JPH0581815A - Disk case and optical disk device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable recording/reproducing of disk cases for single side and both sides by the same optical disk device. CONSTITUTION:The disk case 1 for both sides and the disk case 11 for single side are constituted so as to have the same width and depth each other but to be thicker for the disk case 1 for both sides and thinner for the disk case 11 for single side in thickness. On the disk case 1 for both sides, 1st groove parts 5 are provided at the centers of both side faces. On the disk case 11 for single side, 2nd groove parts 15 are provided at the vertical asymmetrical, positions on both side faces. By means of engaging the 1st groove parts 5 and 2nd groove parts 15 with projecting guide parts provided in a case holder of optical disk device, the disk case 1 for both sides and disk case 11 for single side are allowed for recording/reproducing by the same optical disk device.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a disc case for accommodating an optical disc and an optical disc device for recording and reproducing information using the disc case, and more particularly to recording and / or reproducing a single-sided disc and a double-sided disc in the same device. The present invention relates to a configuration of a disc case and an optical disc device that enable the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, optical discs for recording and / or reproducing information using laser light have been put into practical use.
There are various types from read-only type to recordable type. These optical discs are designed to be easy to handle and dustproof.
It is often used by storing it in a resin disk case.

The size of the optical disk is 12 inches (300 mm), 5.25 inches (130 mm), 3.
There are various sizes such as 5 inches (86 mm) and they are standardized by ISO (International Organization for Standardization) together with the disk case. Further, a 2.5-inch (64 mm) optical disk and disk case have been proposed as a smaller size, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-86987.

Of these, 3.5 inches and 2.5
A transparent substrate, a recording film, and a protective film are formed in each layer in the inch disk case, and a single-sided disk for recording / reproducing information from one direction (usually from the transparent substrate side) is housed. And for the 12-inch and 5.25-inch disc cases, attach two single-sided discs
A single-sided optical disk is used, and a double-sided disk capable of recording and reproducing information from both sides is stored.

[0005]

Since the single-sided disk has a thickness half that of the double-sided disk, the disk case for accommodating the single-sided disk can be made thin. On the other hand, the recording capacity is reduced. In particular, the 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch optical disks are small in size and have one side, so that the recording capacity is limited.

Therefore, there is a demand to use a double-sided disc when the amount of information to be recorded is large and to use a single-sided disc when the amount of information is not large. However, since the double-sided disc is thick, the disc case that houses the double-sided disc is also thick. Therefore, there are two kinds of disk cases having different thicknesses, one for one side and the other for both sides, which causes a problem that the conventional optical disk device cannot support. This problem will be described below.

In an optical disk apparatus for recording and reproducing information while the optical disk is housed in the disk case, the disk case inserted into the apparatus is held by holding means called a case holder, and then this case holder is integrated with the disk case. In general, the optical head unit performs recording / reproducing of information after the optical disc is mounted on the rotation driving unit by being driven by the loading mechanism. Here, the inner dimension of the case holder is set according to the outer dimension of the disc case so that the disc case can be inserted. Therefore, the case holder cannot cope with two types of disc cases having different thicknesses, and it is unavoidable to set the case holder according to one of them. Here, if the inner dimension of the case holder is adjusted to the disk case for a thin single-sided disk, there arises a problem that the disk case for a double-sided disk cannot be inserted. On the other hand, if the inner dimension of the case holder is adjusted to the disk case for a thick double-sided disk, rattling occurs when the disk case for a single-sided disk is inserted, and the disk case cannot be held securely, so that the optical disk device There is a problem that it can not be attached to.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to make it possible to record and / or reproduce a double-sided disk case and a single-sided disk case in the same optical disk device. is there.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a disk case in which an optical disk, on which information is recorded and / or reproduced by an optical head unit provided in an optical disk device, is housed. A double-sided disc case that stores a double-sided recordable and reproducible disc on both sides and a single-sided disc case that stores a single-sided disc that can record and reproduce only on one side are provided. The double-sided disk case is set to be thick and the single-sided disk case is set to be thin. The double-sided disk case is provided with a first groove portion extending in the disk device insertion direction at the center of both side surfaces, and Has a second groove portion extending in the disc device insertion direction at the asymmetrical position on both sides.

