JPH10144036A - Disk cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically remove dust in a cartridge case to cope with dust on a discoid recording medium by providing a dust collecting part for collecting dust scattered by rotating the discoid recording medium in the cartridge case. SOLUTION: The dust collecting part 30 having a dust take-in hole 31 and a dust discharge hole 32 is provided on the outer side of a disk housing chamber 15 of the disk cartridge. The dust take-in hole 31 is formed to open in the direction opposite to the rotating direction as shown by an arrow of a magneto- optical disk housed in the disk housing chamber. When the magneto-optical disk is rotated in the arrowed direction, an airflow is generated in the disk housing chamber 15, and dust is given centrifugal force and is moved to the outer side of the disk housing chamber to enter the dust collecting part 30, and is then discharged from the dust discharge hole 32 to the outside. Thus, air in the disk housing chamber 15 can be cleaned.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a disk-shaped recording medium such as an optical disk or a magneto-optical disk used as an information recording medium of a disk recording / reproducing apparatus for recording and / or reproducing information such as audio, video or computer data. The present invention relates to a disk cartridge in which a medium is rotatably accommodated, and more particularly, to a disk cartridge having a dust collecting function of collecting dust by using an air flow generated by rotation of a disk-shaped recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a disk cartridge in which a disk-shaped recording medium capable of recording and / or reproducing information is rotatably housed, for example, a disk cartridge having a structure as shown in FIGS. Are known.

This disk cartridge 1 has a built-in write-once magneto-optical disk which allows a user to record and write information such as computer data later.
0, and has a configuration shown in cross section in FIG. That is, the disk cartridge 1 has a cartridge housing 2 formed by a pair of upper and lower shells 3 and 4, a magneto-optical disk 6 rotatably housed in a disk housing chamber 5 of the cartridge housing 2, and the like. ing. On both upper and lower surfaces of the cartridge housing 2, a head access window 7 extending radially outward from the center is opened, and the head access window 7 can be opened and closed by a slide shutter 8. At the center of the magneto-optical disk 6, a hub hole 9 for fitting and fixing to the turntable is provided.

[0004] In the disk cartridge 1 having such a configuration, no measures are taken against dust that has entered the cartridge housing 2, but only a micro-floppy disk that takes measures against dust is provided. .

The structure of this micro floppy disk is substantially the same as that of the above-described disk cartridge 1, except that a dust sheet is provided. A dust sheet is installed in the cartridge housing of this micro floppy disk, and the floppy disk is sandwiched between the dust sheets to wipe off the dusty floppy disk and provide a function to clean the disk. I have.

[0006]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional disk cartridge, since the floppy disk and the dust sheet are always in contact with each other, friction between the floppy disk and the dust sheet is caused by rotation of the floppy disk. A resistance is generated, and a large starting torque is required to rotate the floppy disk, so that a large load is imposed on a spindle motor for rotationally driving the floppy disk, and there is a problem that the motor is increased in size. In addition, because of the contact type with the sheet, the sheet may enter between the magnetic head and the floppy disk, causing various problems such as hindering the floating of the magnetic head. .

The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and has as its object to solve the above-mentioned problem by providing a dust collecting portion in a cartridge housing and taking measures against dust.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems and the like, and in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a cartridge housing in which a disk accommodating chamber is formed by overlapping a pair of shells. In a disk cartridge including a body and a disk-shaped recording medium rotatably housed in a disk housing chamber, a dust collecting unit for collecting dust blown by rotation of the disk-shaped recording medium is provided in the cartridge housing. It is characterized by.

According to the present invention, since the dust blown by the rotation of the disk-shaped recording medium is collected in the dust collecting section provided in the cartridge housing, the dust in the cartridge housing is removed. The dust can be automatically removed to take measures against dust on the disk-shaped recording medium.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 4 show a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a disk cartridge with a sliding shutter opened, FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the disk cartridge, and FIG. FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of the X-ray, and FIG. 4 is a plan sectional view of the disk cartridge. Further, FIG.
7 show a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a disk cartridge with a slide shutter opened, FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a lower shell according to the second embodiment, and FIG. It is a plane sectional view of a shell.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory view showing a state in which the disk cartridge according to the present invention is mounted on the apparatus main body.
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship among a disk cartridge, a turntable, and a recording / reproducing head mounted on an apparatus main body.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, a disk cartridge 11 according to a first embodiment has a cartridge housing 12 formed by stacking a pair of upper shell 13 and lower shell 14, A magneto-optical disk 16 showing a specific example of a disk-shaped recording medium rotatably accommodated in a disk accommodating chamber 15 formed in the body 12, and head access windows 17a formed in upper and lower shells 13, 14; The slide shutter 18 is capable of opening and closing the shutter 17b.

