JPH0430682Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] This invention relates to a mechanism for opening and closing the lid of a tape cassette used in a magnetic recording/reproducing machine such as a video tape recorder, which opens the lid of the tape cassette in conjunction with the cassette loading operation. The purpose of this is to allow the opening/closing lid to open smoothly without applying excessive force when opening the lid, and also to allow the opening/closing lid to open so that it can sense when the tape cassette is completely inserted into the cassette holder. The object of the present invention is to provide a lid mechanism.

A tape cassette containing magnetic tape is used in video tape recorders, etc., and this tape cassette generally has an opening from which the magnetic tape wound on two reels is pulled out, and this opening has a tape protector. Equipped with a lid that can be opened and closed.

Since such an opening/closing lid is normally biased by a spring in the closing direction, a mechanism for opening the opening/closing lid is required in order to attach the tape cassette to a magnetic recording/reproducing machine.

FIG. 1 is a side view of a tape cassette for a video tape recorder, showing a so-called compact C-type tape cassette which is smaller than a normal tape cassette. On the front surface of the tape cassette 1 shown in this figure, a lid 2 that can be opened and closed is rotatably provided with a pin 3, and on the side wall 4 of the tape cassette there is a leaf spring 5 and a slide whose one end is fixed to the leaf spring. The plate spring 5 is provided with a mover 6, and in the illustrated state, the leaf spring 5 biases the opening/closing lid 2 in the direction of closing via the slider 6, but after opening the opening/closing lid 2 by approximately 45 degrees or more, Force it in the opening direction.

When the lid is closed, the opening/closing lid 2 is brought into contact with the projection 7 on the bottom surface of the cassette, and a gap 8 is created between the side wall 4 of the tape cassette 1 and the back surface of the opening/closing lid 2.

The conventional cassette loading device for the tape cassette described above has a structure in which when the cassette 1 inserted into the cassette holder is lowered, the lower edge 9 of the opening/closing lid comes into contact with a stationary member provided on the chassis side to open it. Therefore, although a large force is applied to the opening/closing lid 2 in the direction of arrow A, the couple force generated in the direction of arrow B is small, and if a rough cassette loading operation is performed, there is a risk of damaging the opening/closing lid 2 and the like.

Furthermore, if the cassette 1 is not fully inserted into the cassette holder, the lower edge 9 of the opening/closing lid 2 will not come into contact with the stationary member, making it impossible to open the lid.

Therefore, in order to eliminate incomplete insertion of a tape cassette, an autoloading mechanism using a dedicated motor has been conventionally used to automatically pull the tape cassette into the cassette holder, but these mechanisms are This method has disadvantages such as being complicated and expensive, and also having a large size, making it difficult to apply it to a magnetic recording/reproducing machine using a small tape cassette as described above.

This invention is intended to eliminate the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, and FIG. 2 is a side view of a cassette loading device equipped with an embodiment of this invention.

In FIG. 2, a cassette holder 11 is composed of a side plate 12, a bottom plate 13, and a top plate 14. The side plate 12 is held at one end of a rotatable arm 15 and an arm 16. The end portion is a support plate 18 erected on the upper surface of the chassis 17.
Therefore, as the two arms 15 and 16 rotate, the cassette holder 11 moves up and down in a circular arc (approximately a straight line) with a relatively large radius.

Although only the right side portion of the cassette holder 11 is shown in FIG. 2, the left side portion is also similar, and in particular, the left and right arms 15 are fixed to both ends of a common shaft 19 and rotate integrally. Therefore, the left and right side plates 12, which are spaced apart from each other in comparison to the depth dimension, move at the same timing, and the cassette holder 11 moves up and down smoothly without twisting or tilting during the loading operation. A lid opening lever 20 is provided near one end of the arm 15 on the side plate 12 of the cassette holder 11, and the lid opening lever 20 is made of an elastic material such as a phosphor bronze plate and has one end bent. A portion 21 is formed, and a protruding piece 22 made of synthetic resin such as polyacetal is erected at the other end so as to face inward of the cassette holder 11.