When the distance between the upper surface (or the lower surface) of the double-sided disk case and the first groove portion is represented by T1, the surface of the single-sided disk case facing the optical head section of the optical disk device and the second surface of the single-sided disk case are referred to as the second surface. Distance from groove is T1
Configured to be equal to. In addition, in an optical disc device including a case holder that holds a disc case by inserting a disc case that accommodates an optical disc therein, and an optical head unit that records and reproduces information on and from the optical disc, an inner height dimension of the case holder Has a size equal to or slightly thicker than the thickness of the above-mentioned double-sided disk case, and a convex guide portion for guiding the first and second groove portions is provided at the center of the inner height of the case holder.

[0011]

In the double-sided disk case, the first groove portion extending in the disk device insertion direction is provided at the center of both side surfaces, and the case holder of the optical disk device has the inside height dimension of the above-mentioned double-sided disk case. The size is equal to or slightly thicker than the thickness of the case, and the convex guide portion is provided at the inner height center of the case holder. Therefore, when the double-sided disc case is inserted into the case holder, the first groove portion The guide portions engage with each other, and the double-sided disk case can be held. Even when the double-sided disk case is turned over and inserted into the case holder, the first groove is provided at the center of the double-sided disk case in the thickness direction. Therefore, the positional relationship of the first groove with respect to the guide section is large. Does not change, the first groove portion and the guide portion engage with each other in the same manner as described above, and the double-sided disk case can be held.

In the single-sided disk case, the distance between the surface facing the optical head and the second groove is equal to the distance between the upper surface (or the lower surface) and the first groove in the double-sided disk case. Since it is configured, when the single-sided disk case is inserted into the case holder in the normal direction, the second groove portion and the guide portion are engaged with each other, and the single-sided disk case can be held. However, if the single-sided disc case is turned upside down and inserted into the case holder, that is, if it is mistakenly inserted in the normal insertion direction, the second groove portion is provided at an asymmetric position with respect to the thickness direction, and the second groove portion with respect to the guide portion is provided. The positional relationship of is different from that at the time of normal insertion, and the front edge portion of the one-sided disk case and the guide portion come into contact with each other. Therefore, the second groove portion and the guide portion cannot be engaged with each other, thereby preventing erroneous insertion.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the structure of an embodiment of a disk case according to the present invention. (A) shows a double-sided disk case in which a double-sided disk is stored, and (b) shows a single-sided disk. 1 shows a single-sided disc case.
FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a main part, FIG. 2A is an enlarged view of a portion A in FIG. 1, and FIG. 2B is an enlarged view of a portion B in FIG.

In FIG. 1A, reference numeral 1 is a double-sided disk case, 2 is a double-sided disk housed in the double-sided disk case 1, and 3 is a rotation driving means and an optical head not shown. It is an opening portion for opening and is also provided on the lower surface side. Reference numeral 4 denotes a shutter for covering the opening 3. The shutter 4 is opened and closed by an opening / closing mechanism (not shown) provided in the optical disc device at the time of recording / reproducing information.
5 is a first provided on both sides of the double-sided disk case 1.
The groove portion of the double-sided disk case 1 extends from the front edge portion of the double-sided disk case 1 to the central portion. The double-sided disc case 1 is inserted into a disc device (not shown) in the direction of arrow 6. The thickness of the double-sided disk case 1 is represented by Ta as shown.

In FIG. 1 (b), 11 is a single-sided disk case, 12 is a single-sided disk housed in the single-sided disk case 11, and 14 is a lower surface 11a.
Is a shutter for covering the opening (not shown) for the rotation driving means and the opening (not shown) for the optical head, which are provided on the side of the optical disk. The shutter 14 is provided in the optical disc device at the time of recording / reproducing information. It is opened and closed by an opening and closing mechanism (not shown). Reference numeral 15 denotes a second groove portion provided on both side surfaces of the single-sided disk case 1 and extending from the front edge portion of the single-sided disk case 11 to the central portion. This single-sided disc case 11 is attached to a disc device (not shown) by an arrow 6
And is mounted so that the lower surface 11a faces an optical head (not shown). The thickness of the single-sided disk case 1 is represented by Tb as shown in the drawing.

Here, the thicknesses of the double-sided disk case 1 and the single-sided disk case 11 have a relationship of Ta> Tb due to the difference in the thickness of the disks housed inside, and the double-sided disk case 1 Is thicker.

Next, the first and second groove portions 5 and 15 will be further described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 2A, the first groove portion 5 of the double-sided disk case 1 is centered in the thickness direction (at the same dimension as T1 from the upper surface side and T1 from the lower surface side), that is, vertically symmetrical. It is provided so that. On the other hand, the single-sided disk case 11
As shown in FIG. 2 (b), the second groove portion 15 is located at a position T1 (the same size as the above-mentioned double-sided disk case 1) from the lower surface side and at a position T2 from the upper surface side in the thickness direction. It is provided. Here, between T1 and T2, T
There is a relation of 1> T2. That is, the second groove portion 15 is provided so as to be vertically asymmetric. Further, the width of the groove portion 5 of the double-sided disc case 1 and the single-sided disc case 1
The widths of the first groove portions 15 are both W as shown in the drawing, and are set to be equal.