The upper shell 13 is formed of a thin rectangular plate, and has an upper concave portion 20a which forms the upper half of the disk accommodating chamber 15 on its inner surface.
A ring-shaped partition wall 21a is formed in a, and the upper half of the disk storage chamber 15 is set therein. A shutter sliding portion 22a formed of a wide concave portion to which the slide shutter 18 is slidably provided is provided in a portion from the upper surface to the front surface of the upper shell 13.

The upper shell 1 is provided on the shutter sliding portion 22a.
3 includes a central portion, and a portion extending from the central portion to the vicinity of the front surface has an upper head access window 17a into which a magnetic field head constituting one of the recording and / or reproducing heads is removably inserted. It is open. The inner surface of the upper shell 13 on the center side of the upper head access window 17a is provided with an arc-shaped ridge 23a extending continuously in the circumferential direction. The protruding shape 23a regulates movement of the magneto-optical disk 16 in the thickness direction by more than a predetermined amount and fluctuation of the tilt.
An escape groove 24a for facilitating insertion of a magnetic field head inserted from the lateral direction is provided in a side edge 13a located on the front side of the upper head access window 17a of the upper shell 13.
Is provided.

The lower shell 14 is configured to have a substantially antisymmetric relationship with the upper shell 13. That is, a lower concave portion 20b that forms the lower half of the disk accommodating chamber 15 is provided on the inner surface of the lower shell 14, which is a thin rectangular plate, and a ring-shaped partition wall is formed in the lower concave portion 20b. 2
1b is formed, and the lower half of the disk storage chamber 15 is set therein. A shutter sliding portion 2 including a wide recessed portion to which a slide shutter 18 is slidably mounted is provided on a portion from the lower surface to the front surface of the lower shell 14.
2b is provided.

The lower shell 1 is provided on the shutter sliding portion 22b.
The lower head access window portion 17b into which the optical head constituting the other of the recording and / or reproducing head is removably inserted is provided at a portion from the center portion to the vicinity of the front surface. It is open. The inner surface of the lower shell 14 on the center side of the lower head access window 17b is provided with an arc-shaped ridge 23b extending continuously in the circumferential direction. The projection 23b serves as an input portion that supports the central portion of the lower surface of the magneto-optical disk 16 and applies an external force for releasing the magneto-optical disk 16 from the disk support surface of the turntable as described later. Then, the side edge portion 14a located on the front side of the lower head access window portion 17b
Is provided with a relief groove 24b for facilitating insertion of the optical head inserted from the side.

Further, a space formed on one side of the front side of the lower shell 14 has upper and lower head access windows 17a,
A coil spring 25 that constantly biases the slide shutter 18 so as to close the shutter 17b is housed. One spring piece of the coil spring 25 is engaged with the inner wall of the lower shell 14, while the other spring piece passes through a slit groove 26 formed on the front surface and is engaged with the slide shutter 18. I have.

Further, the left and right corners of the upper shell 13 and the lower shell 14, which are located outside the disk accommodating chamber 15, are located at upper and lower halves of a dust collecting unit 30 for collecting dust blown by rotation of the magneto-optical disk 16. Are set respectively. The dust collecting unit 30 includes a dust inlet 31 opened on the upper and lower partition walls 21a and 21b, and a plurality of communicating holes opened on the outer peripheral surfaces of the shells 13 and 14, respectively. And a dust discharge port 32, and a U-shaped guide wall 33 is set between the dust intake port 31 and the dust discharge port 32 so that air flows smoothly.

The dust inlet 31 of the dust collector 30 is
It is formed so as to open in a direction facing the rotation direction of the magneto-optical disk 16. The engagement hole 27 provided inside the guide wall 33 is provided in the disk cartridge 11.
This is a positioning hole for positioning the device with respect to the apparatus main body.

