JPH0713098Y2 - Disc cartridge - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a disk cartridge provided with a shutter for the purpose of preventing dust.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A disk for storing information signals, a case for accommodating the disk and having a window portion for exposing a part of the disk to the outside, and moving to the case to open and close the window portion In a disk cartridge including a freely provided shutter and a spring made of a linear member that biases the shutter in a direction of closing the window, conventionally, a biasing force is mainly generated as the spring. There is a type that employs a torsion spring in which the spring portions are coaxially and have the same diameter and are sequentially stacked in the axial direction (JP-B-63-30709).

[0003]

However, in this disk cartridge, as the spring of the disk cartridge, as described above, the spring portion that mainly generates the urging force has a shape in which the spring portions that are coaxial and have the same diameter are sequentially stacked in the axial direction. The thickness of the spring part is limited due to the relationship with the thickness of the case. Therefore, if the wire diameter of the linear member forming the torsion spring is increased, the increase in the wire diameter is accumulated by the number of turns, and the thickness of the spring portion becomes thicker. Since the thickness of the portion is increased, the wire diameter of the linear member and the number of turns of the spring portion are limited, and there is a problem that the strength and the biasing force of the spring are insufficient.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a disk cartridge capable of arbitrarily increasing the strength and biasing force of the spring without being restricted by the wire diameter of the linear member forming the spring and the number of turns of the spring portion. That is.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a disk cartridge of the present invention accommodates a disk in which information signals are stored, the disk, and a part of the disk is exposed to the outside. A case having a window portion, a shutter movably provided on the case to open and close the window portion, and a spring made of a linear member for urging the shutter in a direction of closing the window portion. Comprising, the spring, a first locking portion that is locked to one of the case and the shutter,
It is located between the second locking portion, which is locked to the other of the case and the shutter, and the first locking portion and the second locking portion, and extends from the inner end portion to the outer end portion. A spiral spring part that gradually expands in diameter in a substantially same plane, a first arm part that connects the inner end part of the spring part and the first locking part, and an outer end part of the spring part. And a second arm portion connecting the second locking portion and the second locking portion.

[0006]

According to the disk cartridge of the present invention, the spring portion of the spring has a spiral shape in which the diameter gradually increases in the same plane from the inner end portion to the outer end portion. Even if the wire diameter of the member is increased, basically only the increase in the wire diameter is the increase in the thickness of the spring portion. Therefore, the wire diameter of the linear member is not limited. Further, since the thickness of the spring portion does not change even if the number of turns of the spring portion increases, the number of turns of the spring portion is not limited.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A disk cartridge according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. In the present embodiment, a floppy disk will be described as an example of the disk cartridge, but it goes without saying that it can be applied to various other disk cartridges (for example, an optical disk).

In the figure, reference numeral 1 indicates a disk cartridge of this embodiment.
Is a disc 2 in which information signals are stored, and the disc 2
And a case 4 having a window 3 for exposing a part of the disc 2 to the outside, and the window 3 in the case 4.
The shutter 5 is movably provided to open and close the shutter, and a spring 6 made of a linear member that biases the shutter 5 in the direction of closing the window 3.

The disk 2 has a disk-shaped storage section 7
And a circular hub (not shown) provided at the center of the storage unit 7.

In the case 4, two plate-shaped members 8 and 9 each having a substantially rectangular shape are joined to each other, and these plate-shaped members 8 and 9 are joined together.
In the joined state, a space portion 10 for accommodating the disc 2 is formed therein. A hole (not shown) into which the hub (not shown) of the disc 2 is inserted is formed in the plate-shaped member 8 on one side (the back side of the drawing in FIG. 1). By inserting the hub into this hole, the disc is inserted. 2 is rotatably supported and stored. In addition, recesses 11 that are recessed one step from the outer surface are provided in the upper portions of the plate-shaped members 8 and 9 in FIG. 1 at positions corresponding to the front and back sides, respectively.
A window portion 3 for exposing a part of the above-mentioned disc 2 to the outside is provided at a position corresponding to the front and back sides so as to penetrate both plate-shaped members 8 and 9 on the slightly right side of the center in FIG.

In the plate-shaped member 8 of the case 4, a linear guide groove (not shown) further recessed from the recess 11 is parallel to the upper edge of the case 4 in FIG. Further, the plate-shaped member 9 on the other side of the case 4 (on the front side of the drawing in FIG. 1) of the case 4 has a locking groove 12 at the upper left end in FIG. Is provided.

The shutter 5 is an integrally molded product having a pair of substantially rectangular flat plate portions 13 and a connecting portion 14 for connecting the upper edge portions of the flat plate portion 13 in FIG. A convex portion (not shown) that protrudes inward is provided on the. Then, by inserting this convex portion into a guide groove (not shown) of the case 4, the shutter 5 is mounted on the case 4 and along the guide groove above the concave portion 11 on the right end portion in FIG. 11a to the left end 1
Sliding is possible up to 1b. Further, both flat plate portions 13 of the shutter 5 are provided with an opening 15 on the right side in FIG. 1, and the opening 15 is located at a position where the shutter 5 abuts the right end 11 a of the recess 11. Further, the window portion 3 of the case 4 is closed, and the window portion 3 is exposed to the outside when the window portion 3 is in a position where it abuts on the left end portion 11b. Further, in the connecting portion 14 of the shutter 5,
A locking piece 16 having a shape that extends leftward after extending downward in FIG. 1 is provided.

