JPH02123582A - Disk cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To miniaturize the disk cartridge to make the disk cartridge thin and to expand the area of a recording part by constituting the cartridge out of a thin box type outer case and a tray having a disk mounting part and providing a notched part for transmitting a light beam on the bottom surface of the outer case. CONSTITUTION:The disk cartridge is constitutive of the thin box type outer case 11 provided with a tray inserting hole and the tray 12 in a square shape of which one side is about the same size as a diameter of the of the disk and which is equipped with the disk mounting part 14 and a wide opening hole 15 on the bottom surface to such an extent that the outermost circumference of the disk is exposed. The notched part 25 for transmitting the light beam, which is communicated to the tray inserting hole, is provided on the bottom part of this case 11, and when the tray 12 is drawn out of the case 11, the opening hole 15 is exposed under the state of partially overlapping the case 11 with the tray 12. On the other hand, when the tray 12 is withdrawn into the case 11, the inserting hole of the case 11 including the notched part 25 is hermetically sealed via a projecting surface 26 of the tray 12. By this simple constitution, the disk cartridge is miniaturized and thinned while the sealing property is promoted and also the area of the recording part can be expanded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application J] The present invention relates to a disk cartridge used in a disk-shaped information recording medium that requires high-density, high-precision information recording.

[Prior Art] FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of a conventionally used cartridge, in which a disk D is rotationally driven inside the cartridge 1. A disk-shaped disk D is housed inside a substantially rectangular cartridge 1, and an opening 2 is provided for insertion of a spindle table and a head. Further, a spring 4 is provided inside the cartridge 1 to bias the shutter 3 in the opening direction, and a shutter lock member 5 is provided on the sliding surface of the shutter 3 on the side surface of the cartridge 1 to lock the shutter 3 in the closed state. It is provided.

As described above, the disk cartridge in which the disk D is rotationally driven has a large number of parts and a complicated structure, making it difficult to process and assemble. Also, a clearance for rotation is required between the disk D and the inner wall of the cartridge 1.
Cartridge l tends to become larger. Furthermore, if a clearance is provided, the disk D will not fit into the cartridge 1 during transportation.
There is a risk that the disc may rattle inside the disc and cause damage to the recording part. Therefore, it is conceivable to use several disk holding members to prevent this rattling, but this increases the number of parts and increases the cost.

On the other hand, in recent years, there has been a trend to downsize the disc D, and particularly in the case of a 3.5-inch disc D, how to increase the amount of recordable information has become a problem. As a countermeasure, it has been proposed to downsize the recording/reproducing head or enlarge the recording area. However, with the above-mentioned disk rotation method inside the cartridge 1, if the recording area of the disk D is expanded, the cartridge l The opening 2 must also be enlarged, and when installing a shutter 3 for opening and closing the opening 2, there are difficulties in its structure, strength, and rigidity.

FIG. 5 shows another conventional example in which the disk D is inserted from the outer case 6.
This is a system in which the tray 7 on which the paper is placed is pulled out. In order to chaff disk D in the recording/playback device,
Insert the outer case 6 containing the tray 7 into the device, release the locking mechanism between the outer case 6 and the tray 7 inside the device, pull out the outer case 6, and remove the tray 7 remaining inside the device.
After the disc holding mechanism 8 that prevents the placed disc D from wobbling is released, the disc D is chucked onto the spindle table inside the device, and preparations for recording and reproducing information are completed. do. In addition, when ejecting the disk D and tray 7, the outer case 6 is inserted into the device again, the disk holding mechanism 8 is activated, and then the tray 7 is stored in the outer case 6, and the locking mechanism is completely released. It is then ejected from the device. Note that when the outer case 6 is pulled out, the outer case 6 is not completely separated from the tray 7, but is held in a state where it partially overlaps the tray 7, as shown in FIG.

As described above, the method of loading and unloading the tray 7 from the outer case 6 also has poor operability, the structure of the disk cartridge and the information recording/reproducing device is complicated, and the total number of parts is large, making it difficult to reduce costs.

[Object of the Invention] An object of the present invention is to provide a disk cartridge that can reduce the number of parts and assembly processes, and realize miniaturization and thinning, while increasing the area of the recording portion of the disk. be.

[Summary of the Invention] The gist of the present invention for achieving the above-mentioned object is to include a substantially thin box-shaped outer case provided with a tray insertion slot on one side, and a disc storage section housed inside the outer case. The disc cartridge is characterized in that a cutout portion for transmitting a light beam is provided on the bottom surface of the outer case in communication with the tray insertion opening.