The magneto-optical disk 16 is composed of a thick hub portion 16a formed at the center portion and a thin information recording region portion 16b developed radially outward from the hub portion 16a. An information recording surface on which the objective lens of the optical head is opposed and on which information can be recorded is set on the lower surface of the portion 16b. The hub 16 of the magneto-optical disk 16
a is that the surface on the information recording surface side is the same plane,
The opposite side of the information recording surface is formed to be thick at a predetermined height, so that the rigidity of the hub portion 16a is set to be higher than the rigidity of the information recording region portion 16b.

At the center of the hub 16a of the magneto-optical disk 16, a hub hole 28 for fitting and fixing to a turntable is formed. As a material of the magneto-optical disk 16, for example, a synthetic resin such as polycarbonate (PC) or polyolefin is suitable, but it is needless to say that other synthetic resins can be used. For example, various materials such as a glass material and an aluminum alloy can be used. As the material of the upper and lower shells 3 and 4, for example, ABS resin (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene resin), HIPS
Synthetic resins such as (high impact polystyrene) and PP (polypropylene) are suitable, but other synthetic resins can also be used.

The pair of shells 13 and 14 are stacked one on top of the other, and the magneto-optical disk 16 is housed in the disk housing chamber 15, and their contact surfaces are fused or bonded with an adhesive. By using fixing means such as fastening with a screw member, the cartridge housing 1
2 are assembled and integrally formed. The upper and lower shutter sliding portions 22 of the cartridge housing 12
A slide shutter 18 is attached to the upper and lower head access windows 17a and 17b so that they can be simultaneously opened and closed.

The slide shutter 18 has a shape (a U-shaped cross section) in which a middle portion of the strip-like member is bent at two places, and one upper surface piece 18a opens and closes the upper head access window 17a. The other lower surface piece 18b opens and closes the lower head access window 17b. The distal ends of the upper surface piece 18a and the lower surface piece 18b of the slide shutter 18 are slidably locked by pressing plates 29 fixed to the upper and lower shells 13, 14, whereby the upper surface piece 18a and the lower surface piece 18b Escape is prevented. And
The slide shutter 18 is urged by the above-described coil spring 25, and the upper and lower head access windows 17a, 17b
It is configured to close.

As another embodiment of the magneto-optical disk 16 described above, a disk in which a metal hub is fitted and fixed in the hub hole 29 of the hub portion 16a can be applied. Also, the bulging side of the hub portion 16a may of course be the lower surface side opposite to this embodiment.

The disk cartridge 11 having such a configuration is used, for example, in a write-once type disk recording / reproducing apparatus 40 which shows a specific example of a disk recording and / or reproducing apparatus, as shown in FIGS. , Information recording and reproduction are executed. This disc recording / reproducing device 40
The apparatus main body 41 and a disk tray 42 are provided. The disk tray 42 is mounted on the apparatus main body 41 through a disk insertion slot 43 provided in the apparatus main body 41.

The disc tray 42 is moved forward and backward by a tray driving mechanism (not shown) to move the disc tray 42 shown in FIG. 8 to the frontmost position, and to move the disc tray 42 shown in FIG. 9 to the rearmost position. Can be linearly moved to and from the set disk set position.
The disk tray 42 is provided with an opening 44 of a predetermined width extending rearward from the center portion. When the disk cartridge 11 is mounted, the opening 44 is provided with the head access windows 17a and 17b of the disk cartridge 11. The windows 17a and 17b face the turntable 4
5. The optical head 46 and the magnetic field head 47 are configured to be able to enter and exit.

The disk cartridge 11 placed on the disk tray 42 and inserted into the apparatus main body 41 is
The slide shutter 18 is automatically opened by a shutter opening / closing mechanism (not shown), and the upper and lower head access windows 1 are opened.
7a and 17b are opened, and the hub 16a and a part of the information recording area 16b of the magneto-optical disk 16 are vertically exposed. A turntable 45 is inserted into the hub 16a of the magneto-optical disk 16 from below, and a part of the information recording area 16b of the magneto-optical disk 16 is opposed to the magneto-optical disk 16 with the magneto-optical disk 16 interposed therebetween. Optical head 46
And each tip of the magnetic field head 47 is inserted.

The turntable 45 is fixed to a rotating shaft 48a of a spindle motor 48 fixed to a mechanical chassis. The operation of the spindle motor 48 causes the turntable 45 to rotate integrally. A magnet (not shown) is integrally embedded at the end of the turntable 45, and is chucked rotatably attached to a metal hub or an apparatus main body fitted and fixed to the magneto-optical disk 16 by the magnetic force of the magnet. By being fixed to the turntable 45 via the plate, the magneto-optical disk 16 is driven to rotate integrally with the turntable 45.