The lid opening lever 20 is rotatably supported in the middle by a support shaft 23, and is rotated clockwise by a spring 25 stretched between it and a spring hook 24 on the arm 16. energized.

Further, an extension arm 26 is formed at one end of the arm 15, and when the arm 15 rotates clockwise about the shaft 19, the opening lever 20 is moved by a spring 26.
5 and rotate it counterclockwise.

That is, the lid-opening lever 20 holds a protruding piece 22 provided at its tip so that it can freely protrude and retract toward the inside of the cassette holder 11, and rotates the protruding piece 22 in conjunction with the arms 15 and 16 for raising and lowering the cassette holder. be able to.

Therefore, the structure of the lid opening lever 20 is not limited to one in which a phosphor bronze plate or the like is used to elastically displace the plate in the thickness direction as in this embodiment. Made of rigid material,
On the other hand, for the support shaft 23, one with a slightly long shaft is used,
The opening lever 20 may be inserted into the support shaft 23 and then pressed by a compression spring. Even with this structure, the tip of the opening lever 20 resists the compression force of the spring and moves in the up-and-down direction (second direction). Since the protruding piece 22 can be displaced in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the drawing, the protruding piece 22 can be freely moved inward and retractable toward the inside of the cassette holder 11.

Next, the cassette loading operation will be explained. FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view of FIG. ing.

That is, when the tape cassette 1 is inserted into the cassette holder 11 in the direction of arrow D, the opening/closing lid 2 first comes into contact with the protruding piece 22 of the opening lever 20 that protrudes inside the cassette holder 11; Since one side of the opening lever 20 is an inclined surface 22', the tip of the opening lever 20 is elastically displaced outward, allowing the opening/closing lid 2 to easily pass through.

Note that the tape cassette 1 has a gap 8 between the side wall 4 of the tape cassette and the opening/closing lid 2 as shown in FIG. tape cassette 1
The stepped portion 30 on the lower surface of the bottom plate 1 of the cassette holder 11
3, the protruding piece 22 of the lid opening lever 20 is inserted into the gap 8 of the tape cassette as shown in FIG. emits.

Figure 2 shows tape cassette 1 after the above process.
is fully inserted, and the lid opening lever 20 is fully inserted.
The protruding piece 22 is already on the back of the opening/closing lid 2,
Since the opening/closing lid 2 has not been rotated yet, it is in the position ○A (closed lid position).

Next, when the cassette holder 11 is manually pushed down in the direction of the arrow E, the arms 15 and 16 rotate, and the bent portion 21 of the lid opening lever 20 moves toward the arm 1.
It is pushed by the extension arm 26 of No. 5 and rotates counterclockwise, and the protruding piece 22 at its tip opens the opening/closing lid 2 to the position of ◯◯. Reference numeral 28 denotes an abutment plate for the opening/closing lid 2, which is screwed upright on the side surface of the chassis 17 and performs the same function as the stationary member described as the conventional example.

Therefore, when the cassette holder 11 is continued to be pushed in the direction of the arrow E, the opening/closing lid 2 reaches the position shown in ○C, and the lower edge 9 of the opening/closing lid faces the top 29 of the abutting plate 28 at a certain angle. When the cassette holder 11 is further pushed down, the opening/closing lid 2 rotates smoothly with its lower edge 9 in contact with the top 29, and when the opening angle of approximately 45° is exceeded, the aforementioned biasing mechanism of the tape cassette itself A certain leaf spring 5 and a slider 6 urge the opening/closing lid 2 in the direction of opening the lid, and the opening/closing lid 2 finally reaches the position ◯◯ where it becomes almost horizontal as shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 shows a state in which the loading of the cassette loading device is completed.The cassette holder 11 is locked in the operating position by a locking mechanism (not shown), and the tape cassette 1 has a reel shaft, a capstan, a loading pole, etc. (None shown)
is inserted, and recording or playback operations are performed by subsequent operations.

When the eject operation is performed to release the lock, the cassette holder 11 is returned to the state shown in FIG. 2 by a return spring (not shown).