Next, the spring 6 will be described mainly with reference to FIGS. The spring 6 is integrally formed by a linear member 6a, and has a first locking portion 17 extending linearly in the front direction of the paper in FIG. 2 and a first locking portion 17 in FIG. It has a second locking portion 18 which is provided on the right side and extends linearly in a direction penetrating the plane of the drawing in the figure. The first locking portion 17 and the second locking portion 18 are provided. In between, there is provided a spiral spring portion 21 that mainly generates an urging force and gradually expands in diameter in an approximately same plane from the inner end portion 19 to the outer end portion 20. Here, the inner end 19 of the spring portion 21 faces toward the first locking portion 17 and the outer end 20 located at the lower end in FIG. 2 faces toward the second locking portion 18. On the inner end 1
It is wound three times counterclockwise in FIG. 2 from 9 to the outer end portion 20, and the inner end portion 19 and the first locking portion 17 of the spring portion 21 are arranged on the front surface of the spring portion 21 in FIG. The first arm portion 22 is connected with a substantially linear first arm portion 22 extending along the outer end portion 20 of the spring portion 21 and the second locking portion 18 are substantially linear. It is connected by a second arm portion 23 which is inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to 22.

Then, the first locking portion 17 is locked in the locking groove 12 of the case 4 described above, and the second locking portion 18 is locked in the locking piece 16 of the shutter 5 described above. The spring 6 biases the shutter 5 in the direction of closing the window 3 of the case 4. Then, as shown by the solid line in FIG. 1, at the position where the shutter 5 closes the window portion 3, the spring 6 slightly moves so as to maintain the shutter 5 in contact with the right end portion 11a of the recess 11 in FIG. When the shutter 5 is deformed to generate a slight biasing force and is moved by an external force to a position where the shutter 5 is opened as shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. 1, the spring 6 is greatly moved by the movement of the locking piece 16. The biasing force is increased so as to return the shutter 5 to the position where it is deformed and closes the window 3.

According to the disk cartridge 1 described above, the spring portion 21 of the spring 6 has a spiral shape in which the diameter gradually increases in the same plane from the inner end portion 19 to the outer end portion 20. Even if the wire diameter of the linear member for forming is increased, basically only the increase in the wire diameter is due to the increase in the thickness of the spring portion 21 (the width in the direction of penetrating the paper in FIG. 2, hereinafter the same). Therefore, as long as it is within the width of the space portion 10 of the case 4, the wire diameter of the linear member 6a is not limited. Therefore, the wire diameter of the linear member 6a can be increased to increase the strength of the spring 6. For the same reason, even if the number of turns of the spring portion 21 increases, the spring portion 2
Since the thickness of 1 does not change, the number of turns of the spring portion 21 is not limited. Therefore, as long as it does not interfere with the disk 2, the number of turns of the spring portion 21 can be increased and the biasing force of the spring 6 can be increased.

In the above embodiment, the spring portion 21
Although the number of turns of 3 has been described as an example, it is of course possible to set it to 2 turns or 4 turns or more.

The mounting direction of the spring 6 described in the above embodiment is reversed (that is, the first locking portion 17).
Can be engaged with the engaging piece 16 of the shutter 5 and the second engaging portion 18 with the engaging groove 12 of the case 4).

[0018]

As described in detail above, according to the disk cartridge of the present invention, the spring portion of the spring has a spiral shape in which the diameter gradually increases in the same plane from the inner end portion to the outer end portion. Therefore, even if the wire diameter of the linear member for forming this becomes large, basically only the increase in the wire diameter becomes the increase in the thickness of the spring part, and the wire diameter of the linear member is limited. There is no. Therefore, it is possible to increase the wire diameter of the linear member and increase the strength of the spring. Further, for the same reason, the thickness of the spring portion does not change even if the number of turns of the spring portion increases, so that the number of turns of the spring portion is not limited. Therefore, it is possible to increase the number of turns of the spring portion and increase the biasing force of the spring.
This has made electronic devices such as computers smaller in recent years.
As a result, discs must be made smaller and thinner.
In a cartridge, especially in a narrow space in the thickness direction
, A sprinkle that has been miniaturized without reducing the bias
The shutter can be stored securely and satisfactorily.
Can be activated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing a disk cartridge according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing a spring of a disk cartridge according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a spring of a disc cartridge according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a right side view showing a spring of a disc cartridge according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Disc Cartridge 2 Disc 3 Window 4 Case 5 Shutter 6 Spring 6a Linear Member 17 First Locking Part 18 Second Locking Part 19 Inner End 20 Outer End 21 Spring Part 22 First Arm 23th Upper arm

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A disc in which an information signal is stored, a case for accommodating the disc and having a window portion for exposing a part of the disc to the outside, and a case for moving the window portion to be opened and closed. A disc cartridge comprising a freely provided shutter and a spring made of a linear member for urging the shutter in a direction of closing the window, wherein the spring is provided in one of the case and the shutter. Between a first locking part that is locked, a second locking part that is locked to the other of the case and the shutter, and between the first locking part and the second locking part A spiral-shaped spring portion that is located at the inner end portion and gradually increases in diameter in the substantially same plane from the inner end portion to the outer end portion; and a first end portion that connects the inner end portion of the spring portion and the first locking portion. Arm part, the outer end part of the spring part and the first part A disc cartridge having a second arm portion for connecting the second locking portion.