JPH0529981B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a disk cartridge containing information recording disks such as magnetic disks and optical disks.

2. Description of the Related Art In general, information recording disks such as magnetic disks and optical disks have an opening (hereinafter referred to as a drive hole) for inserting a drive mechanism in the center of both sides, and a slot (hereinafter referred to as a drive hole) for inserting a reading head on one or both sides. The cartridge is housed and held in a cartridge body having a reading hole (hereinafter referred to as a reading hole). In such a disk cartridge, dust and dirt enter through the reading hole and adhere to the disk, which tends to cause dropouts in the signal reproduced from the disk. Therefore, in order to prevent dust, dirt, etc. from entering the cartridge, cartridges equipped with a shutter have been proposed (for example, JP-A-58-130475;
102370, JP-A-58-107466, etc.).

Shutters that have been proposed can be roughly divided into:
The rotating type shown in FIG. 3 and the sliding type shown in FIG. 4. To explain this simply, in FIG. 3, 1 is a cartridge body, 2 is a shutter, and the shutter 2 rotates concentrically with a disk (not shown) to cover and open the reading hole 3. It is movable.
In addition, in FIG. 4, a hole 4A having the same shape as the reading hole 3 is shown.
A shutter 4 having a shutter 4 is provided so as to be linearly movable, and when the hole 4A overlaps with the reading hole 3 due to the movement of the shutter 4, the reading hole 3 is opened, and in other cases, the reading hole 3 is blocked by the shutter 4. ing.

Furthermore, in order to prevent the disk from moving during transportation or storage, the conventional disk cartridge has a swing lever 5 that holds a presser roller 6, as shown in FIG. It is pressed against the circumferential surface of the disk by a spring 7, and the disk is sandwiched between a roller-type disk support 8 provided on the opposite side,
There are also known ones that are designed to hold it.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, all of the shutters with the above configurations had problems. That is, in the one shown in FIG. 3, since the center of rotation of the shutter 2 is located at the drive hole of the cartridge body, the mechanism for rotatably holding the shutter is arranged in the narrow part between the disk and the side plate of the cartridge body. Therefore, the strength cannot be made sufficiently strong, and the cartridge tends to break easily, and the thickness of the cartridge increases. Furthermore, it is not possible to shield the drive hole with this construction. Further, in the mechanism shown in FIG. 4, since the shutter moves in a straight line, it does not move well, and in particular, because it is biased in one direction by a spring, it is difficult to move and often causes opening/closing failures. In the mechanism shown in FIG. 4, it is possible to block the central drive hole by making the shutter larger, but if the shutter is made larger, the movement of the shutter becomes worse, making it extremely difficult to put it to practical use. Furthermore, as shown in Fig. 5, the conventional type requires a means for holding the disc separate from the shutter.
Another problem was that the number of parts increased.

The present invention has been made in view of such conventional problems, and includes a shutter that can easily open and close the reading hole and has sufficient strength and longevity, and furthermore, holds the disk by opening and closing the shutter. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a disk cartridge that can

Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above objects, the present invention provides a disk cartridge for accommodating an information recording disk, in which a drive mechanism for driving the information recording disk is inserted in the center of both sides of the cartridge. a cartridge body having a drive hole for reading information, and a reading hole extending in the radial direction of the information recording disk on at least one side thereof; and a specific surface that comes into contact with a circumferential surface of the information recording disk; The drive hole and the reading hole are rotated and moved around a fulcrum located radially outward of the information recording disk between a closed position where the driving hole and the reading hole are covered and an open position where the driving hole and the reading hole are not covered. and a disk support that is located substantially opposite to the fulcrum and the center of the information recording disk and supports the peripheral surface of the information recording disk, and the shutter is in an open position. When the shutter is in the closed position, the information recording disk is rotatably held by separating the specific surface of the shutter from the peripheral surface of the information recording disk, and when the shutter is in the closed position, the specific surface of the shutter is moved away from the peripheral surface of the information recording disk. The information recording disk is fixed together with the disk support by contacting the peripheral surface of the information recording disk.

According to the above-described structure, the portion of the present invention that supports the shutter in a rotatable manner is the outer portion in the radial direction of the disk within the cartridge main body, so there is a large usable space. The supporting structure can be designed easily and with sufficient strength, reducing breakage during use. Also, the shutter does not move in a straight line,
Since it is a rotation, the movement is extremely smooth,
Furthermore, the required turning angle is smaller than when the disk center is used as the turning center, and it is easy to move. Furthermore, by integrating the means for opening and closing the drive hole and reading hole and the means for fixing the disk inside the main body, the number of parts can be reduced and the cartridge can reliably protect the internal disk at low cost. can be provided. In addition, since the drive hole and reading hole are opened and closed, and the disk is fixed and released with only a single action of turning the shutter, the structure is easy to design and the number of cartridge failures can be extremely reduced. becomes.

