JPH0416304Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention is ideal for tape cassettes for video tape recorders, for example, and is a plug in a through hole provided vertically in the cassette housing. The present invention relates to a tape cassette configured such that cassette information is detected depending on the top and bottom positions.

[Summary of the idea]

The present invention provides a tape cassette in which cassette information is detected based on the vertical position of a plug in a through-hole provided vertically in a cassette case. Engage with the groove to move the plug up and down, and position the plug in multiple stages up and down,
In addition, by constructing the groove by a pair of upper and lower cylindrical portions that butt against each other, it is possible to extremely easily switch the vertical position of the plug within the through hole, and the groove can be formed easily and at low cost. It was made so that it could be obtained.

[Conventional technology]

This type of tape cassette is designed to detect the vertical position of the plug in the through hole using an information detection sensor on the video tape recorder side, thereby making it possible to check various cassette information such as preventing accidental erasure. be. Regarding this, the applicant has previously filed a patent application.
No. 59-152603 was filed.

In the invention of this application, the lower end of the plug is formed into a beveled shape by a pair of engaging claws extending in the radial direction, and two step portions are provided in the through hole at intervals above and below, so that the plug can be penetrated. By inserting the plug into the hole while being biased upward by a spring, and engaging the pair of engaging claws at the bottom end of the plug with either of the two upper and lower steps, the plug can be inserted into the through hole. The plug was configured to switch between the upper and lower positions, and when switching the plug from the upper position to the lower position, the plug was pushed down against the spring, and the pair of engaging claws were engaged with the pair of engagement claws formed on the lower step. The plug is inserted through the slit and removed downward from the stepped portion, and the plug is then rotated 90 degrees around the vertical axis to engage the pair of locking claws with the lower stepped portion, and the plug is biased upward by the spring. The movement of the plug was restricted. Also, when switching the plug from the lower position to the upper position, the plug is rotated 90 degrees around the vertical axis so that the pair of locking claws fit into the pair of slits, and the spring moves the plug upward. I was doing it.

[Problem that the invention attempts to solve]

However, the above-mentioned prior invention had the following problems.

That is, when switching the plug to the lower position, the pair of locking claws of the plug are removed from the pair of slits in the lower step, and the plug is rotated 90 degrees, but if this rotation is not done carefully, the plug will rotate. If the plug is turned too far, the pair of locking pawls will fit into the pair of slits again, and the plug will be pulled back upwardly by the spring. Also, when switching the plug to the upper position, the plug must be rotated 90 degrees so that its pair of locking claws fit into the pair of slits in the stepped section, but this time, the pair of engaging claws must fit into the pair of slits. difficult to adapt to. Therefore, the operation of switching the vertical position of the plug within the through hole requires sufficient experience, and it is difficult to perform the switching operation easily.

Furthermore, the step formed within the through hole must be formed in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the plug within the through hole, which makes molding difficult and complicates the mold structure, resulting in high costs. There were also some bad points.

Accordingly, the present invention aims to provide a plug that can extremely easily switch the vertical position of the plug within the through-hole, and that is easy to mold and at low cost.

[Means for solving the problem] The present invention provides the above-mentioned tape cassette,
The through hole is provided with a groove portion consisting of a vertical groove and a plurality of upper and lower horizontal grooves connected to the vertical groove. an engaging portion protruding outward from the groove to be engaged with the groove, and by engaging the engaging portion with the vertical groove, the plug can be moved up and down within the through hole; By rotating the plug around the vertical axis, the engaging portion is selectively engaged with the horizontal grooves in the plurality of upper and lower stages, thereby positioning the plug in the plurality of upper and lower stages within the through hole. It is.

[Effect]

According to the above-mentioned technical means, since the engaging part provided on the plug is always engaged with the groove formed by the vertical groove provided in the through hole and the horizontal grooves in multiple stages above and below, the plug is inserted into the through hole. When switching to a plurality of vertical positions within the plug, the plug is rotated around the vertical axis and moved vertically while being guided by the engagement between the groove portion and the engaging portion. Therefore, the plug is not rotated too much, and the switching operation can be performed extremely easily and reliably.