That is, the opening/closing lid opening mechanism of the tape cassette of this embodiment first performs a lid opening preparation operation by completely inserting the tape cassette 1 into the cassette holder 11 and inserting the protruding piece 22 of the lid opening lever 20.
Next, in the first step, the opening/closing lid 2 is opened to a certain angle by the opening lever 20, and then, in the second step, the opening/closing lid 2 is opened to a wider angle by the abutting plate 28. Features:

Therefore, it is not essential that the opening/closing lid 2 is biased in the opening direction by the biasing mechanism of the tape cassette itself; for example, when the opening/closing lid 2 is biased only in the closing direction, it is It may be opened to the final position (approximately horizontal) by means of a plate.

As described above, the tape cassette opening/closing lid opening mechanism in the cassette loading device of this invention is intended for tape cassettes having an opening/closing lid containing magnetic tape and biased at least in the closing direction. In the loading device,
A self-resetting lid opening lever that can rotate and move up and down is provided near the cassette holder lifting member provided on the side of the cassette holder, and a protruding member with a sloped portion is attached to one end of the lid opening lever. When the tape cassette is inserted into the cassette holder, this protruding member is displaced and inserted into the back of the opening/closing lid, and when the cassette holder is subsequently lowered, the opening lever is used to raise and lower the cassette holder. The projecting member on the opening/closing lever opens the opening/closing lid to a predetermined angle by engaging with the opening/closing member, so that the initial opening operation of the opening/closing lid is controlled by the cassette holder lifting member and the opening/closing lever. Since this is done by rotating the opening/closing lid, there is little loss of rotational force to open the opening/closing lid, and since the opening/closing lid is opened at a certain angle in advance, when the lower edge of the opening/closing lid comes into contact with the top of the contact plate, By generating a relatively large force couple, the opening/closing lid can be opened smoothly over a wider angle, and furthermore, when inserting the tape cassette into the cassette holder, the protruding piece of the opening lever can fit into the gap on the side of the tape cassette. Since an operating sound is generated when the tape cassette is inserted, it has the advantage of being able to confirm whether the tape cassette has been completely inserted.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a side view of a small tape cassette with an opening/closing lid, Fig. 2 is a side view of a cassette loading device equipped with an embodiment of this invention, and Fig. 3 is a side view of a small tape cassette with an opening/closing lid. FIG. 4 is a partial sectional view of the same portion as in FIG. 3 when the tape cassette is completely inserted, and FIG. 5 is a side view of the cassette loading device when loading is completed. 1...Tape cassette, 2...Opening/closing lid, 3...
Pin, 4... Side wall, 5... Leaf spring, 6... Slider whose one end is fixed to the leaf spring, 7... Projection, 8...
... Gap, 9 ... Lower edge of opening/closing lid, 11 ... Cassette holder, 15, 16 ... Arm, 17 ... Chassis, 18 ... Support plate, 19 ... Common axis of arm,
20... Lid opening lever, 21... Bent part of the lid opening lever, 22... Protruding piece, 23... Support shaft, 24... Spring hanging part, 25... Spring, 26... Extension arm of arm 15 , 27...Bending portion of the bottom plate of the cassette holder, 28...Abutting plate, 29...Top of the abutting plate, 30...Step part of the bottom surface of the tape cassette.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] In a cassette loading device for a tape cassette having a magnetic tape inside and an opening/closing lid that is biased at least in the closing direction, there is a rotating and lowering member provided near a cassette holder lifting member provided on the side surface of the cassette holder. A self-returning opening lever that can be moved up and down is provided, and one end of this opening lever has a protruding member with an inclined portion facing the inside of the cassette holder. The protruding member is displaced and inserted into the back of the opening/closing lid, and when the cassette holder is subsequently lowered, the opening lever engages with the cassette holder lifting member and rotates, and the protruding member on the opening/closing lever opens and closes. 1. A mechanism for opening and closing a tape cassette in a cassette loading device, characterized in that the lid is configured to open to a predetermined angle.