JP3506407B2 - 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 disk cartridge in which a disk-shaped recording medium such as an optical disk or a magnetic disk is rotatably housed, and more specifically, a shutter is slid in both left and right directions from a neutral position for closing a head access opening. The present invention relates to a type of disc cartridge that can be used.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an opening for accessing a head is formed in a cartridge case of a disk cartridge accommodating a recording medium such as a compact disk, and the opening is a shutter slidably mounted on the surface of the cartridge case. It is configured to open and close with.
When the cartridge is loaded in the disk drive apparatus, the shutter drive pin of the disk drive apparatus slides the shutter of the cartridge to open the head access opening, and read / write from / to the disk.

On the other hand, in the case of a disk cartridge that can store a readable / writable disk on both sides and can be loaded into the disk drive device with either the front surface or the back surface facing upward, the shutter drive mechanism on the disk drive device side becomes complicated. To prevent this, the shutter of the disk cartridge is configured to be slidable from the neutral position with the head access opening closed to the left and right, and the shutter drive pin of the disk drive device is driven in one direction. There is.

As a shutter mechanism of this type, for example, in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 5-6758, torsion coil springs are arranged on both left and right sides of the shutter in a neutral position, and the shutter is slidable with respect to the cartridge case. It is described to be urged from both left and right sides to a neutral position via a block (outer slider). The cartridge case is formed with a stopper wall that comes into contact with each sliding block from the inside when the shutter is in the neutral position. The shutter has a sliding wall and a stopper wall for each sliding block. An operation claw (inner slider) that contacts the contact surface is formed. Therefore, when the shutter is slid to the right from the neutral position, the left sliding block remains fixed and the shutter moves with the right sliding block, the right torsion coil spring bends, and vice versa when sliding to the left. It becomes the operation of.

Further, as another shutter mechanism, two sliders (outer sliders) slidable in the axial direction with respect to a metal guide shaft arranged along the sliding direction of the shutter are provided and both sliders are pulled to form a coil spring. And the stoppers that contact both sliders from the inside, are formed in the center of the cartridge case at intervals wider than the free length of the coil spring by pulling, and the shutters also have protrusions (inner slider) that contact both sliders from the inside. A mechanism provided with is proposed (second
(See Patent Publication No. 508449). Even in this configuration,
The shutter is normally held in a neutral position that closes the head access opening, and when the shutter is slid, one of the sliders remains fixed and the shutter and the other slider move together.

[0006]

However, these shutter mechanisms use two torsion coil springs (Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-6758) or a metallic guide shaft (Japanese Patent No. 2508449). Therefore, there is a problem in that the number of parts is large and the cost is high. Further, in the latter case, in particular, the slider and the shutter have to be previously attached to the guide shaft to form a subassembly and then assembled into the cartridge case, so that there is a problem that the assembling work is difficult.

Therefore, a technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to prevent an increase in cost by reducing the number of parts of the shutter mechanism in a disk cartridge in which the shutter is slidable from the neutral position to the left and right directions. Further, it is to prevent the assembling work of the cartridge from becoming complicated.

[0008]

A disk cartridge according to the present invention rotatably accommodates a disk-shaped recording medium and is composed of an upper wall side half shell and a bottom wall side half shell. When,
A disk cartridge including a shutter configured to be slidable in both left and right directions with a position where a head access opening formed in a cartridge case is closed being a neutral position, in order to solve the above technical problem, It is characterized by being configured in.

That is, the cartridge case is integrally projected with the inner surface of one of the upper wall and the bottom wall of the cartridge case.
The guide rail formed by the above, an inner slider slidably mounted on the guide rail and fixed to the shutter, and a pair of outer sliders slidably mounted on the guide rail on both left and right sides of the inner slider. Connected between the outer sliders and pull the outer sliders together.
Along the inside slider (40) and outside for attaching
A coil spring extending to the outer case, and a stopper projectingly provided on the cartridge case so as to contact the outer slider from the inner surface. Further, in the above configuration, the inner slide
Fit the guide rail to the guide rail in the direction intersecting its axis.
The cartridge case on both sides and
Insert outer sliders between both ends of the idrail
The outer slider is
The engaging part that is inserted and fitted in the axial direction
Is forming. Furthermore, the inner slider is
And the shutter was attached to the cartridge case
Separated from the shutter to be fixed to the shutter later
It is configured as a member. In addition, it is preferable that the stopper is formed so that the outer slider abuts from both left and right sides when the shutter is in the neutral position.