Moreover, since the groove of the through hole is formed by butting together a pair of upper and lower cylindrical parts that are integrally molded into the upper and lower halves, the cylindrical part for forming this groove can be formed using a vertically split mold with an extremely simple structure. It can be easily molded. Therefore, even if the groove is perpendicular to the direction of movement of the plug, there is no need to use a mold with a complicated structure, resulting in extremely low cost.

〔Example〕

An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a tape cassette for a video tape recorder will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, as shown in FIG. 4, a cassette housing 1 of a tape cassette consists of upper and lower halves 2 and 3, and inside this cassette housing 1 are a pair of left and right reels 4 on which magnetic tape (not shown) is wound. It is rotatably stored. A front cover 5 is rotatably attached to the front end of the cassette housing 1. Furthermore, a pair of through holes 6 are located at the front left and right positions of the cassette housing 1.
is formed vertically. Note that these through holes 6
is a positioning hole for positioning the cassette housing 1 when the tape cassette is installed in a video tape recorder. Plugs 8 are inserted into these through holes 6, respectively.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3, a plug 8 inserted into the through hole 6 is formed of synthetic resin into a substantially cylindrical shape. and the lower end 8a of the plug 8
A hemispherical engaging portion 10 is formed on a part of the outer circumferential surface near the outer circumferential surface so as to protrude outward from the outer circumferential surface. Around this engaging portion 10, a vertical line M is formed from the lower end 8a.
A letter-shaped slit 11 is formed, and this slit 1
1, the engaging portion 10 has elasticity. In addition, grooves 12 and 13 for inserting a screwdriver or the like are formed in both upper and lower ends 8b and 8a of the plug 8.

On the other hand, the through hole 6 into which the plug 8 is inserted is
It is formed by a pair of upper and lower cylindrical parts 22 and 23 integrally molded into upper and lower halves 2 and 3 molded from synthetic resin, butted against each other from above and below. The lower and upper ends of these cylindrical parts 22 and 23 have the same shape, respectively, and have horizontal first end faces 15a and 15b spanning approximately 180°, and a horizontal end face 15a and 15b that protrudes from the first end faces 15a and 15b at a height _h1. shaped second end surfaces 16a, 16b, and first end surfaces 15a,
Horizontal third end surfaces 17a and 17b are formed with a notch at height h ₂ (h ₂ >h ₁ ) from 15b. Note that the second end surfaces 16a, 16b and the third end surfaces 17a, 1
7b are formed by circular arcs with lengths l ₁ and l ₂ (l ₂ > l ₁ ), respectively.

Then, as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, when the cylindrical portions 22 and 23 are butted against each other from above and below, the first end surfaces 15a of these cylindrical portions 22 and 23,
15b are joined together, and by this butting, a crank-shaped groove 37 is formed in the through hole 6 over approximately 180 degrees. That is, the third end surface 17a and the second end surface 16a of the cylindrical portion 22 are the second end surface 16b and the third end surface 1 of the cylindrical portion 23, respectively.
7b, but since these heights differ by h ₂ and h 1 with respect to the joined first end surfaces 15a and 15b, the upper and lower 2 having a width of h ₂ - _{h 1 are}
Step horizontal grooves 38, 39 are formed. In addition, since the shape growth of the second end surfaces 16a, 16b and the third end surfaces 17a, 17b is different between l ₁ and l ₂ , here l ₂
The vertical groove 40 having a width of −l ₁ is connected to the horizontal groove 38,
39. The engaging portion 10 of the plug 8 is engaged with these horizontal grooves 38, 39 and vertical groove 40. Note that click locking protrusions 41 and 42 having tapered surfaces are formed at the corners of the second end surfaces 16b and 16a of the cylindrical portions 23 and 22, respectively.

According to the plug 8 and the through hole 6 configured as described above, the plug 8 is first pressed and inserted into the through hole 6 from the lower end 8a side against the elasticity of the engaging portion 10. Then, the plug 8 is held in the through hole 6 by elastically returning the engaging portion 10 of the plug 8 and being engaged in the groove portion 37 . Here, FIGS. 1A and 2A show a state in which the plug 8 is positioned at an upper level within the through hole 6, and the engaging portion 10 of the plug 8 is engaged within the horizontal groove 38.

