portion 22 capable of engaging with the rotation center portion 13 of the optical disc 12.
It is comprised including.

The pressing piece 21 is formed in a plate shape having a predetermined thickness which can be inserted along a groove 17 formed on the end face of the shell 11. On the other hand, the engaging portion 22 is formed in a cylindrical shape that can be inserted into the opening 14 of the shell 11. Engagement part 2
On the outer peripheral surface of the optical disk 2, an engagement protrusion 23 that can be engaged with the rotation center portion 13 of the optical disk 12 is provided. Therefore,
The auxiliary device 20 is integrally formed of, for example, synthetic resin or metal so that the pressing piece 21 is along the axis of the engaging portion 22, and has a substantially rod shape as a whole.

With the aid of such an auxiliary device 20, the lens cleaner 10 allows the shell 1 with the shutter 16 opened.
The optical disk 12 is rotated with respect to
By impregnating the cleaning liquid into each cleaning brush 19 as shown in FIG. 1B, the MD pickup lens can be cleaned even by a wet method. As shown in FIG. 2, the lens cleaner 10 is housed in a normal MD case 25. The case 25 includes a dish-shaped receiving portion 26 for holding the lens cleaner 10 and a lid 27 hingedly connected to the receiving portion 26. The auxiliary device 20 according to the present embodiment is stored near the hinge of the lid portion 27, which is an extra space in the case 25, and can be stored or transported integrally with the lens cleaner 10.

According to the auxiliary device 20 of the present embodiment as described above, the claw 17 is pressed by the pressing piece 21 and the shutter 16 is pressed.
Is released, and in this state, the optical disc 12 can be rotated with respect to the shell 11 by the engagement portion 22. Therefore, the lens cleaner 10 can impregnate the cleaning brush 19 with the cleaning liquid using the brush 24 by using the auxiliary device 20, so that the MD pickup lens can be cleaned even by a wet method. In addition, this auxiliary device 20
Since the pressing piece 21 and the engaging portion 22 have a substantially rod shape integrally formed, the lens cleaner 10 can be accommodated in an extra space when the lens cleaner 10 is accommodated in a normal MD case 25. Can be stored or transported together with

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and that improvements, modifications, etc. within the scope of achieving the present invention are included in the present invention. The shape, size, form, number, connection form, etc. are arbitrary and not limited as long as the present invention can be achieved.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the release of the shutter lock and the rotation of the optical disc in the optical recording medium such as the MD can be easily performed, the cleaning brush can be efficiently impregnated into the cleaning brush implanted on the recording surface, and the optical disc can be put on the shell. The pickup lens for reading data written on the built-in optical recording medium can be cleaned as a wet type. Also,
Since this auxiliary device has a substantially rod shape, it can be stored or transported in a predetermined case together with the lens cleaner.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a method of storing an auxiliary device.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a lens cleaner for cleaning a pickup lens of a CD-ROM.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 Lens cleaner for optical recording medium 11 Shell 12 Optical disk as recording medium 13 Rotation center 14 Opening 15 Recording surface 16 Shutter 17 Groove 18 Claw 19 Cleaning brush 20 Auxiliary device 21 Pressing piece 22 Engaging part

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-6-338160 (JP, A) JP-A-3-88188 (JP, A) JP-A-3-280285 (JP, A) JP-A-3-130060 (JP) (U, U) Japanese Utility Model 2-96669 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G11B 23/00 G11B 7/12

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] [1 claim: a shell formed on the thin box shape, and an optical disk rotatably accommodated in said shell, said shell, openings to let exposed the rotation center of the optical disc
When opening and closing to expose a portion of the recording surface of the optical disc
A possible shutter is provided, and in order to clean a pickup lens that reads data from an optical recording medium, the closed state of the shutter is released by pressing a claw in a groove formed on an end surface of the shell. together provided with said shell and said optical disk, said optical di
An auxiliary device used when a lens cleaner for an optical recording medium having a cleaning brush implanted at a predetermined position of a disk is made wet, and is inserted into a groove formed on an end surface of the shell, and is provided with a shutter for the shutter. A pressing piece capable of pressing the nail, and the optical disc
An engagement portion capable of rotating the recording medium by being engaged with the rotation center portion , wherein the engagement portion has a substantially cylindrical shape.
And the pressing piece is an axis of the engaging portion.
An auxiliary device for a lens cleaner for an optical recording medium, wherein the auxiliary device is provided integrally with the lens cleaner.