JPH0712356Y2 - Automatic ejector for flat objects - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of application] The present invention relates to an automatic ejecting device for flat objects, and more particularly to an automatic feeding mechanism for a flexible magnetic disk recording medium such as a floppy disk. Flexible magnetic disk recording media to be ejected from the hopper provided with a plurality of pairs of picker members for taking out the flexible magnetic disk recording media one by one from the hopper for accommodating the flexible magnetic disk recording media to be stacked. The present invention relates to the fact that, even if the recording medium is warped or distorted, the picker member can surely come into contact with the end portion thereof to push out the flexible magnetic disk recording medium and eject it.

[Prior Art] A floppy disk automatic feeding mechanism includes an automatic ejecting device for taking out the floppy disks one by one from a hopper for stacking and storing the floppy disks to be fed.
The transport mechanism includes a plurality of pairs of rollers for transporting the taken out floppy disk to the floppy disk drive. FIG. 3 is a side view showing an example of a picker for taking out, one by one, a floppy disk to be supplied to the drive unit, as shown in FIG. 3, and an example of a conveying mechanism including the picker 12 and the feed roller 11 is shown in the front view. It is as shown in FIG.

The pickers 12 are provided on both outer sides of each feed roller 11 of the roller shaft 13 at intervals substantially the same as the lateral width of the floppy disk 20. The picker 12 has arc portions 12-1 protruding from the outer circumference of the corresponding feed roller 11 and having a thickness equal to or smaller than the thickness of the floppy disk 20A. Furthermore, Picker 12
An extruding portion 12-3 having a straight portion extending from a predetermined position of the arc portion 12-1 toward the center of the circle to a portion substantially the same as the outer circumference of the feed roller 11 and a predetermined length perpendicular to the extruding portion 12-3. The hopper 10 is provided with a flat supporting portion 12-2 which supports one side of the lowermost floppy disk 20 stored in the hopper 10. When the floppy disk 20A is taken out from the hopper, the picker 12 rotates in the arrow R direction.

The guides 14 guide the floppy disk between the feed roller 11 and the roller 24, and are provided in pairs at both ends of the roller shaft 13. The distance between each pair of guides 14 is slightly larger than the width of the floppy disk. The guide 14 acts when the floppy disk 20A taken out of the hopper by the action of the picker 12 is introduced between the pair of feed rollers 11 and the roller 24 corresponding to the pair of feed rollers 11.

The feed roller 11 has the same roller shaft 13 inside the picker 12.
It is provided as a pair on the floppy disk 20A which is rotated by the control mechanism and is connected to the corresponding roller 24.
Is inserted and conveyed to the drive unit side. The rollers 24 are provided at both ends of the roller shaft 19 corresponding to the feed rollers 11.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the conventional floppy disk automatic feeding mechanism as described above, the floppy disk 20A to be ejected
If the floppy disk 20A is distorted or warped, for example, if both ends of the floppy disk 20A are warped as shown in FIG. 4, both ends of the floppy disk 20A do not contact the push-out parts 12-3 of the pickers 12. , There was a problem that this floppy disk 20A may not be ejected accurately from the hopper. This problem is likely to occur especially when the remaining amount of floppy disks in the hopper becomes small.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and by providing a plurality of pairs of pickers, including a pair of pickers provided in pairs at substantially the same interval as the lateral width of a floppy disk,
It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic ejecting device capable of surely sequentially feeding the floppy disks one by one even if the floppy disks stored in the hopper are distorted or warped.

[Means for Solving the Problems] An automatic ejecting device for a flat object according to the present invention is a hopper for stacking and accommodating flat objects to be ejected, and a supporting portion for supporting the lowermost flat object of the hopper. And a push-out portion that rises from the supporting portion at a height within the thickness of the flat plate-like article, and substantially corresponds to the width of one side of the flat plate-like article along the one side of the bottom-layer flat-plate article. A total of three or more picker members, each of which is provided at an interval and at least one of which is provided corresponding to the intermediate portion of the one side, and each of the picker members are rotated, and the picker members are rotated in response to the rotation. Driving means for pushing the bottommost flat plate-shaped object of the hopper from the one side toward the other side opposite thereto by the pushing portion, and the other side of the pressed flat plate-shaped object provided on the other side. Opening for allowing the entry of the A discharge path provided below, and provided below the opening,
Further, it is rotatable, and supports the flat plate-shaped member having the other side entering the opening, and rotates the supported flat plate-shaped member with the rotation, and the flat plate-shaped member is rotated by this rotation. The separator member that moves the one side of the object downward to guide it to the discharge path is linked with the picker member and the separator member, and the separator member is rotated in association with the pushing operation of the picker member. And a link member to be moved.

