JPH0547155A - Disk cartiridge - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To measure the radius of a disk at the side of a disk driving device by providing a detecting hole for discriminating a disk radius on the part of a cartridge main body faced with a shatter open without piercing a hole on the exposed part of the cartridge main body. CONSTITUTION:A disk cartridge 1 housing the disk of a standard radius is provided with a pair of detecting holes 7 on a sheet metal section 6 faced from an opening 4 in a state a shatter 5 is opened. On the other hand, a disk cartridge housing the disk of a small radius is not provided with a detecting hole similarly to the conventional manner. The presence of the detecting holes 7 is detected by a detecting mechanism at the side of the disk driving device and the movement of an optical pick-up 11 is restricted. One tip part of a restricting member 14 made of a leaf spring is fixed to the bottom side surface of a main chassis 10 where the cartridge 1 is placed corresponding to the pick-up 11. The member 14 is provided with a detecting pin 16 on a position corresponding to the detecting holes 7, this pin is protruded from the upper side via through hole 17 and when the shatter 5 is opened in a normal condition, the pin 16 is inserted into the detecting hole 17 from the opening 4.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a disc cartridge for storing an optical disc or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, an optical disc is housed in a cartridge in order to protect its signal recording surface from dirt and the like. An example of a conventional disk cartridge of this type is shown in FIGS.
Will be described. Incidentally, what is illustrated here is a disk cartridge used in a recently proposed micro disk system called a mini disk (MD). In the figure, 1 indicates a disk cartridge as a whole,
2 is a cartridge body, and the outer shape is 72 mm in length x 6 in width.
It is formed in a size of 8 mm × thickness of 5 mm.

The inside of the cartridge body 2 is 64 m
A magneto-optical disk (hereinafter referred to as a disk) 3 having an m diameter is rotatably housed. An opening 4 is formed on the upper surface and the lower surface of the cartridge body 2, and a part of the disk 3 is exposed to the outside through the opening 4. A shutter 5 for opening and closing the opening 4 is attached to the cartridge main body 2, that is, in a normal state, the opening 4 is closed by the shutter 5 as shown in FIG. 4A, and when the disk cartridge 1 is mounted in the disk drive device, The shutter 5 is automatically slid by the mechanism on the device side to open the opening 4 as shown in FIGS. 4B and 5.

FIG. 6 shows a state in which the disc cartridge 1 is mounted in the disc drive device, that is, 10 is a main chassis of the disc drive device, and the disc cartridge 1 is mounted on the main chassis 10 by a predetermined positioning mechanism. It is placed in a correctly positioned state.
In this state, the disc 3 is placed on a turntable (not shown) at its center and is rotationally driven. An optical pickup 11 corresponds to the lower surface side of the disk cartridge 1, and a laser beam emitted from the optical pickup 11 is applied to the recording layer of the disk 3 through the opening 4 on the lower surface side to reproduce a signal ( Or recording) is performed. Although not shown, the optical pickup 11 is moved in the radial direction of the disk 3 by a predetermined feeding mechanism (thread).

On the other hand, a magnetic field magnet 12 is inserted from the opening 4 on the upper surface side corresponding to the optical pickup 11 and is brought into contact (sliding contact) with the upper surface of the disk 3, and from this magnetic field magnet 12 to the recording layer of the disk 3. A signal is recorded by applying the auxiliary magnetic field. The magnetic field magnet 12 is pressed against the disk 3 with a predetermined pressure (about 2 g) by a gimbal spring 13 and the optical pickup 11
It is designed to be moved integrally following the.

[0006]