Next, a disk device into which the double-sided disk case 1 and the single-sided disk case 11 are inserted will be described. In an optical disk device that records and reproduces information while the optical disk is housed in a disk case, the disk case inserted into the device is held by a holding means called a case holder, and then this case holder is integrated with the disk case as a loading mechanism. It is common to mount the optical disk on the rotation driving means and position and mount the disk case on the chassis by driving the disk case. FIG. 3 is a configuration perspective view showing an embodiment of the case holder of the optical disk device according to the present invention, a part of which is cut away. FIG. 4 shows A in FIG.
It is a sectional view taken along line A-.

In the figure, 20 is a case holder,
The disk cases 1 and 11 described above are provided with the introduction portions 20a, 2
0b is inserted and it is inserted in the direction of arrow 6. Reference numeral 21 denotes a guide portion that is formed so as to project inwardly inside the case holder 20, and is provided on both sides of the case holder 20 so as to engage with the above-described first and second groove portions 5 and 15.
The inside dimension Ha of the case holder 20 in the height direction is
The size is set to be slightly larger than the thickness Ta so that the double-sided disk case 1 can be inserted, and a guide portion 21 is formed with a thickness Hw at the center of the inner size Ha. The thickness Hw of the guide portion 21 depends on the disk case 1,
The size is set to be slightly smaller than the width W of the first and second groove portions 5 and 15 of No. 11. Reference numeral 22 denotes an urging means for urging the inserted disc case downward,
a is formed in an arc and is located in the hole 23 of the case holder 20, and the root 22b is joined to the case holder 20.

Although the guide portion 21 is formed integrally with the case holder 20 in FIGS. 3 and 4, it may be formed as a separate component and joined to the case holder 20, or the side surface of the case holder 20. It may be formed by cutting and raising a part.

Next, the operation of inserting the double-sided disk case 1 into the case holder 20 of the disk device will be described. 5A and 5B are operation explanatory views for explaining the operation when the double-sided disk case 1 is inserted. FIG. 5A shows a case where the double-sided disk case 1 is inserted in the direction of FIG. 1A, and FIG. Indicate the case. In addition, the arrow 30 in the figure is added for the purpose of distinguishing the insertion direction for description.

A double-sided disk case 1 is attached to a case holder 2
As it is inserted into 0, the first groove portion 5 engages with the guide portion 21 of the case holder 20 as shown in FIG. 5A, and the inserted state is held by the holding means (not shown). Here, since the double-sided disk case 1 can record and reproduce on both sides of the disk housed inside, it must be inserted properly even when it is turned upside down from the direction of FIG.

In the present invention, since the double-sided disk case 1 has a vertically symmetrical shape with the first groove 5 as the center as described above, even when the double-sided disk case 1 is turned upside down, the guide portion 21 is inserted. Since the positional relationship of the first groove portion 5 with respect to does not change, it can be inserted without any problem as shown in FIG. 5 (b).

Next, the operation of inserting the one-sided disk case 11 into the case holder 20 of the disk device will be described. FIG. 6 is an operation explanatory diagram illustrating an operation when the single-sided disk case 11 is inserted.

When the single-sided disk case 11 is inserted into the optical disk device, the single-sided disk case 1 is housed in the case holder 20 as shown in FIG. 6, and the inserted state is held by holding means (not shown). At this time, since the thickness of the single-sided disk case 11 is smaller than the inner dimension of the case holder 20 in the height direction, a space 25 is created in the case holder 20. However, since the second groove portion 15 is engaged with the guide portion 21 of the case holder 20, the single-sided disc case 11 is held by the case holder 20 without rattling.

Here, the operation of the biasing means 22 will be described with reference to FIG.
Will be explained. 7A and 7B are diagrams for explaining the operation of the urging means 22, where FIG. 7A shows a state in the middle of the inserting operation and FIG. 7B shows a state of the inserting operation being completed. Note that FIG. 7 shows a state in which the single-sided disk case 11 is inserted in the case holder 20 by cutting along the line BB in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 7A, when the one-sided disk case 11 is inserted into the case holder 20, the one-sided disk case 11 comes into contact with the urging means 22, and the one-sided disk case 11 has an elastic force of the urging means 22. Is urged toward the lower part of the case holder 20. As a result, the positions of the second groove portion 15 and the guide portion 21 in the height direction substantially coincide with each other as shown in the figure. When the single-sided disk case 11 is further inserted into the case holder 20 from this state, as shown in FIG. 7B, the second groove portion 1 is formed.
5 is engaged with the guide portion 21, and the single-sided disk case 11
Is held by the case holder 20, and the inserting operation is completed.