Examples Examples of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a disk cartridge according to an embodiment of the present invention, with one of a pair of side plates constituting the cartridge body and the disk removed. In FIG. 1, 10 indicates the entire disk cartridge. The disk cartridge 10 includes a flat box-shaped cartridge body 11 made up of a pair of side plates 11A (only one shown) facing each other and fixed therein, and a disk 12 housed inside the cartridge body 11 (see FIG. 2).
has. Each side plate 11A has a drive hole 1 into which a drive mechanism for driving the disk is inserted.
3. A reading hole 14 for inserting a reading head and a sensor reading hole 15 for inserting a position detection sensor are formed. Reference numeral 16 denotes a shutter, one end of which is rotatably held at the end of the cartridge body 11 via a pin 17, and is movable between an open position shown by a solid line and a closed position shown by a two-dot chain line. A disk holder 18 is attached to the shutter 16 so as to rotate together with the shutter 16. Add this structure to the second
This will be explained in more detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the disk cartridge 10 with the shutter in the closed position, viewed in the direction of the - arrow in FIG. The pin 17 is attached to the shutter 16 and the disc holder 18, and is rotatably held by the side plate 11A. The shutter 16 and the disc holder 18 are made to rotate together by providing a groove 18A on the side of the disc holder 18 facing the shutter, and inserting a portion 16A of the shutter 16 into the groove 18A by raising it up. ing. Note that the pin 17 may be fixed to the side plate 11A and may be rotatable relative to the disk holder and the shutter. Further, the pin 17 may be constructed integrally with the disk holder 18. A spring 19 is arranged around the pin 17, and as shown in FIG. 1, one end of the spring 19 is restrained by the cartridge body 11, and the other end is fixed to the upright portion of the shutter 16, that is, the shutter hook portion 16A. This spring 19 serves to maintain the shutter 16 in the normally closed position shown in phantom in FIG.

The disk presser 18 has a presser surface 21 at the tip of the portion overlapping the shutter 16, which comes into contact with the circumferential surface of the disk 12 when the shutter 16 moves to the closed position. On the other hand, the cartridge main body 11 has a disk support 22 that supports the circumferential surface of the disk on the side substantially opposite to the disk presser 18 with respect to the center of the disk. As shown in cross section in FIG. 2, these pressing surfaces 21 and disk supports 22 have a substantially wedge-shaped cross section with a central vertical portion approximately equal to the thickness of the disk 12 and sloped surfaces above and below the central vertical portion. . This cross-sectional shape is such that when the disk 12 is held by the pressing surface 21 and the disk support 22, the disk 12 is held by the side plates 11A of the cartridge body 11.
Since the side of the disk does not come into contact with the side plate and is damaged,
preferable.

The disk presser 18 has an elongated connecting portion 18B extending from its main body, and has an operating piece 1 at its tip.
It has 8C. The operating piece 18C is movable along the side of the cartridge body 11, and
The movement of C causes the disk holder 18 and the shutter 16 to pivot around the pin 17. In FIG. 1, the cartridge 10 is a recording/reproducing device (not shown).
is inserted in the direction of arrow A, the operating piece 18C is displaced to the position shown by the pin of the recording/reproducing device, and the shutter 16 is shown in an open state. When the cartridge 10 is taken out from the recording/reproducing apparatus in the direction of arrow B, the operation piece 18C becomes movable, the shutter 16 is turned by the spring 19 in the closing direction shown by the two-dot chain line, and the operation piece 18C moves in the direction of arrow C. Moving. In addition, the main body part of the disc holder,
The connecting portion 18B and the operating piece 18C may be of an integral structure made of the same material, or may be assembled from separate parts. The shape of the shutter 16 is such that it closes the reading hole 14, drive hole 13, and sensor reading hole 15 when it is in the closed position shown by the two-dot chain line, but can open each hole when it is in the open position shown by the solid line. Pin 1 of shutter 16
A presser plate 20 is provided near the end opposite to 7. As shown in FIG. 2, this presser plate 20 is
The end of the shutter is supported to prevent the shutter from contacting the disk 12.