In the disc cartridge used in the mini disc (MD) system as described above, the discs 3 housed in the cartridge body 2 are currently unified to have a diameter of 64 mm.
In the future, discs with a smaller diameter, such as 44 mm
Possibility to add diameter. In this case, as shown in FIG. 7, the outer dimensions of the cartridge body 2 are unchanged, and the disc 3 housed inside is changed to a disc having a small diameter. When the disc cartridge 1 accommodating the disc having the small diameter is mounted in the disc drive, the optical pickup feeding mechanism of the disc drive is compatible with the disc having the diameter of 64 mm. When it moves to the outside from the outer circumference, the relative relationship between a part of the cartridge main body 2 and the disk 3 causes a change in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, the magnetic field magnet 12 and its supporting mechanism may be damaged. That is, since the magnetic field magnet 12 is moved integrally with the optical pickup 11, when the optical pickup 11 moves outside the disc 3,
The magnetic field magnet 12 drops off from the disk 3 and is mounted on a part of the cartridge body 2 (a rib-shaped thin plate portion 6 exposed at the opening 4 of the cartridge body 2 and facing the outer peripheral surface of the disk 3). However, when the optical pickup 11 returns to the inner circumferential side of the disc from this state, the magnetic field magnet 12 is caught on the outer circumferential surface of the disc 3 as is apparent in the figure.
Also, the gimbal spring 13 supporting this is damaged. When the disc 3 has a so-called surface wobbling and the outer peripheral portion of the disc 3 is located lower than the thin plate portion 6 of the cartridge body 2, the magnetic field magnet 12 is a thin plate when the optical pickup 11 is moved to the outside of the disc 3. The magnetic field magnet 12 may be damaged by being caught on the edge of the portion 6 as in the above case.

In order to solve this problem, a detection hole for discriminating the diameter of the disc 3 is provided on the surface of the cartridge body 2, and the disc discriminating device discriminates the disc diameter by detecting the detection hole. In the case of a small-diameter disc, the optical pickup 11 may be prevented from moving outside the outermost periphery of the disc 3, but it is not preferable to newly provide a detection hole in the cartridge body 2 in appearance (as shown in the figure. Although not provided, detection holes for preventing erroneous erasure and detection holes for disc type discrimination are already provided on the lower surface side of the cartridge body 2), and it is impossible in terms of space.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is a disc in which a shutter for opening and closing an opening for exposing a part of the disc is attached to a cartridge body in which the disc is rotatably accommodated. In the cartridge, a detection hole for discriminating the diameter of the disk is provided in a part of the cartridge main body which is opened by opening the shutter.

[0009]

By providing the cartridge body with the detection hole for discriminating the diameter of the disc as described above, the disc drive diameter is discriminated by detecting the detection hole by the disc drive device side detection mechanism. As long as the optical pickup is not moved to the outside of the outermost circumference of the disc, the conventional magnetic field magnet will not be damaged as shown in FIG. Since this detection hole is provided in a part of the cartridge main body which faces the opening of the shutter, the detection hole is hidden when the shutter is closed, so that the appearance of the disk cartridge is not deteriorated.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. Parts corresponding to those in the conventional example shown in FIGS. To do.

The disc cartridge of the present invention is provided with a detecting portion for discriminating the diameter of the disc 3 in a part of the cartridge body 2 which is exposed by opening the shutter 5. That is, in this example, in the case of the disc cartridge in which the disc of the standard diameter (64 mm diameter) is housed,
As shown in FIG. 2, a pair of detection holes 7 are provided in the thin plate portion 6 facing the opening 4 with the shutter 5 opened, and a small diameter (44 mm)
In the disc cartridge in which the disc of the diameter) is housed, the detection hole is not provided as in the conventional case (FIG. 7). The movement of the optical pickup is regulated by detecting the presence or absence of the detection hole 7 by a detection mechanism on the side of the disk drive device.

An example of a mechanism for detecting the detection hole 7 is shown in FIG.
3 and FIG. On the lower surface side of the main chassis 10 on which the disk cartridge 1 is mounted, a locking member 14 made of a plate body having elasticity corresponding to the optical pickup 11, for example, a plate spring, is provided at one end thereof to the fixing member 1.
It is fixed by 5. The locking member 14 has a disk cartridge 1 mounted on the main chassis 10.
The detection pin 16 is erected at a position corresponding to the detection hole 7 of
This is projected to the upper surface side through the through hole 17 of the main chassis 10.

The locking member 14 is in close contact with the lower surface side of the main chassis 10 in a normal state, and when the disk cartridge 1 containing a disk having a standard diameter is mounted as shown in FIG. Since the detection pin 16 is inserted in the state, the locking member 14 is maintained in the state of being in close contact with the main chassis 10 and does not hinder the movement operation of the optical pickup 11.