[Operation] For example, when both ends of the flat objects to be discharged that are stacked and stored in the hopper are warped, a pair of picker members provided at intervals corresponding to the lateral width of the flat objects are extruded. Even if the end portion of the flat plate-shaped object does not come into contact with the portion, the extruded portion of at least one picker member provided corresponding to the intermediate part of one side of the flat plate-shaped object has a peripheral portion of the flat plate-shaped object. Abut. Therefore, according to the movement of the picker member, the edge portion of the flat plate-like material is pressed by the pushing portion and discharged from the hopper.

In this way, even if the flat plate is warped or distorted, since the plurality of picker members are provided, the extruded portion of any picker member is located at any position on the edge of the flat plate. Since they come into contact with each other, the flat plate-like object can be reliably pressed and discharged from the hopper.

[Embodiment] Hereinafter, an embodiment of an automatic discharging apparatus for a flat article according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an example of a picker and a roller portion in a floppy disk automatic feeding mechanism to which an automatic ejecting device for a flat plate according to the present invention is applied. An example of this automatic floppy disk feeding mechanism is shown in FIG. The same reference numerals as those in FIGS. 3 and 4 serve the same functions.

The present feeding mechanism is roughly classified into a hopper 10 for accommodating a floppy disk 20, an ejecting device including a picker 12 for ejecting the floppy disks 20 one by one from the hopper 10, and a floppy disk 20 ejected from the hopper 10. The transport mechanism includes a plurality of pairs of rolls for supplying or discharging the drive device 5, and the drive device 5 for reading or writing various data with respect to the supplied floppy disk 20. It does not include a control device or the like.

The hopper 10 stacks and stores the floppy disks 20 to be supplied to the drive device 5. The hopper
A gate block 27 is provided on one side of 10.
A separator 28 is provided at the bottom of the gate block 27 at a distance slightly larger than the thickness of the floppy disk 20.
Is provided. The separator 28 is provided so as to be rotatable by a predetermined angle with the support shaft 25 as a fulcrum, and a link portion 21 for supporting the lower portion of the floppy disk 20 housed in the hopper 10 is provided over the protrusion 15 of the guide 14. ing.
That is, the separator 28 is structured to reversibly rotate about the support shaft 25 as a fulcrum by a predetermined angle in association with the link portion 21. Further, on the outside of the separator 28, a convex portion 28-1 is provided as a stopper so that the floppy disk 20 does not jump out when the floppy disk 20 is inserted between the gate block 27 and the separator 28. ing.

The link portion 21 is a guide protrusion provided on the guide 14.
When the guide 14 is contacted with the guide 14, the support shaft 25 of the separator 28 is rotated by the rotation of the guide 14 up to the middle of the outer circumference of the roller 24 and the feed roller 11. That is, the floppy disk 20A located at the bottom of the hopper 10 is fed to the feed roller 1
It guides to the middle of the outer circumference of 1 and the outer circumference of the roller 24.

In FIG. 1, a pair of guides 14, feed rollers 11 and pickers 12 are provided at both ends of the roller shaft 13 from the outside. The pickers 12A and 12B are provided in pairs inside the picker 12 at substantially equal intervals. Corresponding to the feed roller 11, a pair of rollers 24 are rotatably provided on the roller shaft 19 at predetermined intervals. The floppy disk 20 is sandwiched between the feed rollers 11 and the rollers 24 and is fed and discharged. Each of these rollers functions as a transport mechanism for feeding and ejecting the floppy disk 20 to and from the floppy disk drive device 5. The operations of the feed roller 22 and the roller 23 also interlock with the feed roller 11 and the roller 24 to perform the same function.

In the above-mentioned structure, the operation of each part in the automatic floppy disk feeding mechanism is as follows.