In the above structure, normally, the outer slider is in contact with the inner slider fixed to the shutter from both left and right sides, and the outer slider is positioned by the stoppers formed in the cartridge case. Close the access opening (neutral position).
On the other hand, when the shutter is slid from this neutral position in either the left or right direction, the inner slider moves while pushing one outer slider, and the other outer slider is held in position by the stopper. Since the coil spring attracts both outer sliders, the shutter returns to the neutral position when the force holding the shutter in the open position is released. Further, according to the above configuration, the inner slider is
It can be easily attached to the base. Inner slider and shi
Fix it with the cutter afterwards. According to the above configuration,
The inner slider and outer slider parts are attached to the shutter in advance.
No need for a subassembly, so a disc cart
It is possible to easily assemble the ridge.

In the above construction, the guide rail is integrated with the cartridge case without being formed as a separate part, and the spring means are attracted from the inside instead of separately biasing the outer slider from the outside. Since there are two parts, it is possible to reduce the number of parts in the disk cartridge of the type in which the shutter can be slid in both directions from the neutral position. Therefore, the cost can be reduced as compared with the conventional structure.

Further, in the above construction, the guide rail is composed of a rail portion extending parallel to one side of the cartridge case and a leg portion connecting the rail portion and the inner surface of the cartridge case. Is located on the center line in the thickness direction of the cartridge case, and the thickness is equal to or smaller than the thickness of the disk-shaped recording medium, and the leg portion of the guide rail is located outside the head access opening. It is preferable to form only on.

Since the data read / write head of the disk drive apparatus approaches the disk-shaped recording medium through the position of the head access opening of the disk cartridge, with this structure, the guide rails obstruct the head traveling. Can be prevented.

In the above structure, it is preferable that the rail portion of the guide rail has a rectangular cross section. According to this structure, since the guide rail can be used to prevent the inner slider and the outer slider from rotating, it is possible to omit the need to provide a means for exclusive use in preventing rotation.

Further, in the above structure, a holding piece forming an extension of the guide rail is formed on the shell opposite to the shell provided with the guide rail, or the inner slider and the outer slider are in contact with each other. As the engaging means for engaging both sliders in a state, for example, a concave portion may be formed on one of the contact surfaces of the inner slider and the outer slider, and a convex portion that fits into this concave portion may be formed on the other. .
According to this structure, even when the outer slider slides to the position where it is disengaged from the guide rail when the shutter is opened, it is possible to prevent the outer slider from being disengaged from the guide rail.

Further, in the above-mentioned structure, the outer slider is provided with an engaging concave portion which is fitted in the rail portion of the guide rail in a direction perpendicular to the axis, and the engaging concave portion is formed inside the elastic hook-shaped piece. be able to. With this configuration, the outer slider can be attached more easily. Further, in order to further improve the mountability, for example, an inclined guide surface for guiding the mounting of the elastic hook-shaped piece on the rail portion to the guide rail may be formed.

[0017]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS.

This disk cartridge is a rectangular thin plate-shaped hollow cartridge case in which a digital video disk (DVD) as a disk-shaped recording medium is rotatably housed, and the cartridge cases are made of plastic and have the same thickness. The upper wall (A surface) side half shell and the bottom wall (B surface) side half shell are stacked.

FIG. 1 shows an upper wall side half shell 10 and FIG. 2 shows a bottom wall side half shell 20. FIG. 1 (a) is a plan view and FIG. 2 (b) is an inside view. Both shells 10, 20
Have basically the same configuration except for the guide rail portion for the shutter slide described below.
The peripheral wall 12 and 22 and the side wall 13 and 23 that extend along the side edges of the top wall 11 and the bottom wall 21 are integrally formed on the bottom wall 21 and the bottom wall 21, respectively. . The shells 10 and 20 have head access openings 14 extending from the center of the upper wall 11 and the bottom wall 21 toward the upper side in the drawing along the loading direction of the cartridge into the disk drive (not shown). 24 are provided. The openings 14 and 24 are shutters 30 (see FIGS. 3 and 4).
The shutter 30 is configured to slide to the left and right sides of the shutter 30 with the position covering the openings 14 and 24 as the neutral position.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III of FIG. 1 in a state where both shells and the shutter mechanism are assembled, and FIG. 4 is IV-IV.
It is a line sectional view. In the figure, 15 is a guide rail provided on the upper wall half shell 10, 40 is an inner slider, 50 is an outer slider, and 60 is a spring.

