JPH076479A - Autochanger for recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To drastically shorten the time required for selecting a recording medium and the time required for changing the recording medium than heterofore and to eliminate the need of operation for recognizing a cell number again after turning on a power source. CONSTITUTION:Plural cells 13 large enough to house a recording medium 14 by one are radially provided around a core 12 which can be detachably attached to the rotary shaft of a drive part on a device main body side, and the aperture 15 of each cell is faced to one side in an axial direction so that the inserting/ pulling direction of the recording medium is made parallel with the axial line of the core 12. The core 12 is formed as a cylinder engaged with the rotary shaft, and a key part 16 for fixing and positioning in a circumferential direction with respect to the rotary shaft is provided at a part of the core 12.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a cartridge magnetic tape, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, or other recording medium, which is divided into a plurality of recording media and is detachably accommodated, and any one of them is automatically recorded or reproduced. The present invention relates to an auto changer device to be selected.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional autochanger device is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 1-159260 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 13476/1990.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3 or the like, the recording medium is housed in a rack so as to be vertically stacked in multiple stages, and the rack is moved up and down for selection.

FIG. 5 shows an example of such a conventional structure.
In this device, a drive unit 2 for recording or reproducing a recording medium is mounted in a device body 1, a drive insertion port 3 is provided on the front surface thereof, and a medium loader 4 is mounted in front of the drive insertion port 3. The rack 5 can be detachably loaded therein. One recording medium 6 is mounted on the rack 5.
A large number of cells 7 that can be inserted and removed one by one are provided in multiple stages.

The medium loader 4 can move the rack 5 up and down by an internal drive device. In the initial state, the cell numbered 0 among the cells 7 arranged in multiple stages is positioned in the drive insertion slot 3. It has become. With such a structure, for example, when 10 cells 7 are provided in the rack 5, when it is desired to load the recording medium set in the cell number 9 from the state in which the cell number 0 is selected, the medium loader is used. In No. 4, the rack 5 must be moved by 10 steps in one direction from the cell of number 0 to the cell of number 9. Therefore, there are the following problems.

When the recording medium set in the uppermost cell and the recording medium set in the lowermost cell are replaced, the rack must be moved in one direction from one end to the other end, The time required for cell selection (recording medium selection) was long. Since the medium loader unit needs to be driven even when the rack is attached or detached, a predetermined initial operation time is required before the cell can be selected, and each time the rack is attached and detached, it is necessary to wait for that time. Since the cell number is managed by the processor inside the device, once the device power is turned off, the cell number facing the drive insertion slot cannot be recognized.To recognize it again, turn on the power. After that, I had to move the rack to the home position, for example.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to significantly reduce the time required for selecting a recording medium and the time required for exchanging a recording medium as compared with the prior art, and immediately when the power is turned on. An object of the present invention is to provide an autochanger device that can recognize a cell number and does not require an operation for rerecognizing the cell number.

[0007]

In the autochanger device according to the present invention, a plurality of cells each having a size capable of accommodating one recording medium are radially provided around a core which can be removably mounted on a rotary shaft of a drive section. The opening of each cell is directed to one side in the axial direction so that the inserting / removing direction of the recording medium is parallel to the axial line of the core.

[0008] When the core is mounted on the rotary shaft of the drive unit, the core has a cylindrical shape that fits with the rotary shaft so that the position of the cell relative to the rotary shaft is automatically determined.
It is preferable to provide a key portion that is fixedly positioned in the circumferential direction with respect to the rotation shaft.

Further, by providing the core with a detected part corresponding to each cell and providing a sensor for detecting the detected part on the drive part side, the operation for confirming the cell position can be made unnecessary.

[0010]

In the present invention, the cell selection structure is changed from the conventional multi-stage switching type using a rack to a rotary type, and the cell is rotated integrally with the core by the rotation shaft of the drive unit, and the rotation direction and rotation are changed. Cell selection (recording medium selection) can be performed in a short time simply by changing the corners.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. 1 and 2 show a first embodiment of the present invention. In this autochanger device, a rotary holder 10 as shown in FIG. 1 is used as a substitute for the rack of the conventional device, and it is detachable from the device body 11 shown in FIG.

The rotary holder 10 includes a cylindrical core 12
A plurality of box-shaped cells 13 are radially provided on the outer periphery of the cell, and the cells 13 and the core 12 are integrated. Cell 13
Is provided on one side except a part of the outer peripheral surface of the core 12, so that the part 12a of the core 12 is in a state of protruding from the center of the radial cell 13 as it is. Each cell 13 is a recording medium 14 such as a cartridge magnetic tape.
So that you can insert and remove each one by hand,
The recording medium 14 is formed in a shape that matches the outer shell of the recording medium 14 (in this example, a slightly flat box shape), but the depth thereof is equal to that of the recording medium 1.
A part of 5 is protruding. Also, cell 1
The opening 15 of the core 3 is oriented toward the core 1 when the recording medium 14 is inserted and removed.
It is directed to one side in the axial direction, that is, to the protruding side of the part 12a of the core 12 so as to be parallel to the axis of 2. Core 12
The key grooves 16 are provided in, for example, two locations on the inner peripheral surface of the parallel to the axis.

