JPH07118174B2 - Tape car ledge - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a shutter for opening and closing a tape loading pocket as represented by a tape cartridge for a digital audio tape recorder (hereinafter referred to as DAT). The tape cartridge is provided with lock means for non-slidably locking the shutter at a predetermined slide position (generally, the open / close position 2), and the lock means is improved.

[Conventional technology]

As a prior art of this type of locking means, it is known in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-253076 that a spring member for pressing and biasing the locking piece in a locking posture is formed of a compression coil spring. As a further development and improvement of this, as shown in FIG. 6, in the main body case 1, compression is performed between the top surface of the tip of the lock piece 16 and the spring receiving projection 41 provided on the window plate 40 on the inner surface of the upper case 1a. A form in which the coil spring 21 is mounted and the lock piece 16 is pressed and urged by the spring 21 has been proposed by the applicant (Japanese Patent Application No. 61-122617, etc.). Reference numeral 10 is a shutter.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

The spring receiving protrusion 41 also serves as a check member, and
When the 16 is pushed up from the outer surface of the case, it receives the upper part of its tip to prevent the arm from being excessively deformed. Therefore, the spring receiving projection 41 is formed in a boss shape having a predetermined thickness so that it can sufficiently oppose the external force acting via the lock piece 16.

In this way, in the mode in which the boss-shaped protrusions 41 are provided so as to project from the flat plate portion of the window plate 40, sink marks are unavoidable on the upper surface side of the window plate 40. In particular, the window plate 40 with the upper case 1a as the primary side
In the one in which the protrusion 41 is integrally formed by a two-color molding method, the protrusion 41 is formed integrally with the upper case 1a.
Since the protrusion length of the case becomes large, the thickness of the protrusion 41 must be made larger than that in the case where it is provided on the side of the window plate 40 to secure the required strength, and it is unavoidable that sink marks occur on the surface of the upper case 1a. It was Further, there is a disadvantage in that the protrusion 40 is likely to be defectively formed.

Focusing on such a fact, the present invention aims to prevent excessive rocking of the lock piece 16 with a simpler structure, and at the same time, to reliably prevent sink marks from occurring on the surface of the case. And

[Means for solving problems]

In the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, a spring 21 for biasing the lock piece 16 is utilized as a movement restraining member of the lock piece 16.

Specifically, the spring 21 is composed of a compression coil spring, and by increasing the number of coil turns, the height H of the spring 21 at the time of full compression is made equal to that of the spring seat 20 of the lock piece 16 in the upward movement restricting position. It is possible to prevent excessive rocking of the lock piece 16 by setting the vertical distance between the spring seat 31 on the upper case 1a side and receiving and supporting the upper surface of the lock piece 16 with the spring 21 in the fully compressed state. I decided.

〔The invention's effect〕

In the present invention, the spring 21 for the lock piece is used to make the lock piece 16
Since excessive swinging of the shutter is prevented, the structure of the locking means for the shutter can be simplified as compared with the conventional form. Further, since the boss-shaped restraining protrusions can be omitted, it is possible to eliminate the poor moldability when forming the upper case 1a provided with the protrusions and to reduce the yield rate due to defective molding as a whole. . Therefore, the manufacturing cost of the tape cartridge can be reduced in combination with the cost reduction effect due to the simplification of the structure described above.

According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, in which the support member 24 is provided so as to surround the outer periphery of the spring 21 corresponding to the mounting position of the spring 21, the spring 21 in the free state is temporarily erected in an upright posture. Since it is possible to assemble, and the assembly can be performed while surely preventing the position and the posture of the spring 21 from being displaced when the upper and lower cases 1a and 1b are assembled, the reliability of the lock function can be further improved. At the same time, assembling workability of the spring 21 can be facilitated,
The spring assembly can be performed by an automatic assembly device.

[First Embodiment] FIGS. 1 to 4 show a first embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a tape cartridge for DAT.

In FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, a main body case 1 is formed by screwing a plastic upper case 1a and a lower case 1b together in a lid-matching manner.
Have. A pocket 6 for tape loading is recessed in the front center part of the main body case 1, and the tape 2 is led out to the front of the case via a pair of tape guides 7 provided on the left and right front ends of the pocket 6. Both hubs 3.3
Connected to. When loaded on the deck, the tape 2 is pulled out forward by the loading pin on the deck side through the pocket 6, and in this state, the tape 2 is separated from the tape guides 7 and 7.

The front and bottom of the pocket 6 are open, and the front side is opened and closed by the front lid 9 for protecting the tape and the bottom side is opened and closed by the shutter 10.

In FIG. 2, the shutter 10 is slidably supported only in the front-rear direction along the case bottom wall 4. To keep the bottom of the pocket 6 closed with the shutter 10 when not in use,
A torsion coil type spring between the lower case 1b and the shutter 10.
There are thirteen.

A pair of left and right locking means 15 is provided between the case bottom wall 4 and the shutter 10 in order to lock and hold the shutter 10 in the open position and the closed position.

