JPH04129073A - Head cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To surely remove dust on a stop-down lens by bringing the front end part of a cleaner member into contact with the stop-down lens at the time of storing a head cleaner in a recording and reproducing device and automatically moving the cleaner member to remove dust stuck on the stop-down lens. CONSTITUTION:A holder 3 holding a cleaner member 4 is supported by a disk 2, and the holder 3 and the cleaner member 4 are rotated around the center of the disk 2 when the disk 2 is rotated by a driving mechanism 5, and the holder 3 can be rotated on its axis in the supporting part of the disk 2. When the head cleaner is inserted to an optical disk device 7, an optical disk medium is set to a prescribed position where it should be set for an optical head at the time of use. At this time, the optical head 8 is so positioned that the cleaner member 4 can clean a stop-down lens 9. As the result, the cleaner member 4 is pressed to the surface of the stop-down lens 9 of the optical head 8 and is rotated on its axis and around the center of the disk by the driving mechanism 5 to clean the surface of the lens 9. Thus, dust stuck to the stop-down lens is surely removed.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a head cleaner for cleaning an optical head, especially an aperture lens, provided in an optical disc device that optically records and reproduces information on an optical disc. Regarding.

[Conventional technology]

A conventional head cleaner, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-267931, includes an optical head cleaning device in which a rotary brush is provided in a cartridge-like member shaped to be housed in an optical disk device, and It was designed to clean the aperture lens using a dry method.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The above conventional technology performs dry cleaning with a brush, so it is possible to remove dust that is sitting on the aperture lens.
There has been a problem in that it is difficult to completely remove dust stuck on the aperture lens and sticky dust.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a head cleaner that can solve the above problems and reliably remove dust on the aperture lens.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, a material that comes into contact with and adheres to the aperture lens of an optical head provided inside an optical recording and reproducing device that optically records and reproduces data. a rotatable rod-shaped cleaner member for removing dust;
a cleaner holding member for holding the cleaner member; a drive mechanism for causing the cleaner member to rotate; the cleaner member, the cleaner holding member, and the drive mechanism are stored therein; A head cleaner comprising a case shaped so that it can be stored in a playback device,
When the head cleaner is housed in the optical recording/reproducing apparatus, dust on the tip of the cleaner member is removed.

[Effect]

The case in which the cleaner member, the cleaner holding member, and the drive mechanism are housed has a shape that can be housed in the optical disk device. Therefore, when the head cleaner according to the present invention is housed in the optical disk device, the cleaner member is stored inside the optical disk device. Since it is in direct contact with the diaphragm lens of the optical head and rotated by a drive mechanism, dust adhering to the diaphragm lens can be reliably removed.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail using the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a head cleaner according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The head cleaner according to this embodiment has a structure in which a holder 3 holding a cleaner member 4 in a cartridge case 1 is attached to a disk 2 that is rotated by a separately provided drive mechanism 5.

The case 1 has a structure that is almost the same in size and shape as a cartridge case in which an optical disk medium is usually housed.

The holder 3 holding the cleaner member 4 is supported by the disc 2, and when the disc 2 is rotated by the drive mechanism 5, the holder 3 and the cleaner member 4 also rotate (revolution) around the central axis of the disc 2. Further, the holder 3 itself has a structure that allows it to rotate (rotate on its own axis) at the support portion of the disk 2.

An O-ring 6 is attached to the end of the holder 3, and its upper end is in contact with the end surface of the case 1.

When the disc 2 rotates, the holder 3 also rotates around the central axis of the disc 2, and accordingly, the circle ring 6 rolls on the end face of the case 1, and the holder 3 also rotates on its own axis.

In this embodiment, an O-ring 6 is used, but a rubber plate may be attached to the case 1 side, or a mechanism in which the holder 3 and the end face of the case 1 are meshed like gears may be used.

Next, the operation of the head cleaner when installed in the optical disc device 7 will be explained using FIG. 2.

When the head cleaner is inserted into the optical disc device 7, it is set at a predetermined position that the optical disc medium takes with respect to the optical head 8 during use. At this time, the optical head 8 is positioned at a position where the cleaner member 4 can clean the aperture lens 9.

As a result, the cleaner member 4 is pressed against the upper surface of the aperture lens 9 of the optical head 8, and the drive mechanism 5 causes the cleaner member 4 to
The lens 9 is cleaned by rotating and revolving as explained in the figure.

This cleaner member 4 is made of a cotton swab-like material and is soaked with alcohol or the like in advance to improve cleaning performance.

Additionally, the cleaner member 4 is removable from the holder 3.
It is also possible to have a structure that can be replaced after cleaning.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail using FIG.