The optical head 46 and the magnetic field head 47 are structurally integrated through a U-shaped link mechanism 49 so that the rotation of the magneto-optical disk 16 and the movement accompanying the access can be performed simultaneously. It is configured to be able to. The link mechanism 49 includes a lower link 50 having an optical head 46 fixed to the upper surface, an upper arm 51 having a magnetic field head 47 fixed to the lower surface,
1 and a lower link 50 are connected to the side link 52 on the side of the magneto-optical disk 16. Further, a feed shaft 53 is threaded through the lower link 50 in a state where the axis is directed in the radial direction of the magneto-optical disk 16, and one end of the feed shaft 53 is rotatably supported by a bearing 54. On the other hand, the other end of the feed shaft 53 has the feed shaft 5
3 is connected to a motor 55 for rotationally driving the motor 3.
The feed shaft 53 and the motor 55 constitute a head feed mechanism.

By the operation of the head feed mechanism, the feed shaft 5
The link mechanism 49 is moved in the axial direction 3, and the optical head 46 and the magnetic field head 47 are reciprocated in the radial direction along each surface of the magneto-optical disk 16 via the link mechanism 49. Although not shown, the optical head 46 facing the information recording surface of the magneto-optical disk 16 is connected to a high-frequency amplifier, and the magnetic field head 47 is connected to a drive circuit.

When the disc cartridge 11 is inserted into the disc recording / reproducing apparatus 40 having such a configuration,
The upper and lower head access windows 17a and 17b are opened by the movement of the slide shutter 18, and the optical head 46 and the magnetic field head 47 pass above and below the side edges of the cartridge housing 12 located outside the head access windows 17a and 17b. It enters the position corresponding to the access windows 17a and 17b. The hub 16a of the magneto-optical disk 16 is provided above the turntable 45.

From this state, by raising the turntable 45 or lowering the disk cartridge 11, or by simultaneously performing these operations, the magneto-optical disk 16 is turned by the magnetic force of the magnet.
Is chucked and fixed. At the same time, the optical head 46 and the magnetic field head 47 approach a predetermined distance to each surface of the magneto-optical disk 16, respectively, and the preparation for recording and / or reproducing information is completed.

When the motor 55 is driven to rotate the turntable 45, the magneto-optical disk 16 is rotated integrally with the turntable 45 in the direction shown by the arrow. Due to the rotation of the magneto-optical disk 16, a flow of air is generated in the disk storage chamber 15 of the cartridge housing 12, and the air convects in the disk storage chamber 15. Due to the flow of air, centrifugal force is applied to the dust, and the disc storage chamber 15
It moves inside to the outside, and enters the dust collecting part 30 from the dust inlet 31. The dust that has entered the dust collection unit 30 moves in the depth direction and is discharged from the dust discharge port 32 to the outside.

As a result, the dust that has entered the disk storage chamber 15 of the cartridge housing 12 is discharged to the outside, the air in the disk storage chamber 15 is cleaned, and the dust adheres to the magneto-optical disk 16. Can be prevented. Therefore, according to this embodiment, the dust present in the disk accommodating chamber 15 can be forcibly discharged to the outside, and the disk cartridge 11 in which the dust does not easily adhere to the magneto-optical disk 16 can be provided.

The disk cartridge 11 according to the first embodiment shown in FIGS. 5 to 7 is provided with a dust filter 64 in a dust passage 63 forming a dust collecting portion 62. Dust collected by the rotation is collected, and the dust is filtered by a dust filter 64.
It is designed to prevent capture and discharge to the outside.
The dust collecting unit 62 of the disk cartridge 61
The upper shell 13 and the lower shell 14 are provided at the rear right corner outside the disk accommodating chamber 15, and the upper and lower shells 13 and 14 are provided with an upper half and a lower half of a dust collecting part 62, respectively. .