The guide rail 15 is integrally formed at the upper end of the inner surface of the upper wall 11, and has a rectangular rail section 15a extending parallel to one side of the cartridge case, and the rail section 15a and the inner surface of the upper wall 11. And a leg portion 15b that connects and. The leg portions 15b are formed only on the left and right outer sides of the head access opening 14, and the rail portion 15a of the guide rail 15 is arranged on the center line in the thickness direction of the cartridge as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. Its thickness is the same as or thinner than the thickness of the disc-shaped recording medium (not shown). Therefore, when the disk cartridge is loaded into the disk drive device and the head approaches the disk, the guide rails 15 do not interfere with the traveling of the head.

The rail portion 15a of the guide rail 15
Is a little shorter than the space between both side walls 13 of the upper wall side half shell 10, and a space is formed between both ends of the rail portion 15a and both side walls 13 of the upper wall side half shell 10. On the other hand, in the bottom wall side half shell 20, a holding piece 25 that constitutes an extension of the guide rail 15 is integrally formed at the upper ends of the side walls 23, and when both shells 10 and 20 are combined, Are continuous between both side walls of the cartridge case. In addition, 16, 26
Is a support material for the inner slider 40 and extends parallel to the guide rail 15.
Only a and the supporting members 16 and 26 cross the head access openings 14 and 24. The support members 16 and 26 are
Both ends of the upper surface are steps 16a and 26a, and are configured to function as stoppers for the outer slider 50.

The shutter 30 is made of plastic,
Shutter plate 31 for closing the opening 14 of the upper wall 11
A shutter plate 32 that closes the opening 24 of the bottom wall 21, and a connecting plate 3 that connects both shutter plates 31 together.
3 is formed into a substantially U-shaped cross section, and is attached to the cartridge case so as to sandwich the upper wall 11 and the bottom wall 21. An inner slider 40 slidably mounted on the guide rail 15 is fixed to the inner surface of the connecting plate 33 of the shutter 30. The inner slider 40 is
The guide rail 15 is provided with a groove 41 for inserting the guide rail 15 toward the upper wall 11 at a right angle, and the shutter 30 is mounted on the guide rail 15 with the inner slider 40 and then screwed onto the inner slider 40. It can be fixed by any method such as sonic welding.

The inner slider 40 is shown in FIG.
(A) is a front view, (b) is a plan view, and (c) is a side view. The inner slider 40 has a convex shape when viewed from the front, and has recesses 42 on both left and right shoulders. The shutter 30 corresponds to the recess 42.
Also, although not shown, the left and right shoulders have recesses, and the central portion has a protruding shape. The recesses on both shoulders of the shutter 30 are used to open the shutter 30 by engaging with a shutter drive pin when the disc cartridge is loaded in the disc drive device.

An inner slider 40 is attached to the guide rail 15.
A pair of outer sliders 50 are slidably mounted so as to sandwich. This outer slider 50 is shown in FIG.
Is shown in. The outer slider 50 is a guide rail 15.
Engagement recess 51 for axially inserting and fitting with respect to
The guide rail 15 is inserted into the rail portion 15a from a space formed between both ends of the rail portion 15a of the guide rail 15 and both side walls 13 of the upper wall side half shell 11. The engaging recess 51 of the outer slider 50 has a hook-shaped piece 52.
Is formed by. Also, the outer slider 50 is
Each of them is provided with a hook 53 on the surface on the inner slider 40 side. The outer slider 50 is formed symmetrically for the right side and the left side.