Next, the upper end 8 of the plug 8 is placed in the state shown in FIG. 1A.
When a screwdriver or the like is inserted into the insertion groove 12 of b and the plug 8 is rotated around the vertical axis in the direction of arrow a in FIG. is removed from the horizontal groove 38 , and the engaging portion 10 is positioned at the upper end of the vertical groove 40 . When the plug 8 is pressed downward here, the plug 8 is moved vertically with the engaging part 10 engaged with the vertical groove 40, and stops when the engaging part 10 is located at the lower end of the vertical groove 40. . When the plug 8 is further rotated around the vertical axis in the direction of arrow a in FIG. 2B, the engaging portion 10 passes over the click locking projection 42 and is engaged in the lower horizontal groove 39. As a result, the plug 8 is positioned at the lower level within the through hole 6 as shown in FIG. 1B.

When switching the vertical position of the plug 8 from the lower stage to the upper stage within the through hole 6, insert a screwdriver or the like into the insertion groove 13 of the lower end 8a of the plug 8 from the lower half 3 side, and move the plug 8 in the reverse operation described above. move by.

As described above, the plug 8 is inserted into the first A in the through hole 6.
By selectively switching between the position shown in the figure and the position shown in FIG. 1B, the position of the lower end 8a of the plug 8 in the through hole 6 is changed to two levels, upper and lower, and the length to the lower end opening of the through hole 6 is changed. can be switched to two stages, long and short.

By the way, when switching the plug 8 between upper and lower stages as described above, since the engaging part 10 of the plug 8 is always engaged with the groove part 37 of the through hole 6, the plug 8 can be switched in one direction until it stops. Switching between the upper and lower two-stage positions can be performed by an extremely simple operation of rotating the robot, pressing it vertically at the stopped position to move it, and then rotating it in the same direction again at the stopped position. In addition, there are two horizontal grooves 38, 3 above and below.
9, the engaging portion 10 is connected to the click locking protrusion 4.
1 and 42 to be engaged with each other in a click-like manner, the plug 8 is positioned extremely reliably in the upper and lower two positions, and the plug 8 will not rotate unexpectedly in this position.

In addition, the horizontal grooves 38, 39 and the vertical groove 4 in the upper and lower two stages
Since the groove 37 consisting of 0 is formed by butting the cylindrical parts 22 and 23, the cylindrical parts 22 and 23 for forming the groove 37 are formed using a vertically split mold with an extremely simple structure. It is easily molded. Next, detection of cassette information based on the upper and lower positions of the plug 8 will be explained. That is, when a tape cassette is installed in a video tape recorder, the through hole 6 of the cassette case 1 is fitted into the positioning pin 30 on the video tape recorder side, as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, and the cassette case is closed. 1 is positioned. A spring 31 is installed inside the positioning pin 30.
A detection pin 32 is provided which is biased upward by. Here, when the plug 8 is in the upper position as shown in FIG. 1A, the tip of the detection pin 32 does not reach the lower end 8a of the plug 8, so the detection pin 32 remains in the upper position, and therefore the positioning pin 3
A pair of holes 33 provided at the bottom of 0 are opened,
Photo sensor 34 is activated.

On the other hand, when the plug 8 is in the lower position as shown in FIG. 1B, the tip of the detection pin 32 comes into contact with the lower end 8a of the plug 8, and the detection pin 32 is pushed down. Then, the pair of holes 33 are closed by the lower end of the detection pin 32, and the photo sensor 34 is closed.
is switched to non-operation, and it is detected that the plug 8 is in the lower position.