The dust collecting section 62 includes a dust inlet 31 which is opened to the upper and lower partition walls 21a and 21b, respectively, and a dust inlet 31 for the upper and lower partition walls 21a and 21b.
Air outlets 6 for air discharge opened to respective 21b
5, and a dust passage 63 is set between them. A dust filter 64 made of, for example, a nonwoven fabric is detachably held in the middle of the dust passage 63. The dust filter 64 is provided in the dust passage 6.
3 is removably inserted into a filter holding portion 66 provided on the side wall of the upper shell 13, and the upper end thereof is fitted into a slit 67 provided in the upper shell 13. At the upper end of the dust filter 64, a withdrawal piece 68 for removing the dust filter 64 from the upper shell 13 is attached. By pulling the withdrawal piece 68 upward, the dust filter 64 can be taken out of the cartridge housing 12. Can be.

Thus, according to the second embodiment, the air containing dust in the cartridge housing 12 enters the dust collecting portion 62 from the dust inlet 31 and moves in the dust passage 63 to form the dust. Filter 64 is reached. Here, the dust contained in the air is captured by the dust filter 64, and the air from which the dust has been removed and cleaned is sent out from the air outlet 65 into the disk storage chamber 15 again. By repeatedly performing the dust removing operation, the air in the cartridge housing 12 is cleaned, and as a result, dust is prevented from adhering to the magneto-optical disk 16 stored in the disk storage chamber 15.

As described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the above embodiment, an example in which a magneto-optical disk is used as a disk-shaped recording medium has been described. Optical disks such as disks), magnetic disks such as floppy disks,
The invention can be applied to various other disk-shaped recording media. Further, in the above embodiment, an example was described in which the present invention was applied to a disk recording / reproducing apparatus which also serves as a recording / reproducing apparatus as a disk recording / reproducing apparatus. .

In the above embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to a tray-type disk recording / reproducing apparatus has been described. However, the present invention can be applied to a slot-in type disk recording / reproducing apparatus. Thus, the present invention can be variously modified without departing from the spirit thereof.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention,
A dust collection unit is provided in the cartridge housing, so that dust present in the disc storage chamber can be forcibly discharged or caught outside, and a disc cartridge that does not easily adhere to the magneto-optical disc is provided. can do. Therefore, there is no danger that dust adheres to the disk-shaped recording medium to cause an error at the time of reading / writing, and the effect of hindering the floating of the magnetic head can be eliminated.

Conventionally, a cleaning kit has been used for cleaning a disk. However, the disk can be cleaned by inserting the disk cartridge of the present invention into a drive device and using it normally. The effect is also obtained.

[0042]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a first embodiment of a disk cartridge according to the present invention, with a slide shutter opened.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing a first embodiment of the disk cartridge of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line XX of FIG. 1 showing the first embodiment of the disk cartridge of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a plan sectional side view of a lower shell according to the first embodiment of the disk cartridge of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a second embodiment of the disk cartridge according to the present invention, with a slide shutter opened.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a lower shell according to a second embodiment of the disk cartridge of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a plan sectional side view of a lower shell according to a second embodiment of the disk cartridge of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a use state of the disk cartridge of the present invention, in a state of being mounted on a disk tray.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory view showing a use state of the disk cartridge of the present invention in cross section.

FIG. 10 is an exploded perspective view showing a conventional disk cartridge.

FIG. 11 is a sectional view showing a conventional disk cartridge.

[Explanation of symbols]

11, 61 disk cartridge, 12 cartridge housing, 13 upper shell, 14 lower shell, 1
5 disk storage chamber, 16 magnetic disk (disk-shaped recording medium), 17a, 17b head access window, 21a, 21b partition wall, 30, 62 dust collecting part, 31 dust intake, 32 dust outlet, 40 disk recording Playback device (disc recording and / or
Or playback device), 45 turntable, 46 optical head, 47 magnetic field head, 63 dust path,
64 dust filter, 65 air outlet

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A disk cartridge comprising: a cartridge housing in which a disk housing is formed by stacking a pair of shells; and a disk-shaped recording medium rotatably housed in the disk housing. A disk cartridge, further comprising a dust collecting portion for collecting dust blown by rotation of the disk-shaped recording medium in the cartridge housing. 2. The disk cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the dust collecting portion is provided outside a partition wall forming the disk storage chamber, a dust intake port is provided in the partition wall, and a dust intake portion is provided in a depth portion. A disc cartridge having a dust outlet. 3. The disk cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the dust collecting portion is provided outside a partition wall forming the disk storage chamber, and a dust inlet and a dust outlet are provided in the partition wall. And a dust filter provided in the dust passage.