On the other hand, on the apparatus body 11 side, a drive unit 17 for recording or reproducing a recording medium is built in, a drive insertion port 18 is provided on the front surface thereof, and the apparatus body 11 is also provided.
A concave chamber 19 capable of accommodating the rotary holder 10 is provided on the front surface of the. A rotary shaft 20 for selecting a recording medium and a medium loader 21 are provided in the concave chamber 19. The rotary shaft 20 and the medium loader 21 are located on both sides of the drive insertion port 18. The rotary shaft 20 can be rotated in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions by the drive unit 17. The medium loader 21 includes a drive unit 17
It has a feed roller which is rotated in the forward and reverse directions by driving from.
Key protrusions 22 are provided at, for example, two locations on the outer circumference of the rotary shaft 20 in parallel with the axis.

According to the automatic changer device having such a structure, the rotary holder 10 can be detachably mounted on the rotary shaft 20 by fitting the core 12 of the rotary holder 10 into the rotary shaft 20. In this case, by fitting the key groove 16 of the core 12 with the key protrusion 22 of the rotary shaft 20, the position of the cell 13 relative to the rotary shaft 20 is naturally determined. Then, by controlling the rotation direction and the rotation angle of the rotation shaft 20, one cell 13 facing the drive insertion opening 18 is provided.
Can be selected from both clockwise and counterclockwise directions with the shortest amount of rotation. Further, by controlling the rotation direction of the feed roller of the medium loader 21, the drive insertion port 18
And the recording medium 1 between one cell 13 that matches this
4 can be inserted and ejected. When the rotary holder 10 is removed from the rotary shaft 20, the recording medium 14 can be easily inserted and removed by making the opening 16 of the cell 13 face upward.

Next, FIGS. 3 and 4 show a second embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, this autochanger device is provided with a cell number identification mark (detected portion) 23 corresponding to the cell 13 in a one-to-one relationship with the tip end surface of the core 12, and on the device body 11 side, As shown in FIG. 4, a sensor 24 is provided in the recess chamber 19, and the mark 23 is detected by the sensor 24.
It is different from the first embodiment in that the number is recognized. In this case, since it is not necessary to determine the position of the cell 13 with respect to the rotary shaft 20, it is only necessary to provide, for example, knurls 25 and 26 on the inner peripheral surface of the core 12 and the outer peripheral surface of the rotary shaft 20 as means for preventing slippage. Good. With this arrangement, for example, the cell 13 has 10 numbers 0 to 9
If you want to load the recording medium set in the cell of No. 6 out of them, first, use the rotary holder 1
When 0 is mounted on the rotary shaft 20, if the cell of No. 6 is aligned with the drive insertion port 18, the time for rotating and selecting the rotary shaft 20 can be saved.

[0016]

As described above, the present invention has the following effects. Since a plurality of cells are provided in the circumferential direction and the selection is performed by rotating the rotary type, the time required for selecting the recording medium can be significantly shortened as compared with the conventional multi-stage rack type. Since all the recording media in the cell can be set in the main body of the device simply by mounting the core on the rotary shaft of the drive unit, the mounting is easy and the mounting processing time can be shortened.

According to the second aspect, when the core is attached to the rotary shaft of the drive unit, the position of the cell with respect to the rotary shaft is automatically determined by the key unit. Therefore, the medium loader is driven every time the rack is attached and detached as in the conventional case. Since the initial operation like that is not necessary is required, the time required for mounting can be greatly reduced compared to the past.

According to the third aspect, the detected part corresponding to each cell is provided in the core, and this is detected by the sensor provided on the drive part side. Therefore, the cell number is recognized immediately when the power is turned on. Of course, the position of each cell can be recognized after that, and the operation for re-recognizing the position is not required.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a rotary holder in an automatic changer device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the same device.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a rotary holder in an automatic changer device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an external perspective view of the device.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Rotary Holder 11 Device Main Body 12 Core 13 Cell 14 Recording Medium 15 Opening 16 Key Groove 17 Drive Part 18 Drive Insertion Port 19 Recessed Chamber 20 Rotating Shaft 21 Medium Loader 22 Key Convex Part 23 Cell Number Identification Mark (Detected Part) 24 Sensor 25/26 knurled

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of cells, each having a size capable of accommodating one recording medium, are radially provided around a core that can be detachably mounted on a rotary shaft of a drive unit, and the openings of the cells are inserted and removed from the recording medium. An automatic changer device for a recording medium, which is directed to one side in the axial direction so that the direction is parallel to the axial line of the core. 2. The core is formed into a cylindrical shape that fits with the rotary shaft, and a key portion for fixing and positioning the core in the circumferential direction with respect to the rotary shaft is provided in a part of the cylindrical shape. An automatic changer device for a recording medium as described. 3. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein a detected portion corresponding to each cell is provided on the core, and a sensor for detecting the detected portion is provided on the drive unit side. Auto changer device.