In FIGS. 3 and 4, the locking means 15 includes a lock piece 16 provided at the left and right positions of the case bottom wall 4 and a shutter 10.
It is composed of engaging holes 17 provided at two front and rear positions on the left and right sides of and the spring 21 described later. Long holes 18 are formed in the front and rear of the case bottom wall 4 at positions on both sides of the pocket 6 toward the rear, and the lock pieces 16 are cantilevered forward from the rear end of the holes 18. There is. The lock piece 16 has an arm shape that elastically deforms vertically with the continuous base end side as a fulcrum.
An engaging member 19 is provided so as to project downward at the front end thereof. The shutter 10 is locked and held in the open / closed 2 position by the engagement of the engagement element 19 with one of the engagement holes 17 and 17.
A spring seat 20 is formed on the upper surface of the front end of the lock piece 16 so as to project therefrom.

In FIG. 3, arc-shaped spring receiving walls 22 are provided so as to face each other on both side walls near the front end of the hole 18 surrounding the lock piece 16. The spring 21 is received and supported by the spring receiving wall 22 and the spring seat 20 provided on the lock piece 16. That is, the mounting position of the spring 21 is set almost directly above the engaging element 19. At this assembly position, the support member 24 is provided integrally with the bottom wall 4 so as to surround the outer surface of the spring 21.

The support member 24 is formed with side walls 25, 25 and a front wall 26 that continuously surround the left and right sides and the front of the spring 21 in a substantially C-shaped cross section. The left and right tape guides 7 and 7
A semi-circular tape guide rib 27 is laterally projected at the front corner of the side wall 25 facing the tape path connecting the hubs 3 and 3. From the rear ends of the side walls 25, 25, retaining ribs 28, 28 are provided so as to project in opposite directions. The facing distance between the side walls 25, 25 is set slightly larger than the outer diameter of the spring 21, and the facing distance between the retaining ribs 28, 28 is set smaller than the outer diameter of the spring. Further, the vertical height of the support member 24 is set to be 1/2 or more of the free length of the spring 21. The support member on the right side of the feeding hub 3 facing the drawing
At 24, one side wall 25 overlaps with the mounting seat of the biasing spring 13 of the shutter 10 so that the front half thereof is cut away.

In order to receive the upper end of the spring 21 mounted in the support member 24, a plate rib-shaped spring receiving piece 30 is provided so as to project downward from the inner surface of the upper case 1a. In FIG. 1, the front and rear width of the spring receiving piece 30 is set smaller than the inner diameter of the spring 21, and a wedge-shaped assembly guide surface 32 is provided at the lower end. This spring receiving piece 30
The upper end of the spring 21 is received and supported by using the circumferential surface of the base end of the projection, that is, the inner surface of the upper wall of the upper case 1a as a spring seat 31.

The spring 21 is composed of a compression coil spring made of a metal wire, and in order to prevent excessive rocking of the lock piece 16, the coil winding number is increased and the vertical height H at the time of full compression is set as follows. As shown in FIG. 1, when the lock piece 16 is pushed up from the outside of the case, in the allowable swing position, that is, in the upward movement restricting position, the spring seat 20 on the top surface of the tip of the lock piece 16 and the upper case. The spring height H was made to coincide with the vertical dimension interval based on the vertical dimension interval with the spring seat 31 set in 1a.

At the time of assembly, the spring 21 is dropped into the support member 24 from the opening side of the upper surface and temporarily assembled. In this temporarily assembled state, the spring
Most of the peripheral surface of 21 in the vertical direction is surrounded by a supporting member 24. Therefore, even if the lower case 1b is subjected to vibrations or shocks caused by the movement to the next process, the spring 21 can maintain its standing posture without being displaced from the regular mounting position. Also, when the upper case 1a is covered with the lower case 1b in a lid-matching manner in the subsequent steps,
The outside of the spring 21 is surrounded by the support member 24, and the spring 21
Since the upper and lower ends of the spring are engaged and held by the spring seat 20 and the spring receiving piece 30, the mounting position and mounting posture of the spring 21 do not shift.

The support member 24 also has a function of restricting the abutment of the spring 21 that bends into a dogleg shape and tends to come off when the lock piece 16 moves upward.

Second Embodiment FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment of the present invention, in which, for example, the upper half portion of the spring 21 is closely wound and only the lower half portion can be deformed by compression, and the height at full compression is shown. H is set to a predetermined size.

In addition, in order to make the height H of the spring 21 at full compression more strict, the cross-sectional shape of the spring wire can be changed to a rectangle.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 to 4 show a first embodiment of a tape cartridge according to the present invention, wherein FIG. 1 is a sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG. 2, FIG. 2 is an internal plan view, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a plan view of the main part, and FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line BB in FIG. FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional side view showing a second embodiment of the tape cartridge according to the present invention. FIG. 6 is a vertical sectional front view showing a comparative example of the locking means. 1a …… Upper case, 6 …… Pocket, 10 …… Shutter, 16 ……
Lock piece, 20 …… Spring seat, 21 …… Spring, 24 …… Supporting member, 31
...... Spring seat.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A lock piece 16 for locking and holding a shutter 10 for opening and closing a tape loading pocket 6 at a predetermined sliding position, and a spring for biasing the lock piece 16 in a locking posture.
21. In the tape cartridge provided with 21, the spring 21 is a compression coil spring, and the height H of the spring 21 at the time of full compression is increased by increasing the number of coil turns.
The spring seat 20 of the lock piece 16 and the upper case in the upper movement restricting position
A tape cartridge characterized in that it is matched with the vertical spacing between the spring seat 31 on the 1a side.