JPH05242638A - Tape cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a tape cartridge advantageous for miniaturizing a tape deck in the tape cartridge provided with a cover opening/closing mechanism to operate upper-opening of a front cover linked with a forward/backward sliding operation of a slide frame which is externally fitted to the case of main body, by evading that the front cover is projected forward and upward from the case at the time of cover opening. CONSTITUTION:A supporting hole 26 for left/right cover arms 23 of the front cover 11 is supported by a supporting shaft 24 provided on the outside wall 4a of a tape pulling out port 4 to support the front cover 11 so as capable of upper-opening the front cover. Operating pins 25 are provided at upper corners of front part of side walls 13 of the slide frame 10, thereby guided grooves 27 of the cover arms 23 are operated to open the front cover 11. A supporting hole 26 is formed in the groove state extending to the lower part of the case so that the front cover 11 in the upper-opening state is pulled in the back of the case, then the projecting degree of the front cover 11 to the outer face of the case is restricted to the minimum.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tape cartridge having a pocket for loading a tape, the upper and lower opening surfaces of the pocket being a slide frame, and the front opening of the pocket being openably and closably covered by a front lid.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art To prevent dust and protect the tape when it is not in use, it has been a recent practice to block or cover the opening of the main body case and the tape running path exposed on the outer surface of the case with a shutter or a cover. It has become a common sense in the cartridge. For example, one example can be seen in a DAT type tape cartridge and a tape cartridge for 8 mm video. In the former, the lower surface and the front surface of a tape loading pocket (hereinafter, simply referred to as a pocket) are covered with a shutter that slides back and forth along a bottom wall of a case and a front lid that swings upward and swings around a point. Furthermore, in the latter, only the tape that crosses the front edge of the pocket,
A front lid that swings upward and swings around one point and an inner lid that opens and closes in conjunction with this cover the front and back surfaces of the tape.

As a lid opening / closing structure other than the above, the present applicant opens and closes the upper and lower surfaces of the pocket with a box frame-shaped slide frame, and covers the outer surface of the tape with a front lid that swings upward and swings in conjunction with the slide frame. The form was previously proposed (JP-A-63-23447).
No. 6).

[0004]

The above lid opening / closing structure is
It has a great influence on the mechanical design of a tape deck, a video deck, or a video tape deck integrated with a camera (hereinafter collectively referred to as a tape deck). In terms of mechanical design,
It is desired that the front lid does not largely protrude out of the case when used while being loaded in the tape deck, that is, the space occupied by the tape cartridge from the loading to the use is small. Particularly in the case of a portable tape deck, it is desirable to make the exclusive space as small as possible because it is necessary to make the whole compact to make it easier to carry.

From this point of view, when the conventional lid opening / closing structure is viewed, particularly the degree of protrusion when the front lid is opened, more specifically, the degree of protrusion of the front lid above the case with reference to the top wall and front end surface of the main body case. And the degree of protrusion to the front of the case becomes a problem. The slide frame method proposed by the present applicant has the smallest degree of protrusion above the case, followed by the DAT method and the 8 mm video method tape cartridge. On the contrary, the degree of protrusion to the front of the case is smaller in the order of 8 mm video system, DAT system, and slide frame system.

[0006] In the lid opening / closing structure of the slide frame type in which the degree of protrusion to the front of the case is large, the front lid interferes and the rotary magnetic head cannot be arranged near the pocket. This means that the tape pull-out distance from the pocket becomes long, which is not only disadvantageous for downsizing the internal mechanism, but also slows the response speed of the mechanism. The same applies to a DAT tape cartridge in which the main surface wall of the front lid projects toward the front of the case when the lid is open. In this respect,
The 8mm video tape cartridge does not project to the front of the case at all, but the front lid projects far above the case compared to the other two systems. The upper and lower thickness of the body case is 100
, The degree of upward protrusion exceeds 43. Therefore, it is inevitable that the loading mechanism for pulling the entire tape cartridge to the predetermined position becomes large.

As described above, in the conventional lid opening / closing structure, it is inevitable that the front lid largely projects toward the front of the case or the upper side of the case, and there is a limit in realizing the downsizing of the tape deck.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to improve the opening / closing structure of the front lid based on a lid opening / closing mechanism of a slide frame type, so that the protrusion of the front lid to the outside of the case at the time of opening the lid is reduced. , To obtain a tape cartridge suitable for miniaturizing a tape deck. Another object of the present invention is to obtain a tape cartridge in which a slide frame and a front lid which is opened and closed by the slide frame can be easily assembled in a main body case.