Here, since the disk housed in the single-sided disk case 11 can record and reproduce data only on one surface, the insertion direction into the case holder 20 is as shown in FIG.
It is necessary to limit the direction to that shown in FIG. 7, and when it is inserted upside down, it must be prevented as an erroneous insertion. This erroneous insertion prevention will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 8 is an operation explanatory diagram for explaining prevention of erroneous insertion of the single-sided disk case 11.
The state which turned upside down and inserted in the case holder 20 is shown.

As shown in FIG. 8, when the one-sided disk case 11 is turned upside down and inserted into the case holder 20, the front edge of the one-sided disk case 11 comes into contact with the guide portion 21 of the case holder 20, and The groove portion 2 of 2 is a guide portion 21.
Since it can not be engaged with, it cannot be inserted any more, and erroneous insertion can be prevented.

As described above, according to this embodiment, recording and reproduction can be performed by the same optical disk device even if the disk cases have different thicknesses such as the double-sided disk case 1 and the single-sided disk case 11. Become. In addition, it is possible to prevent erroneous insertion in which the front surface and the back surface are mistakenly inserted, which is a problem when using the single-sided disk case 11.

Although the above embodiments have been described by taking the disk case and the optical disk device as an example, the present invention is not limited to these, and is also applied to other disk-shaped medium cases such as a magnetic disk case and a magnetic disk device and an apparatus using the same. it can.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, recording and reproduction can be performed by the same optical disc device even in disc cases having different thicknesses such as a double-sided disc case and a single-sided disc case. .. In addition, it is possible to prevent erroneous insertion in which the front surface and the back surface are mistakenly inserted, which is a problem when the single-sided disk case is used.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration of an embodiment of a disk case according to the present invention, (a) showing a double-sided disk case, and (b) showing a double-sided disk case.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a main part in FIG. 1, where (a) is an enlarged view of an A part and (b) is an enlarged view of a B part.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a configuration of an embodiment of an optical disc device according to the present invention.

4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG.

FIG. 5 is an operation explanatory diagram when the double-sided disk case according to the present invention is inserted into the optical disk device according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an operation explanatory diagram when the single-sided disk case according to the present invention is inserted into the optical disk device according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an operation explanatory view of a biasing means provided in the optical disc device according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an operation explanatory diagram for explaining erroneous insertion prevention of the single-sided disk case.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Double-sided disk case, 2 ... Double-sided disk, 5 ... First groove part, 11 ... Single-sided disk case 12 ... Single-sided disk, 15 ... Second groove part, 20 ... Case holder, 21 ... Guide part 22 ... Energizing means.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yukio Fukui 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Stock Company Hitachi Media Media Research Laboratories

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A double-sided disc in which a double-sided disc capable of recording and reproducing on both sides is stored in a disc case in which an optical disc in which information is recorded and / or reproduced by an optical head unit provided in an optical disc device is accommodated. A case and a single-sided disk case in which a single-sided disk capable of recording and reproducing only on one side are housed are provided, and the width and depth are the same size so that the double-sided disk case is thick and the single-sided disk case is thin. The double-sided disk case is provided with a first groove extending in the center of both sides in the disk device insertion direction, and the single-sided disk case extends in the disk device insertion direction at both sides in vertically asymmetrical positions. A disk case provided with an existing second groove. 2. A distance between the upper surface (or lower surface) of the double-sided disk case and the first groove is represented by T1.
2. The disk case according to claim 1, wherein a distance between a surface of the single-sided disk case facing the optical head part of the optical disk device and the second groove is equal to T1. 3. An optical disk device comprising: a case holder for holding the disk case by inserting a disk case accommodating an optical disk therein; and an optical head section for recording and / or reproducing information on the optical disk, The inside height of the case holder is set to be equal to or slightly larger than the thickness of the double-sided disk case according to claim 1 or 2, and the first and second groove portions are formed at the center of the inside height of the case holder. An optical disk device comprising a convex guide portion for guiding. 4. A biasing means for biasing the disk case toward the optical head portion inside the case holder,
The optical disk device according to claim 3, wherein the optical disk device is provided in the case holder.