On the other hand, when the disc cartridge 1 accommodating a disc having a small diameter is mounted as shown in FIG. 3, the thin plate portion 6 of the cartridge body 2 pushes the detection pin 16 downward because the disc cartridge has no detection hole. This causes the locking member 14 to be inclined and bent downward so that its tip end faces the side surface of the optical pickup 11, that is, the movement of the optical pickup 11 is hindered. Therefore, the optical pickup 11 cannot move outside the outermost circumference of the small-diameter disk 3, and as a result, the magnetic field magnet 12 as shown in FIG. Such an accident can be prevented.

Since the present embodiment has two detection holes 7, one of the detection holes 7 is used to detect the diameter of the disc as described above, and the other detection hole 7 is used to detect the open state of the shutter 5. Can be used. That is, the disc cartridge 1
When the disk drive is mounted on the disk drive, the shutter 5 is automatically opened by the mechanism on the side of the disk drive, but at this time, the shutter 5 may be mounted without being opened due to some mistake. If the magnetic field magnet is brought into contact with the disk in such a state, there is a risk that it will hit the shutter 5 and be damaged. Therefore, the detection hole 7 first detects whether or not the shutter 5 is normally opened.

Specifically, although not shown in the drawings, detection pins corresponding to the detection holes 7 are vertically provided on the main chassis on which the disk cartridge 1 is mounted. When the shutter 5 is normally opened when the disc cartridge 1 is mounted, the detection pin enters the detection hole 7 through the opening 4, so that the disc cartridge 1 is mounted in the predetermined mounting portion without any trouble. On the other hand, if the shutter 5 does not open due to some mistake when the disc cartridge 1 is mounted, the detection pin hits the shutter 5, and therefore the disc cartridge 1 cannot be mounted in the predetermined mounting portion. If the disc cartridge 1 is not mounted, the magnetic field magnets are not brought into contact with each other, so that the magnetic field magnets are not damaged. still,
In this way, when the open state of the shutter 5 is detected using the one detection hole 7, it is necessary to provide the detection hole at the same position even in the disc cartridge that accommodates the disc with a small diameter.

As described above, in the disk cartridge of this embodiment, the diameter of the disk 3 and the open state of the shutter 5 can be detected by the two detection holes 7, respectively, so that the magnetic field magnet 12 of the disk drive device can be securely operated. Can be protected. Since the detection hole 7 is provided in the thin plate portion 6 that faces the opening 4 of the cartridge body 2 when the shutter 5 is opened, it is hidden in a normal state, that is, in a state where the shutter 5 is closed.
The appearance of the disc cartridge 1 is not different from the conventional one. Further, since the detection hole 7 is provided at a suitable position in terms of space and does not interfere with the internal mechanism of the cartridge main body 2 at all, it can be easily implemented with almost no design change of the conventional disc cartridge. ..

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the disk cartridges used in the mini disk (MD) system shown in the drawings, but can be widely applied to various other disk cartridges. Needless to say.

[0019]

As is apparent from the above description, the disc cartridge of the present invention is provided with the detecting portion for discriminating the diameter of the disc housed in the cartridge main body. If the disc diameter is discriminated by the mechanism, it is possible to prevent an accident of the disc drive device due to the disc diameter difference. And since this detection part is provided in a part of the cartridge body which opens the shutter to face it, it is hidden in the normal state with the shutter closed.
The appearance of the disc cartridge is not impaired.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a disc cartridge of an embodiment (a state in which a shutter is open).

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of a mechanism for detecting a detection hole of a disc cartridge, showing a case where a disc cartridge accommodating a disc having a standard diameter is mounted.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of a mechanism for detecting a detection hole of a disc cartridge, showing a case where a disc cartridge accommodating a disc with a small diameter is mounted.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a conventional disc cartridge, in which A is a state where the shutter is closed (normal state), and B is a state where the shutter is opened.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a conventional disc cartridge (with the shutter open).

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a disk recording / reproducing mechanism in the disk drive device.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of a disc cartridge accommodating a disc with a small diameter (shutter open state).

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of damage to a magnetic field magnet in the disk drive device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Disc cartridge 2 Cartridge body 3 Disc 4 Opening 5 Shutter 7 Detection hole

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A disc cartridge comprising a cartridge body that rotatably accommodates a disc and a shutter that opens and closes an opening that exposes a portion of the disc. A disc cartridge comprising a detection unit for discriminating the diameter of the disc.