JPH03144959A - Recording medium exchanging device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To miniaturize a recording medium exchanging device and to increase the working speed of the device by positioning a cartridge transfer arm at a desired position, hooking the arm to a disk driver by a turning motion, and moving the arm. CONSTITUTION:In an initial state, a cartridge 6 is vertically put on a store part 7 and a cartridge transfer arm 12 is kept at a position where the input/ output of the part 7 is not affected. When an instruction is received from a host 14, a drive control part 15 moves down a drive shaft 9 and sets the arm 12 at the desired height of the cartridge 6, and the drive shaft 9 is rotated to rotate the arm 12. Then the cartridge 6 is projected and a disk driver 13 is moved up to the position of the cartridge 6. Thus a disk 17 stored in the cartridge 6 is hooked to the driver 13. Then the driver 13 performs the recording/reproducing operations of the disk 17. Thus no linear motion of the cartridge 6 is produced and therefore compact recording medium exchanging device is attained together with its high speed working properties.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention selects a desired disc-shaped storage medium such as a plurality of optical discs stored in a storage unit, and records and/or reproduces it (hereinafter referred to as The present invention relates to a storage medium exchange device that can be set and returned to its original position for a disk drive device that performs recording and playback.

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIG. 4, this type of device has a storage section 1 in which a plurality of disk cartridges 5 each containing a disk stored in a case are stored in an overlapping state, and a storage section 1 in which a disk is rotated and a disk cartridge 5 is mounted on the disk. A disk drive device 2 that performs recording and reproduction, a disk transport section 3 that transports a disk cartridge between the storage section 1 and the disk drive device 2, a transport section guide 4 that guides the disk transport section 3 along the storage section 1, etc. to move the disc cartridge 5 to the desired location on the transport section 3, and then move the disc cartridge 5 onto the transport section 3.
is moved to the disk drive device 2, the disk cartridge 5 is inserted into the disk drive device 2, predetermined recording and playback is performed, and after the recording and playback is completed, the disk cartridge is placed on the transport section 3 again, and the disk cartridge 5 is moved to the transport section 3. was returned to a predetermined position in the storage section 1, and the disk cartridge 5 was returned to the storage section 1.

Instead of arranging the housing, storage section, and disk drive device one above the other, the desired disk cartridge can be positioned relative to the disk drive device by arranging them facing each other and moving the storage section relative to the disk drive device. There are also known devices in which the disk cartridge is inserted into a disk drive device (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 1983-1999)
(See Publication No. 291253).

Furthermore, a floppy disk drive device is movably arranged under a storage area in which a large number of floppy disks are vertically stored, and after the floppy disk drive device is moved under the storage position of a desired floppy disk, the There is also known a device in which the floppy disk is moved downward and inserted into the floppy disk drive (for example, see Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 186543/1983).

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in all of these conventional devices, the disk or disk cartridge is moved in and out of the storage unit or the disk drive device by reciprocating the disk or disk cartridge in a straight line. The problem was that the mechanism for reciprocating the cartridge was complicated and it was difficult to increase the speed. Furthermore, since the entire disk or disk cartridge is taken out from the storage portion and inserted into the disk drive device, there is also the problem that the device cannot be miniaturized.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a storage medium exchange device that has a relatively simple structure, and is capable of increasing speed and reducing size.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention uses a rectangular case with a hole in one corner for passing the spindle through as a case for storing the disc, and the disc is housed in this case. A plurality of stored cartridges are rotatably arranged by fitting the hole into a support shaft provided in the storage portion, and the cartridges are moved between a position stored in the storage portion and a position protruding from the storage portion. As a means for moving the cartridge, a cartridge transfer arm having a shape that holds one end of the cartridge far from the support shaft is provided so as to move parallel to the support shaft and rotate around the support shaft, and further, In front of
The disk of the cartridge protruding from the storage section is rotated, and the disk driving means in the cartridge is provided so as to be movable along the storage section in parallel with the spindle.

According to the above-described structure, the present invention positions the cartridge transfer arm at a position facing a desired cartridge, and then rotates the cartridge around a support shaft to project it out of the storage section. Can be hung on the disk drive. At this time, since the cartridge moves not in a reciprocating motion but in a rotating motion, the mechanism can be simplified and the speed can be increased. Furthermore, since the cartridge is hung on the disk drive device with only a portion thereof protruding from the storage portion, the entire device can be made smaller.