Hopper 1 for floppy disk 20A that is not warped or distorted
When taking out from 0, each extruding part 12-3 and extruding part 12A
-3, 12B-3 is the picker 12 at the end of the disk 20A with which it abuts.
And the pickers 12A and 12B are pressed according to the rotation of
The other end of 0A is pushed out between the gate block 27 and the separator 28. When the other end of the floppy disk 20A is pushed into the space between the gate block 27 and the separator 28, the link portion comes into contact with the guide protrusion 15 as the guide 14 rotates.
The tip of 21 is pushed down. As described above, the link portion 21 rotates about the fulcrum of the separator 28, and the floppy disk 20A on the link portion 21 eventually reaches the middle of the outer circumference of the roller 24 and the feed roller 11 together with the link portion 21. Displace. Next, the disc drive device 5 is bitten between the rollers 24 and the outer circumference of the feed roller 11.
Be drawn to the side.

On the other hand, floppy disk 20A with both ends warped
To remove the floppy disk 20 from the hopper 10.
Although it does not contact the extruded portion 12-3 at both ends of A, since it abuts the extruded portions 12A-3, 12B-3 of the pickers 12A, 12B provided inside the extruded portion 12-3, The floppy disk 20A is pushed out according to the rotation of the pickers 12A and 12B and ejected from the hopper 10.

In the above embodiment, the picker 12 arranged corresponding to the middle part
There are two A and 12B, but this may be one,
Further, it may be three or more. However, more stable discharge is possible by providing two or more.

Further, in this embodiment, an automatic feeding mechanism for a flexible magnetic disk recording medium or the like for a disk drive device is described, but the material to be fed is not limited to a floppy disk, and an appropriate flat plate-like material can be used for any device. It may be discharged.

[Advantage of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of picker members for discharging the flat plate-like objects one by one from the hopper are arranged along one side, and at this time, at least one picker member is provided corresponding to the intermediate portion. Since the picker members are arranged individually, even if the plate-like object stored in the hopper is warped or distorted, any part of the edge of the plate-like object located at the bottom layer Since the push-out portion of any one of the picker members comes into contact with, the flat plate-like object can be reliably pressed and discharged from the hopper. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate various malfunctions such as the malfunction that the flat plate-like object is stored in the hopper but is not discharged.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an embodiment of an automatic ejecting device for flat plates according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic side view showing an example of the entire structure of a floppy disk automatic feeding mechanism to which the embodiment is applied. FIG. 3 is a side view showing an example of a picker section in the floppy disk automatic ejecting apparatus, and FIG. 4 is a front view showing an example of a picker section and a roller section in the conventional floppy disk automatic ejecting apparatus. 5 ... Floppy disk drive, 10 ... Hopper, 11, 22
... Feed rollers, 12, 12A, 12B ... Pickers, 12-1 ... Arc parts, 12-2 ... Support parts, 12-3 ... Extrusion parts, 13,19 ... Roller shafts, 14 ... Guides, 15 ... Guide protrusions, 20 ... Floppy disk, 21 ... Link part, 23, 24 ... Roller, 25 ... Separator, 27 ... Gate block.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A hopper for stacking and storing flat objects to be discharged, a support portion for supporting the flat object at the lowermost layer of the hopper, and a stand up from the support portion at a height within the thickness of the flat objects. Each of which has an extruding portion, is provided along the one side of the flat plate-like article of the lowermost layer at intervals substantially corresponding to the width of one side of the flat plate-like article, and corresponds to an intermediate portion of the one side. A total of at least one picker member is provided, and each of the picker members is rotated, and in accordance with this rotation, the lowermost flat plate object of the hopper is arranged from the one side to the other side. Driving means for pushing the side toward the side by the pushing portion, an opening provided on the side of the other side for allowing the other side of the pressed flat plate object to enter, and below the picker member. The discharge path provided and the one provided below the opening. Is supported and is rotatable, and supports the flat plate-shaped object in which the other side has entered the opening, and rotates the supported flat plate-shaped object in accordance with the rotation. A separator member that moves the one side of the flat object downward to guide it to the discharge path, and link-connects the picker member and the separator member,
An automatic ejecting device for a flat plate, comprising: a link member for rotating the separator member in conjunction with the pushing operation of the picker member.