Note that the illustrated shutter 16 is attached to the lower side plate 11.
It opens and closes each hole in A, and is placed between the disk and the lower side plate, but a similar shutter is also provided between the upper side plate and the disk, although not shown. . However, the shutter for the upper side plate and its related parts are arranged symmetrically in FIG. 1 with respect to the illustrated shutter 16 and its related parts. In addition, disk support 2
It is not necessarily necessary to provide two shutters 2 corresponding to the upper and lower shutters, but only one shutter may be provided in the center and used for the same purpose.

In the normal state of the disk cartridge 10 having the above structure, the shutter 16 is in the closed position shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 1 due to the action of the spring 19.
The reading hole, drive hole, sensor reading hole, etc. formed in the cartridge body are all shielded to reliably prevent dust and dirt from entering the cartridge. At the same time, the presser surface 21 of the disc presser 18
However, as shown in FIG. 2, the circumferential surface of the disk is pressed against the opposing disk supports 22 to fix the disk so that it does not move. When using a cartridge, it is sufficient to simply insert the cartridge into the recording/reproducing apparatus in the direction indicated by arrow A in FIG.
As the cartridge is inserted, a pin of the recording/reproducing device pushes the operating piece 18C and moves the operating piece 18C in the opposite direction of arrow C. Along with this movement, the shutter 16 rotates clockwise and moves to the solid line position in FIG. Recording and playback are performed. Furthermore, when the cartridge is removed from the recording/playback device, the shutter 16 automatically returns to its original closed position by the spring 19, closes each hole to protect the internal disk, and also causes the disk holder to come into contact with the circumferential surface of the disk, causing the disk to close. Fix 12.

In addition, in the above embodiment, the drive hole and
Although the sensor reading hole is also covered, it goes without saying that if it is not necessary, a shutter large enough to cover only the reading hole 14 may be used.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, a specific surface that comes into contact with the peripheral surface of the disk is formed on the shutter, and when the shutter is in the open position (a position where the drive hole and the reading hole are not covered), this specific surface The information recording disk is rotatably held at a distance from the circumferential surface of the disk, and when the shutter is in the closed position (a position that covers the drive hole and reading hole), this specific surface is brought into contact with the circumferential surface of the disk. By fixing the information recording disk together with the disk support, the means for opening and closing the drive hole and reading hole and the means for fixing the disk inside the main body can be integrated, reducing the number of parts. Therefore, it is possible to provide a cartridge that can reliably protect the internal disk at low cost. In addition, since the drive hole and reading hole are opened and closed, and the disk is fixed and released with only a single action of turning the shutter, the structure can be designed easily and the possibility of cartridge failure can be extremely reduced. It becomes possible.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a disk cartridge according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view showing one (upper) side plate constituting the cartridge main body and the disk removed, and FIG. 2 shows the disk cartridge,
A sectional view taken in the - arrow direction of Fig. 1 with the shutter in the closed position, and Fig. 3 shows an example of a conventional disk cartridge, and is a plan view with the upper side plate and disk removed. Figure, 4th
This figure is a plan view showing another example of a conventional disk cartridge, and FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a conventional disk cartridge equipped with disk fixing means with the upper side plate removed. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10...Disk cartridge, 11...Cartridge main body, 11A...Side plate, 12...Disk, 13
...Drive hole, 14...Reading hole, 15...Sensor reading hole, 16...Shutter, 17...Pin, 18...Disc holder, 18B...Connection part, 18C...Operation piece,
19... Spring, 20... Pressing plate, 21... Pressing surface, 22
...Disk support.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A disk cartridge for storing an information recording disk, which has a drive hole in the center of both sides for inserting a drive mechanism for driving the information recording disk, and at least one side thereof has a drive hole for inserting a drive mechanism for driving the information recording disk. a cartridge body having a reading hole extending in the radial direction of the information recording disk; and a specific surface that contacts the circumferential surface of the information recording disk; a shutter that is rotatably provided to be movable around a fulcrum located between a closed position where the driving hole and the reading hole are shielded and an open position where the driving hole and the reading hole are not shielded; the fulcrum and the information; a disk support located substantially opposite to the center of the recording disk and supporting a circumferential surface of the information recording disk; when the shutter is in an open position, a specific surface of the shutter is used for recording the information; The information recording disk is rotatably held at a distance from the circumferential surface of the information recording disk, and when the shutter is in a closed position, a specific surface of the shutter is brought into contact with the circumferential surface of the information recording disk. A disk cartridge characterized in that the information recording disk is fixed together with a disk support.