[0009]

According to the present invention, a main body case 1 is provided.
A slide frame 10 that is externally fitted and mounted on the slide frame 10 to open and close the tape loading pocket 6, and a front lid 11 that opens and closes the front opening of the slide frame 10 in conjunction with the slide of the slide frame 10. In a tape cartridge including a spring 20 that biases the slide frame 10 to move freely, a front lid 11 is continuously extended from the left and right ends of the main surface wall 22 toward the rear of the case, Outer side walls 4a of the tape outlets 4 on the left and right of the case 1
And a lid arm 23 that is inserted between the left and right frame side walls 13 of the slide frame 10, and the front and rear sliding operation of the slide frame 10 is performed between the frame side wall 13, the cover arm 23, and the outer side wall 4a. A lid opening / closing mechanism for converting the front lid 11 into a vertical opening / closing operation is provided. The lid opening / closing mechanism is provided at a support shaft 24 provided near the front portion of the outer side wall 4a and at a front upper corner of the frame side wall 13. The operation pin 25, the support hole 26 provided on the lid arm 23 and engaging with the support shaft 24 and the operation pin 25, respectively, and the passive groove 27. The passive groove 27 faces the rear of the case when the lid is closed. And the support hole 26 is formed in a groove shape extending downward in the case.

Specifically, the passive groove 27 is formed as a concave arc-shaped inclined groove, and the support hole 26 is formed as a dogleg-shaped bent groove. Further, from the peripheral edge of the lid arm 23 toward the support hole 26 and the passive groove 27, the guide grooves 29 and 30 for assembly are provided on the support shaft 24.
And the operation pin 25. Further, a positioning groove 32 is provided on one of the slide frame 10 and the bottom sliding wall of the body case 1, and a positioning protrusion 31 that engages with the positioning groove 32 is provided on the other side.

[0011]

When the lid is closed, the front lid 11 has the main surface wall 2
2 covers the front opening of the slide frame 10, and the lid arm 23 is supported by a support shaft 24 provided on the main body case 1 and an operation pin 25 provided on the slide frame 10. When the slide frame 10 is opened and operated in this state, the passive groove 27 is pushed up by the operation pin 25, so that the front lid 11 moves upward to open. The slide frame 10 further opens and moves, and along with this, the upper and lower surfaces of the pocket 6 are opened, and at the same time, the entire front lid 11 is pulled toward the rear of the case while maintaining the open posture. In this way, the front lid 11 is operated to open upward, and the lid opening / closing form is further drawn to the rear side of the case. The front lid 11 is prevented from protruding to the front of the case while minimizing the degree of protrusion of the front lid to the upper side of the case. This is to reduce the degree of protrusion of the front lid 11 to the outside of the case as a whole.

The passive groove 27 is inclined downward toward the rear of the case in order to open the front lid 11 upward and to absorb a change in the distance between the operation pin 25 which moves linearly and the support shaft 24 which is in the fixed position. This is because. Incidentally, when the passive groove 27 is inclined upward, a force in the closing direction acts on the front lid 11, so that the slide frame 10 cannot be opened. Further, in the horizontal passive groove 27, the timing at which the front lid 11 starts to open is delayed, and the slide stroke of the slide frame 10 cannot be effectively used. Since the support hole 26 is formed in the shape of a groove extending downward in the case, the front lid 11 after being moved upward and upward is drawn rearward in the case in the open posture. The support shaft 24 is provided near the front portion of the outer wall 4a, and the operation pin 25 is provided at the upper upper corner of the frame side wall 13 in order to minimize the upward protrusion of the front lid 11 when the lid is opened.

According to the passive groove 27 which is a concave arc-shaped inclined groove, the front cover 11 can be opened and closed smoothly by keeping the contact angle of the passive groove 27 with the operation pin 25 substantially constant. In the case of a straight inclined groove, the contact angle of the passive groove 27 increases with the opening movement of the front lid 11. The guide grooves 29.30 for assembling are provided on the lid arm 23.
This is because the spindle 24 and the operation pin 25 are slid along 0 to facilitate their assembly.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention, the tape is protected and the dust is protected by the slide frame 10 and the front lid 11 which is opened and closed in conjunction with the slide frame 10, while the front lid 11 is prevented from protruding largely above the case. After moving upward and upward, it was pulled further toward the rear of the case. As a result, the front lid 11 in the used state can be positioned rearward of the front end of the case, and the front lid 11 can be prevented from protruding significantly to the outer surface of the case as compared with the conventional lid opening / closing structure. Therefore, when manufacturing a tape deck to which the tape cartridge of the present invention is applied, the space occupied by the tape cartridge inside the deck can be reduced, and the tape deck can be surely miniaturized accordingly. In particular, in a portable tape deck, the rotary magnetic head, the tape loading mechanism, and the like can be collectively arranged close to the pocket 6 whose outer surface is sufficiently opened, which is advantageous in miniaturizing the tape deck.