The head cleaner includes a case 1 and a plurality of holders 3 to which cleaner members 4 are attached (in Fig. 3, there are 6 holders 3).
(example is shown in which one is installed), separate rotary feed mechanism 11
The holder 3 and the cleaner member 4 are attached to a support disk 12 which is rotated by a fixed angle by a drive disk 12, and a drive disk 13 that rotates the holder 3 and the cleaner member 4 is provided coaxially above the support disk 12. has a structure in which it is rotated by a drive mechanism 5.

As in FIG. 1, the case 1 has almost the same size and shape as a cartridge case in which a normal optical disc medium is housed.

The holder 3 with the cleaner member 4 attached has a support disk 12
It has a structure that allows rotation (rotation) at the support portion of the support disk 12. An O-ring 6 is attached to the end of the holder 3, and its upper end is in contact with the surface of the drive disk 13.

When the drive disk 13 is rotated by the drive mechanism 5, the O-ring 6 relatively rolls on the surface of the drive disk 13, and the holder 3 rotates.

In this embodiment, an O-ring 6 is used, but a rubber plate may be attached to the drive disk 13 side, or a mechanism in which the holder 3 and the surface of the drive disk 7 are meshed like gears may be used.

Next, the operation when the head cleaner shown in FIG. 3 is installed in the optical disc device 7 will be explained in detail using FIG. 4.

The head cleaner is inserted into the optical disc device 7 and set at a predetermined position where the optical disc medium is relative to the optical head 8 during use. At this time, the optical head 8 is positioned at a position where the cleaner member 4 in the cleaning position can clean the aperture lens 9. As a result, the cleaner member 4 is pressed against the upper surface of the diaphragm lens section 9 on the optical head 8, and cleans the top of the lens 9 by rotating.

Additionally, the cleaner member 4 is removable from the holder 3.
It is also possible to have a structure that can be replaced after cleaning.

As the drive mechanism 5, a motor is mounted in the case 1, and power can be transmitted from this to the drive disk 13 by gears, belts, friction, or the like. Also, spindle motor 1
There is also a method of transmitting power to the drive disk 13 using zero driving force.

An example of the rotation feed mechanism 11 will be explained in detail using FIG. 5. In this example, the outer periphery of the support disk 12 is configured as a pawl wheel, and a mechanism consisting of a pawl 14 and a lever 15 is provided to feed the pawl wheel by a constant angle.

When the case 1 is inserted into the optical disc device 7 in the direction a, the lever 15 is pushed in the direction b by a protrusion 16 provided inside the device 7, and the support disk 12 is moved by a predetermined angle by the claw 14. It is.

When the head cleaner with the structure described above is inserted into an optical disk device, the new cleaner member automatically positions itself relative to the optical head's aperture lens and performs a rotational movement, so that the aperture lens is always connected to the new cleaner member. The parts can be cleaned automatically and reliably.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, since dust on the aperture lens can be reliably removed over the entire surface, it is possible to prevent reading and writing errors due to a decrease in the amount of laser light due to dust in the optical disc device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a head cleaner according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the head cleaner according to FIG. 1 installed in an optical disk device, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a head cleaner according to an embodiment; FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the head cleaner shown in FIG. 3 installed in an optical disc device; FIG. This is a diagram for 1... Cartridge case. 2...Disk. 3...Holder 4...Cleaner member. 5... Drive mechanism. 6...O-ring. 7... Optical disc device. 8... Optical head. 9... Aperture lens. 10...Spindle motor.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A rotatable device for contacting a diaphragm lens of an optical head provided inside an optical recording and reproducing device that optically records and reproduces data to remove dust attached to the diaphragm lens. A rod-shaped cleaner member, a cleaner holding member that holds the cleaner member, a drive mechanism for causing the cleaner member to rotate, and the cleaner member, the cleaner holding member, and the drive mechanism are stored therein. death,
A head cleaner comprising a case shaped to be housed in the optical recording/reproducing apparatus, wherein when the head cleaner is housed in the optical recording/reproducing apparatus, the tip of the cleaner member comes into contact with the diaphragm lens and rotates on its axis. A head cleaner that moves to remove dust attached to the aperture lens. 2. A plurality of the cleaner members are supported at equal intervals in the circumferential direction of the cleaner holding member, and when the cleaner holding member is inserted into the optical disc device and set, the new cleaner member is rotated by a certain angle, thereby cleaning the new cleaner member. 2. The head cleaner according to claim 1, wherein the new cleaner member is rotated by a drive mechanism to clean the aperture lens. 3. A second feature in which a mechanism of a pawl and a pawl wheel is combined with the cleaner holding member, and the insertion force into the optical disc device is used to automatically send out a new cleaner member when the cleaner member is inserted into the optical disc device. Head cleaner as described in section. 4. The head cleaner according to item 1, wherein a spindle motor within the optical disk device is used as the drive mechanism.