[Embodiments of the Invention] The present invention will be described in detail based on embodiments illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a disk cartridge. An outer case 11 and a tray 12 housed in the outer case 11 are made of synthetic resin material. A disk D housed in the tray 12 has Da as a non-recording surface and Db as a non-recording surface. It is considered to be an information recording surface. The outer case 11 has a thin box shape with an insertion opening 13,
The tray 12 is accommodated through this insertion opening 13.

The tray 12 is a substantially square flat plate with one side approximately equal to the diameter of the disk D, and is provided with a circular recess as a disk mounting portion 14 . An opening 15 is provided on the bottom surface of the disk mounting portion 14 to expose about half of the recording surface Db and into which a spindle deple and a recording/reproducing head are inserted. In addition, on the bottom of the disk mounting section 14,
In order to protect the recording surface Db of the disc D, a convex disc holding stage 16 is installed around the center of the opening 15 and on the outer periphery of the disc mounting part 14. The disk D is held in such a way that it comes into contact with the non-recording portion on the recording surface ob side and floats the disk D from the bottom of the disk storage section 14. here,
The depth of the disk storage section 14 is equal to the sum of the thickness of the disk D and the height of the disk holding stage 16, and when the disk D is placed on the tray 12, the top surface of the tray 12 and the non-recording surface Da of the disk D are approximately equal to each other. They are in the same position. Also, on both sides of the tray 12, there are tray lock arms 17 that are easily elastically deformable.
is formed integrally with the tray 12, and when the tray 12 is stored in the outer case 11, it engages with a locking hole 18 provided in the outer case 11, and the outer case 11 and the tray 12 are locked together.
On both sides of the corner of the tray 12, there are protrusions 1 facing to the side for pulling out the tray 12.
9 is provided. The height of this protrusion 19 is the outer case 1
1, and engages with the notch 20 of the outer case 11, and the protrusion 19 serves not only to pull out the tray 12 but also to prevent incorrect insertion. Further, a light protector mounting portion 21 is provided on the upper surface of the tray 12, and a light protector 22 is slidably mounted thereon.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line ■-■ in FIG. 1, and the side wall surface 23 of the disk mounting portion 14 is tapered to expand upward so that the disk D can be easily accommodated. . The opening 15 of the tray 12 is provided to expose the outermost periphery of the disk D, and the outer frame 24 of the opening 15 is placed at the top of the tray 12 so that the recording/reproducing head can move as much as possible. It is formed thinly.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the tray 12 inserted halfway into the outer case 11, viewed from below. The tray insertion opening 13 of the outer case 11 communicates with a notch 25 provided on the bottom surface of the outer case 11 and having a width at least equal to or greater than the moving width of the recording/reproducing head. A convex surface 26 is integrally formed on the back surface of the tray 12 so as to engage with the convex surface 25 .

With the structure described above, first the tray 12 is attached to the outer case 11.
When inserted into the disc cartridge, the top surface of the tray 12 and the non-recording surface Da of the disc D are almost the same surface, so the disc D is sandwiched between the inner wall surface of the outer case 11 and the disc holding stage 16, so that the disc D is not inserted into the disc cartridge. This prevents rattling, while also making it possible to make the disc cartridge thinner.

In addition, the opening 15 for reproducing the recording urn of the tray 12 is expanded to the outer diameter of the disk D, and the opening 15 corresponding to the head passage area is expanded.
Since the outer frame 24 is thinly formed on the upper part, it does not interfere with the movement of the head.

Furthermore, information is recorded and reproduced after the trays 12 are pulled out from the outer case 11 until they partially overlap. Even if the tray 12 is
The opening 15 can be exposed. In other words, even though the tray 12 is formed to have approximately the same size as the diameter of the disk D,
A wide opening 15 can be provided, making it possible to enlarge the recording area of the disc D. Note that the convex surface 26 of the tray 12 that engages with the notch 25 of the outer case 11 prevents dust and the like from entering the inside of the disk cartridge during storage.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the disc cartridge according to the present invention has a small number of main parts and is made small and thin, while the opening for recording and reproducing information is enlarged so that the recording portion of the disc can be expanded. It can be expanded, and the assembly process is easier due to the reduction in the number of parts, resulting in lower costs.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 to 3 show an embodiment of the disk cartridge according to the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a perspective view, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the tray taken along the line ■-■ in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the back side, FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a conventional example, and FIG. 5 is a front view of another conventional example. 11 is an outer case, 12 is a tray, 13 is an insertion slot, 1
4 is a disk mounting portion, 15 is an opening, 16 is a disk holding stage, 25 is a notch, 26 is a convex surface, and D is a disk. Patent applicant Canon Co., Ltd. Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. It consists of a substantially thin box-shaped outer case with a tray insertion slot on one side, and a tray that is housed inside the outer case and has a disk mounting section, with the tray insertion slot and the tray insertion slot on the bottom surface of the outer case. A disc cartridge characterized by having a notch that communicates with the light beam for transmission.