Next, FIG. 5 shows an example of application of the above-described embodiment. In this application, the lower end 8 of the plug 8
A spring 45 is inserted between a and an annular protrusion 44 formed at the lower end of the inner peripheral surface of the through hole 6 on the cylindrical portion 23 side. According to this application example, the upper end 8b of the plug 8 is pressed to move the plug 8 downward against the spring 45 and upward by the spring 44, so that the switching operation of the plug 8 can be performed only on one side. It can be carried out. Note that when the plug 8 is in the upper stage position, the plug 8 is positioned by engaging the engaging part 10 in the upper horizontal groove 38, but in this application example, the inner circumference of the through hole 6 of the cylindrical part 22 An annular protrusion 46 is formed at the upper end of the surface, and the outer periphery of the upper end 8b of the plug 8 comes into contact with the protrusion 46 as well, thereby positioning the plug 8.

Next, FIG. 6 shows another embodiment,
Three horizontal grooves 48, 49, 50 are formed in the through hole 6 formed by butting the cylindrical parts 22 and 23 in upper, middle and lower stages.
and two vertical grooves 51, 52 connected to these horizontal grooves 48, 49, 50. Note that click locking protrusions 54, 55, 56 similar to those described above are formed at the corners of the horizontal grooves 48, 49, 50, respectively. According to this groove portion 53, the vertical position of the plug 8 in the through hole 6 can be switched to three levels: upper, middle, and lower, and the content of the cassette information can be increased. Even if the groove portion 53 is complicated in this way, since the groove portion 53 is formed by butting the cylindrical portions 22 and 23, its molding is extremely simple.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments, and various effective changes can be made based on the technical idea of the present invention.

For example, the horizontal groove of the through hole is not limited to the two upper and lower stages and the three upper, medium and small stages shown in the embodiment and other embodiments, but can be changed to have various numbers of stages and detection. Further, the engaging portion of the plug can also be changed into various shapes.

The present invention is not limited to tape cassettes for video tape recorders, but can be applied to tape cassettes for various recording and reproducing devices that record and reproduce various types of information using various recording and reproducing methods.

[Effect of idea]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to extremely easily and reliably switch the plug between the upper and lower positions in the through hole, so that it is possible to switch the plug according to the cassette information and to detect the information. There are no errors, and it is extremely easy to handle and highly reliable.

Furthermore, since the groove of the through hole is formed by abutting a pair of upper and lower cylindrical parts, the cylindrical part for forming this groove can be easily molded using a vertically split mold with an extremely simple structure. It can be done at extremely low cost.

Furthermore, according to this embodiment, the plug does not rotate unexpectedly at multiple positions above and below.
The plug can be reliably positioned at multiple positions above and below.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a tape cassette for a video tape recorder, and FIGS. 1A and 1B are cross-sectional views showing the switching state of the plug in the through hole, and FIGS. 2
Figure B is Figure 1A line A-A and Figure 1B, respectively.
Figure 3 is an exploded perspective view of the main parts, Figure 4 is a perspective view of the tape cassette,
FIG. 5 is a sectional view of an applied example, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view of main parts of another embodiment. In addition, in the symbols used in the drawings, 1...Cassette housing, 2...Upper half, 3...Lower half,
6... Through hole, 8... Plug, 10... Engaging portion,
22, 23... Cylindrical part, 37... Groove part, 38, 3
9...Horizontal groove, 40...Vertical groove, 48, 49, 5
0...Horizontal groove, 51, 52...Vertical groove, 53...
It is a groove.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim for Utility Model Registration] A pair of upper and lower cylindrical parts integrally formed in the upper and lower halves constituting the cassette casing, and a pair of upper and lower cylindrical parts that are provided perpendicularly to the cassette casing by abutting the pair of upper and lower cylindrical parts. a through hole, and a plug inserted into the through hole so as to be movable up and down,
In the tape cassette configured such that cassette information is detected based on the vertical position of the plug in the through hole, the through hole has a vertical groove and a plurality of horizontal grooves connected to the vertical groove. The plug is provided with a groove portion formed by abutting the pair of upper and lower cylindrical portions, and the plug is provided with an engaging portion whose outer circumferential surface protrudes outward and is engaged with the groove portion. By engaging the part with the vertical groove, the plug can be moved vertically within the through hole, and by rotating the plug around the vertical axis, the engaging part can be moved into the horizontal groove of the plurality of upper and lower stages. A tape cassette characterized in that the plug is selectively engaged with the through hole to position the plug in a plurality of upper and lower stages within the through hole.