Guide groove 29.3 for assembling to the lid arm 23
Since 0 is provided, the front lid 11 can be assembled to the main body case 1 simply by pushing in the lid arm 23 so that the guide groove 29 moves along the support shaft 24. Furthermore, operation pin 2
The front lid 11 and the slide frame 10 can be assembled simply by moving the guide 5 along the other guide groove 30 toward the front lid 11. As a result, the slide frame 10 and the front lid 11 can be easily assembled to the main body case 1, and the tape cartridge assembling work can be efficiently performed.

[0016]

1 to 7 show an embodiment of a tape cartridge having a lid opening / closing mechanism according to the present invention. This tape cartridge is a digital type video tape cartridge which is planned to be put on the market in the near future, and basically, as shown in FIG. A pair of hubs 2
Have. The tape 3 pulled out from one hub 2
The tape is guided by the tape guides 5 provided at the tape outlets 4 on the left and right sides of the front surface and wound on the other hub 2. Left and right tape outlets 4
・ A tape loading pocket 6 is provided between 4 and 4. As shown in FIG. 3, the pocket 6 has an open upper and lower surface and a front surface.

The main body case 1 is formed by joining upper and lower cases 1a and 1b which are divided into upper and lower parts in a lid-fitting manner, and the upper case 1a has a window 7 for visually recognizing the remaining amount of tape. The lower case 1b has a drive shaft insertion hole 8 (see FIG. 2).
In order to protect the tape and prevent dust when not in use, a slide frame 10 is externally fitted to the outer surface of the front part of the main body case 1 as shown in FIG.
The front opening is closed by a front lid 11 so as to be openable and closable. A paragraph surface 12 is provided on the outer surface of the main body case 1 to guide the slide frame 10 to move.

In FIG. 3, the slide frame 10 has left and right frame side walls 13, a top wall 14 and a bottom wall 15, and the paragraph surface 1
It is formed in the shape of a right and left laterally long rectangular box that is fitted on the outside of 2. Paragraph 1
The slide frame 10 fitted onto the outer periphery 2 can slide back and forth within the paragraph range, and the frame shaft 16 provided on the inner surface of the frame side wall 13 at the time of forward and backward slides is provided with the guide groove 17 provided between the joint surfaces of the upper and lower cases 1a and 1b. It is guided to move inside (see Fig. 1). As the slide frame 10 slides back and forth, the upper wall 14 opens and closes the upper surface of the pocket 6, and the bottom wall 15 opens and closes the lower surface of the pocket 6 and the drive shaft insertion hole 8. Therefore, the bottom wall 15 is formed to extend rearward from the upper wall 14 and an opening hole 19 is provided in the vicinity of the front and rear center thereof. In order to close and urge the slide frame 10 as a whole, a torsion coil type spring 20 is arranged at one inner side of the pocket 6, one end of which is hooked on the inner wall of the pocket and the other end of the bottom wall 15 is provided. It is hung on the spring bridge 21.

The slide frame 10 is opened to the rear of the case by the release claw P (see FIG. 1) by utilizing the loading operation to the tape deck. By utilizing the opening operation of the slide frame 10, the front lid 11 is operated from the lid closed state to the lid open state. The front lid 11 includes a main surface wall 22 that closes the front opening of the slide frame 10 from the outer surface, and a rectangular lid arm 23 that extends from the left and right ends of the main surface wall 22 toward the rear of the case. The lid arm 23 is incorporated in a state of being inserted between the outer side wall 4a of the tape outlet 4 and the frame side wall 13, and these adjacent face walls 4a.
Between 23, a lid opening / closing mechanism that converts the forward / backward sliding operation of the slide frame 10 into the vertical opening / closing operation of the front lid 11 is provided.

In FIG. 1, the lid opening / closing mechanism includes a support shaft 24 provided in the upper half of the outer side wall 4a near the front of the case, an operation pin 25 provided in the upper front corner of the frame side wall 13, and a lid arm 23. The support hole 26 and the passive groove 27 are provided. Figure 1
As shown in (a), the support hole 26 on the lower rear side is formed as a V-shaped bent groove extending downward in the case, and the support shaft 24 is engaged with the upper end thereof. The passive groove 27 on the upper front side is formed as a concave arc groove that is inclined downward toward the rear of the case, and the operation pin 25 is engaged with this.