Embodiment FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing the main parts of a recording medium exchanging device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view thereof. In FIGS. 1 and 2, 6 is a cartridge in which a disc is stored in a case having a hole for inserting a spindle in one corner of a rectangle, and 7 is a storage area in which a plurality of the cartridges 6 are stored. It is. The storage part 7 has one vertical support shaft 8 to press the button, and the plurality of cartridges 6 have the support shaft 8 in the hole.
They are arranged in such a way that they overlap each other by passing through them, and are rotatable about the support shaft 8. 9 is a drive shaft provided on the same axis as the support shaft 8; 10 is a connection rod fixed to the drive shaft 9; 11 is an arm support shaft fixed to the connection rod 10;
2 is a cartridge transfer arm fixed to the arm support shaft 11. This cartridge transfer arm 12 is shaped to sandwich one end of the cartridge transfer arm far from the support shaft 8 of the cartridge transfer arm 12, and the connecting rod 10. It is held by a drive shaft 9 via an arm support shaft 11. Drive shaft 9
, an arm moving means (not shown) moves the cartridge transfer arm 12 up and down along the storage portion 7 in parallel to the support shaft 8 by moving the drive shaft 9 up and down, thereby moving the cartridge to a desired cartridge position. By reciprocating the drive shaft 9 by about 90', the cartridge transfer arm 12 is moved to the support shaft 8.
An arm rotating means is connected to rotate the arm between the position shown by the solid line in FIG. 1 and the position shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. Note that the mechanism for vertically moving and rotating the cartridge transfer arm 12 is not limited to the one shown in the drawings, and can be modified as appropriate. 1
Reference numeral 3 denotes a disk drive device that is provided adjacent to the storage section 7 and is movable along the storage section 7 in parallel to the support shaft 8 . This disk drive device is capable of recording and reproducing by rotating a disk in a cartridge that protrudes from the storage section 7 as shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of a system using the recording medium exchange device shown in FIGS. 1 and 2,
14 is a host that inputs and outputs data; 15 is a drive control section that controls the vertical movement and rotation of the cartridge transfer arm 12; 16 is a disk drive section that performs recording and reproduction of the disk; and 17 is a disk.

The operation of the recording medium exchange device configured as described above will be described below.

In the initial state without housing, the cartridges 6 are stacked vertically on the storage section 7, and the cartridge transfer arm 12
, the arm support shaft 11, the connecting rod 10, etc. are at the solid line positions in FIG.
The IJ jig transfer arm 12 is located above the uppermost limit of the storage section 7, so that it does not affect the loading and unloading of the storage section 7. Next, in accordance with instructions from the host 14, the drive shaft 9 is lowered by the drive control unit 15, and the cartridge transfer arm 12 is adjusted to the desired height of the cartridge 6.

Next, the drive shaft 9 rotates, and the car) IJ jig transfer arm 1
2 is rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise around the support shaft 8, and the cartridge is projected to the position shown by the two-dot chain line. next,
The disk drive device 13 rises at the cartridge position 1 protruding from the storage portion 7, and the disk in the cartridge is hung on the disk drive device 13. Thereafter, the drive device 13 performs recording and reproduction on the disk 17 in the cartridge.

When the recording and reproduction of the disc 17 is completed, the disc drive device 13 is lowered, the arm 12 is rotated 90° clockwise about the support shaft 8, and the cartridge is returned to the storage section 7. This completes one operation.

In the above embodiment, the disk drive device 13 is raised to a position where the cartridge protrudes from the storage portion 7, and the disk of the cartridge is hung on the disk drive device. After setting the cartridge to the height, move the cartridge to the cartridge transfer arm 1.
2 may be configured to protrude from the storage portion 7 and be hung on the disk drive device.

In the above embodiment, the support shaft is provided vertically and the cartridge rotates in a horizontal plane, but the support shaft may be arranged horizontally and the cartridge is arranged vertically.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above description, the present invention has a structure in which a plurality of cartridges (IJs) are rotatably held on the spindle of the storage section, so that by rotating the cartridge, the cartridge can be removed from the storage section. It can be protruded and hung on the disk drive device, there is no linear reciprocating movement of the cartridge, it maintains high speed when using a device with a small number of sheets, and it also reduces costs by realizing a complicated conveyance section with a simple arm and rotation system. This has the effect of making it possible.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing the main parts of a recording medium exchanging device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. , 9... Drive shaft, 10... Connecting rod, 11... Arm support shaft, 12...
Cartridge transfer arm, 13...Disk drive device, 17...Disk disk.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A cartridge in which a disk-shaped storage medium is housed in a case having a hole in one corner of a rectangle for passing a spindle, and a plurality of the cartridges can be rotated by fitting the hole into one spindle. and a storage section arranged in an overlapping relationship with each other, a cartridge transfer arm shaped to sandwich at least one end of the cartridge far from the support shaft, and the cartridge transfer arm is moved to a position corresponding to an arbitrary cartridge in the storage section. an arm moving means for moving the cartridge parallel to the support shaft; and a pivoting arm for rotating the cartridge transfer arm about the support shaft so as to move the cartridge between a position housed in the storage section and a position protruding from the storage section. an arm rotation means; a disk drive means movable along the storage section in parallel with the support shaft, the disk drive means rotating a disk-shaped storage medium in a cartridge protruding from the storage section for recording and reproducing; A storage medium exchange device equipped with