A tension coil spring 60 is connected to the hooks 53 of both outer sliders 50, so that both outer sliders 50 can be connected.
Are attracted to each other. Tension coil spring 60
Is a recess 4 formed on the lower end side of the front surface of the inner slider 40.
3 through the outer slider 50 , that is, outside the inner slider 40 . Then, the inner slider 40 is positioned with both outer sliders 50 in contact with the stoppers 16a, 26a on the upper surfaces of the support members 16, 26 of the cartridge case.
0 is in the neutral position and head access openings 14, 24
Is being blocked.

In the above structure, first, the inner slider 40 is mounted on the guide rail 15, and then the outer slider 5 is attached.
0 is inserted from both ends of the guide rail 15, a tension coil spring is attached, and the shells 10 and 20 are fixed by sandwiching the disk-shaped recording medium, and then the shutter 30
By fixing the to the inner slider 40, the disk cartridge can be assembled. When assembled in this way, the outer slider 50 contacts the inner slider 40 fixed to the shutter 30 from both left and right sides, and the outer slider 50 is positioned by the stoppers 16a and 26a formed in the cartridge case.
Since the inner slider 40 is located at the center of the guide rail 15, the shutter 30 is in the neutral position and the head access openings 14 and 24 are closed.

In the above structure, the shutter mechanism does not have to be a subassembly, and each component is replaced by the shell 10,
Since it can be easily attached to 20, it can be easily assembled. Further, since only one spring 60 is used and no other metal parts are used, the cost and weight of the disk cartridge can be reduced. By forming the rail portion 15a of the guide rail 15 to have a rectangular cross section, the guide rail 15 can prevent the inner slider 40 and the outer slider 50 from being rotated, and it is possible to eliminate the need to provide a dedicated means for preventing rotation. it can.

On the other hand, when the shutter 30 is slid to the left or right from the neutral position, the inner slider 40 moves while pushing one of the outer sliders 50.
At this time, the other outer slider 50 has the stopper 16
Since the position is held at a and 26a, the tension coil spring 60 extends. Therefore, since the outer sliders 50 are attracted to each other by the tension coil spring 60, the shutter 30 returns to the neutral position when the force holding the shutter 30 in the open position is released.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment and can be implemented in various other modes. For example, a holding piece 25 that constitutes an extension of the guide rail 15
Instead of forming on the bottom wall half shell 20, as an engaging means for engaging both sliders 40, 50 in a state where the inner slider 40 and the outer slider 50 are in contact with each other,
For example, a concave portion may be formed on one of the contact surfaces of the inner slider 40 and the outer slider 50, and a convex portion that fits into this concave portion may be formed on the other surface. According to this structure, similarly to the case where the holding piece 25 is provided as an extension of the guide rail 15, the outer slider 50 moves when the outer slider 50 slides to the position where the outer slider 50 comes off the guide rail 15 when the shutter 30 is opened. It is possible to prevent the guide rail 15 from coming off.

Further, for example, the engaging recess 51 of the outer slider 50 is formed so that the outer slider 50 can be fitted in the rail portion 15a of the guide rail 15 in the direction perpendicular to the axis instead of being mounted in the axial direction. Elastic hook 5
The tip of 2 can be formed short as shown by the phantom line 52a in FIG. According to this structure, the outer slider 50 can be easily attached to the guide rail 15 without providing a space between the side wall 13 of the cartridge case and the guide rail 15. Also, virtual line 5
If the tip end of the hook-shaped piece 52 is an inclined guide surface as shown in 2b, the wearability can be further improved.

In addition, the width of the inner slider 40 is set to the support member 1
The outer slider 50 is formed to be slightly wider (for example, about 1 to 2 mm) than the dimension between the stoppers 16a and 26a of the stoppers 6 and 26, and only one of the outer sliders 50 has the stopper 1 at the neutral position.
You may make it contact | abut with 6a, 26a. In that case,
Although the shutter 30 slightly swings to the left and right at the neutral position, if the shake is about 1 to 2 mm, there is practically no problem.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows an upper wall half shell, (a) is a plan view, and (b) is an inner view.

FIG. 2 shows a bottom wall side half shell, in which (a) is a plan view and (b) is an inner view.

3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III in FIG. 1 in a state where both shells and a shutter mechanism are assembled.

4 is a sectional view taken along line IV-IV of FIG. 1 in a state where both shells and a shutter mechanism are assembled.