FIGS. 1B and 5 show a state in which the front lid 11 is opened, and the operation pin 25 is moved along with the slide frame 10 and linearly moves rearward, thereby pushing up the passive groove 27. Then, the front lid 11 is moved upwardly around the support shaft 24. At this time, in order to prevent the lid arm 23 from coming into contact with and interfering with the bottom wall 15 of the slide frame 10, the lid arm 23 is placed in a region having a radius that is a vertical distance from the center of the support shaft 24 to the bottom wall 15.
Contains the outline of the. With the operation pin 25 passing above the support shaft 24, the front lid 11 opens and moves until its main surface wall 22 becomes substantially parallel to the upper surface of the case, and thereafter the lid arm 23.
Moves along with the operation pin 25. For this rearward movement, the support hole 26 is formed in a long groove so that the cover arm 23 can be moved with respect to the support shaft 24.

The support hole 26 bent in a dogleg shape has a function of flipping up the front lid 11 to a posture in which the principal surface wall 22 is tilted rearward, in addition to the above-described action absorbing function. When the main surface wall 22 is tilted backward, the protrusion size from the case upper surface is slightly increased,
Since the extra space between the upper surface opening of the pocket 6 and the main surface wall 22 becomes larger by that much, the extra space is provided to the operation space of the tape loading pin that enters the pocket 6. Without this extra space, it is necessary to move the tape loading pin upward outside the pocket 6 to ensure hooking with the tape 3, which complicates the mechanism.

In order to facilitate the assembling of the slide frame 10 and the front lid 11 to the main body case 1, shallow guide grooves 29 and 30 are formed on the inner and outer surfaces of the lid arm 23. The former guide groove 29 is provided so as to correspond to the support shaft 24.
It is formed in an upward slope shape from the rear edge of the inner surface of 3 toward the support hole 26. The latter guide groove 30 is provided corresponding to the operation pin 25, and is formed so as to be inclined upward from the upper edge of the outer surface of the lid arm 23 toward the passive groove 27.

When assembling, first the slide frame 10
Is fitted onto the main body case 1, and the frame shaft 16 is attached to the guide groove 17
Then, one end of the spring 20 is hooked on the spring receiver 21. Next, as shown in FIG. 6, the slide frame 10 is moved to the stroke end at the rear of the case, and the entire front lid 11 is pushed rearward of the case with the projecting end of the support shaft 24 riding on the rear edge of the guide groove 29 to support it. The support shaft 24 is fitted into the hole 26.
In this state, the front lid 11 is held in the upper open posture in FIG. 1B, the slide frame 10 is returned to the front lid 11 side, and the operation pin 2
The projecting end 5 is mounted on the leading edge of the guide groove 30, and the operation pin 25 is pushed toward the front lid 11 and dropped into the passive groove 27.

The lateral dimension of the slide frame 10 is larger than the lateral dimension of the paragraph surface 12 by the thickness dimension of the lid arm 23. Therefore,
When assembling the operation pin 25, the slide frame 10
A positioning structure is provided between the bottom wall 15 and the bottom wall of the main body case 1 in order to ensure proper mounting posture.
More specifically, as shown in FIG. 2, an oval-shaped positioning protrusion 31 is provided on the inner surface of the bottom wall 15 positioned substantially in the center of the pocket 6 when the lid is closed, and a positioning groove 32 corresponding thereto is provided.
Is provided on the bottom sliding wall of the main body case 1. These protrusions 3
1 and the groove 32 are engaged only after the position where the slide frame 10 passes about half of the front-back stroke.

In FIG. 2, lock claws 33 are provided on the left and right sides of the main body case 1 in order to prevent the tape from slackening when not in use. 35 is engaged with a gear tooth-shaped lock tooth 36 provided on the lower portion of each hub 2. The lock claw 33 can be horizontally swung about a shaft 37, and a release arm 38 thereof is projected into a backward movement region of the slide frame 10 so that the lock release operation is performed in conjunction with the slide operation of the slide frame 10. .. FIG. 6 shows a state in which the lock claw 33 is unlocked by the slide frame 10.

As described above, when the front lid 11 is opened / closed in conjunction with the forward / backward sliding movement of the slide frame 10 and the lock claw 33 is unlocked, the same tape cartridges having different case sizes can be used. When applied to a tape deck, that is, in a compatible tape cartridge, the internal structure of the tape deck can be simplified. This is because the tape cartridge can be switched to a usable state simply by opening and operating the slide frame 10 to the rear of the case.

FIG. 7 shows a compatible large-sized tape cartridge. The main body case 1 is large, the tape 3 is wound by the tape reel 2A, and the reel lock mechanism is different. Other than that, it is substantially the same as a small-sized tape cartridge. Incidentally, the lateral width of the large-sized tape cartridge is about 1.7 times the lateral width of the small-sized tape cartridge, and the vertical thickness of the main body case 1 is also large. The reel lock mechanism includes a lock block 41 that is biased by a spring 40 and each tape reel 2A.
The lock teeth 42 are provided on the periphery of the lower flange, the pair of lock claws 43 are provided on the lock block 41, and the interlocking arms 44 projecting from the lock block 41 toward the front of the case to receive the movement of the slide frame 10.

At the front end of the interlocking arm 44, a passive pin 45 projecting from the lower surface of the case is provided, and the passive pin 45 is located in the backward movement area of the bottom wall 15 of the slide frame 10. Therefore, when the slide frame 10 is slid rearward of the case as indicated by the arrow, the lock block 41 is moved rearward of the case against the spring 40 in the latter half of the movement stroke, and is engaged with the lock teeth 42 until then. The engaged lock claw 43 can be released.

In addition to the above embodiment, the support hole 2 of the lid arm 23
6 can be formed as a linear groove parallel to the principal surface wall 22 or a triangular hole. Further, the passive groove 27 may be formed as a convex arc groove. If necessary, a torsion coil spring or a leaf spring that closes and biases the front lid 11 can be added between the lid arm 23 and the main body case 1.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional side view showing a lid opening / closing mechanism.
1A shows the lid closed state, and FIG. 1B shows the lid open state.

FIG. 2 is an internal plan view of the tape cartridge.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of a tape cartridge.

FIG. 4 is a side view of the tape cartridge with the lid closed.

5 is a view on arrow A in FIG. 1 (b). FIG.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional plan view showing a state where the front lid is being assembled.

FIG. 7 is an internal plan view of a large-sized tape cartridge.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Main Body Case 4 Tape Outlet 4a Outer Side Wall 6 Pocket 10 Slide Frame 11 Front Lid 13 Frame Side Wall 20 Spring 22 Main Surface Wall 23 Lid Arm 24 Spindle 25 Operating Pin 26 Support Hole 27 Passive Groove 29 ・ 30 Guide Groove

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Nobuyuki Kaku Inventor Nobuyuki Kaku 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Inside the Hitachi Media Visual Media Research Institute (72) Hidekazu Takeda 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Hitachi, Ltd. Visual Media Research Laboratory (72) Inventor Kenji Ojiji, 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A slide frame (10) which is externally fitted to the main body case (1) so as to be slidable back and forth and opens and closes a pocket (6) for tape loading, and a front opening of the slide frame (10) is interlocked with the front and rear slide of the slide frame (10). A front cartridge 11 is provided with a front lid 11 that opens and closes and a spring 20 that biases the slide frame 10 to move freely. The front lid 11 includes a main surface wall 22 and a case from the left and right ends of the main surface wall 22. It is provided with a lid arm 23 which is continuously extended rearward and which is inserted between the outer side walls 4a of the left and right tape outlets 4 of the main body case 1 and the left and right frame side walls 13 of the slide frame 10. A lid opening / closing mechanism that converts the forward / backward sliding movement of the slide frame 10 into the vertical lid opening / closing movement of the front lid 11 is provided between the lid arm 23 and the outer wall 4a. front Support shaft 24 provided near
And a support hole 26 and a passive groove 27 which are provided in the front upper corner of the frame side wall 13 and which are provided in the cover arm 23 and engage with the support shaft 24 and the operation pin 25, respectively. In this state, the passive groove 27 is inclined downward toward the rear of the case, and the support hole 26 is formed in a groove shape extending downward of the case. 2. The passive groove 27 is formed as a concave arc-shaped inclined groove,
The tape cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the support hole 26 is formed in a V-shaped bent groove. 3. Guide grooves 29, 30 for assembling from the peripheral edge of the lid arm 23 toward the support hole 26 and the passive groove 27.
3. The tape cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the tape shaft is formed corresponding to the support shaft 24 and the operation pin 25. 4. A positioning groove 32 is provided on one side of the slide frame 10 and the bottom sliding wall of the main body case 1, and a positioning groove 32 is provided on the other side.
The tape cartridge according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein a positioning protrusion 31 that engages with the tape cartridge is formed.