FIG. 5 shows an inner slider, (a) is a front part,
(B) is a plan view and (c) is a side view.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an outer slider.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Upper wall half shell 11 Upper wall 12 surrounding walls 13 Side wall 14 Head access opening 15 Guide rail 15a Rail part 15b leg 16 Support material 16a stopper 20 Bottom wall half shell 21 bottom wall 22 Perimeter wall 23 Side wall 24 Head access opening 25 holding piece 26 Support material 26a stopper 30 shutters 31,32 Shutter plate 33 connecting plate 40 inner slider 41 groove 42,43 recess 50 outside slider 51 Engagement recess 52 Hook 52a, 52b tip 53 hooks 60 tension coil spring (spring means)

Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A 63-20782 (JP, A) JP-A 7-93934 (JP, A) JP-A 9-330576 (JP, A) Actual Kaihei 2-30173 (JP , U) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G11B 23/03 605

Claims (9)

(57) [Claims] 1. A cartridge case (10, 20) for rotatably accommodating a disk-shaped recording medium and comprising an upper wall side half shell (10) and a bottom wall side half shell (20).
And a shutter (30) configured to be slidable in both left and right directions with the head access opening (14, 24) formed in the cartridge case (10, 20) being closed as a neutral position.
In the disc cartridge including the cartridge case (10, 20), the upper wall (11) and the bottom wall (2
1) one of the inner surface on the guide rail which is formed to protrude integrally in (15), the guide rail (15 while being slidably mounted to) within which is fixed to the shutter (30) slider (40) And a pair of outer sliders (50) slidably mounted on the guide rails (15) on both the left and right sides of the inner slider (40) and the outer slider (50) connected between the outer sliders (50). Inner sliders to attract each other )
-Coil spring (60) extending along and outside the (40 )
And a stopper (1) protruding from the cartridge case (10, 20) so as to abut the outer slider (50) from the inner surface.
6, 26) and provided with, the inner slider (40) is, with respect to the guide rail (15)
After the fitting,
And the shutter was attached to the cartridge case
Separated from the shutter to be fixed to the shutter later
A disk cartridge characterized by being configured as a member . 2. The guide rail (15) has a rail portion (15) extending parallel to one side of the cartridge case (10, 20).
a) and a leg portion (15b) connecting the rail portion (15a) to the inner surface of the cartridge case (10, 20), the rail portion (15a) being the cartridge case (10, 20). Is formed on the center line in the thickness direction of the disk, and the thickness thereof is the same as or smaller than the thickness of the disk-shaped recording medium, and the leg portion (15b) has the head access opening (1
2. The disk cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the disk cartridge is formed only at an outer position of 4,24). 3. The rail portion (15a) of the guide rail (15).
2. The disc cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the disc has a rectangular cross section. 4. Spaces through which the outer sliders (50) can be inserted are formed between both side walls (13, 23) of the cartridge case (10, 20) and both end faces of the guide rail (15), respectively. 2. The disk cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the outer slider (50) is provided with an engaging recess (51) which is axially inserted and fitted into the guide rail (15). 5. A shell (1) provided with the guide rail (15).
5. The disk cartridge according to claim 4 , wherein a holding piece (25) constituting an extension of the guide rail (15) is formed on the shell (20) on the other side of (0). 6. The inner slider (40) and the outer slider (5)
5. The disk cartridge according to claim 4, further comprising engaging means for engaging both sliders (40, 50) in a state of being in contact with (0). 7. The inner slider (40), wherein the engagement means is the inner slider (40).
And a concave portion formed on one of the contact surfaces of the outer slider (50) and the outer slider (50), and a convex portion formed on the other of the contact surfaces so as to fit into the concave portion. 6. The disk cartridge according to item 6 . 8. The outer slider (50) is provided with an engagement recess (51) which is fitted in the rail portion (15a) of the guide rail (15) in a direction perpendicular to the axis, and the engagement recess (51). ) Is an elastic hook (5
2. The disk cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the disk cartridge is formed inside of 2). 9. The slanting guide surface (52b) for guiding the mounting of the guide rail (15) to the rail portion (15a) at the tip of the elastic hook-like piece (52). Item 8
The described disc cartridge.