JPH10320952A - Disk cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To set the disk cartridge inserting direction to any one or both directions of orthogonal directions by mounting a rotating shutter to rotate to the cartridge cabinet and forming the opening/closing portion of shutter almost in the shape of sector in he particular angular range. SOLUTION: The apertures 11a, 11b through which the head of a pickup device to record and/or reproduce information to/from a disk type storage medium are placed are provided to the cartridge cabinet 10 in two areas in the direction coming close to the pickup device and in the direction orthogonal to this direction. The rotating shutter 12 is provided to rotate to the cartridge cabinet 10 and the opening/closing plate 12 of rotating shutter 12 is formed in the shape of sector having the angular range of 90 degrees or the angle exceeding 90 degrees in the circumference direction. Thereby, any one of the two apertures 11a, 11b is selectively opened by normally or inversely rotating the rotating shutter 12.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a disk-shaped storage medium such as an optical disk or a magnetic disk used as an information storage 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 stored in a cartridge housing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a disk cartridge in which a disk-shaped storage medium capable of recording and / or reproducing information is rotatably housed in a cartridge housing,
For example, those shown in FIGS. 16 and 17 are known. The disk cartridge shown in FIG. 16 is a 3.5-inch floppy disk having a flexible storage disk, and the disk cartridge shown in FIG. 17 is a so-called mini disk having a hard storage disk.

A floppy disk FD shown in FIG. 16 and a mini disk MD shown in FIG. 17 have cartridge housings 1 and 2 formed by overlapping upper and lower halves 1a and 1b and 2a and 2b. The storage disks D1,
D2 is rotatably housed. Openings 3a and 3b for exposing a part of the storage disks D1 and D2 are provided near one side of the cartridge housings 1 and 2, respectively. Opening and closing are possible by slide shutters 4a and 4b held slidably at 1 and 2, respectively. These slide shutters 4a and 4b are urged by a spring not shown in the figure, and are normally in the opening 3
a, 3b are closed.

[0004] As described above, the floppy disk FD and the mini disk MD have substantially the same structure, but are configured so that the moving directions of the slide shutters 4a and 4b are different. An arrow E1 provided on the cartridge housing 1 of the floppy disk FD indicates a direction in which the floppy disk FD is inserted into the floppy disk recording / reproducing device, and a triangular arrow E2 provided on the cartridge housing 2 of the mini disk MD. Indicates the direction in which the mini-disc MD is inserted into the mini-disc recording / reproducing apparatus.

As shown in FIG. 16, the slide shutter 4a of the floppy disk FD
The slide shutter 4a is configured to move in a direction perpendicular to the insertion direction of D, and the movement of the slide shutter 4a opens and closes a rectangular opening 3a long in the insertion direction. Further, as shown in FIG. 17, the slide shutter 4b of the mini-disc MD is configured to move in the same direction as the insertion direction of the mini-disc MD.
The movement of the slide shutter 4b opens and closes a rectangular opening 3b which is long in a direction orthogonal to the insertion direction.

[0006]

However, in such a conventional disk cartridge, in the case of the floppy disk FD, the opening 3a opened and closed by the slide shutter 4a has a rectangular shape long in the insertion direction. The floppy disk FD
Is inevitably used as a structure of a drive device in which a cartridge insertion slot, a disk rotation drive mechanism, and a pickup device are arranged in a line. For this reason, it is convenient to incorporate this drive device into a personal computer, for example, because the depth is increased without taking much width. However, a portable floppy disk recording / reproducing device is When used as, there is a problem that the length in the depth direction becomes long.

On the other hand, in the latter case of the mini disc MD, the mini disc MD is used because the opening 3b opened and closed by the slide shutter 4b is a long rectangle in the direction perpendicular to the insertion direction. As a structure of the drive device, the pickup device can be arranged in a direction orthogonal to the insertion direction, and therefore, the entire drive device can be put into a square shape. for that reason,
When this drive device is used alone and used as a portable mini-disc recording / reproducing device, it is convenient because the length in the depth direction is short. There is a problem that the size becomes wide.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such a conventional problem, and the mounting position of a pickup device for recording and / or reproducing information on a disk-shaped storage medium can be changed in the direction of insertion of a disk cartridge. It is an object of the present invention to provide a disk cartridge suitable for use in such a drive device, which can be arranged in one or both of the same direction and the direction orthogonal to the same.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems and the like, and in order to achieve the above object, a shutter is rotatably mounted on a cartridge housing, and
Open and close the shutter to open and close the opening in the circumferential direction 9
It is characterized by being formed in a substantially sector shape having an angle range exceeding 0 ° or 90 °.

According to the present invention, as described above, the position of the pickup device is arranged in both the same direction and the direction orthogonal to the insertion direction of the disk cartridge and simultaneously in two directions. You can also. Therefore, a disk cartridge which is suitable for use in a drive device incorporated and used in a personal computer and which is suitable for use alone as a portable disk recording / reproducing device is obtained.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 to 10 show a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a disk cartridge viewed from a lower surface side, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a disk cartridge viewed from an upper surface side, FIG. 3 is a bottom view, and FIG. FIG. 5 is an explanatory view in which a part of the shutter is rotated clockwise from the state in FIG. 1; FIG. 5 is an explanatory view in which a main part in FIG. Illustrated illustration, FIG.
FIG. 8 is an explanatory view in which a main part of FIG. 6 is enlarged and partially sectioned, FIG. 8 is an explanatory view showing a state in which the shutter is rotated counterclockwise from the state of FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 10 is a sectional view taken along line A-B of FIG. 3.

FIGS. 11 to 14 show a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a disk cartridge viewed from the lower side, and FIG. 12 is a perspective view of the disk cartridge viewed from the upper side. FIG. 13 is an explanatory view showing a state in which the shutter is rotated counterclockwise from the state of FIG. 11, and FIG. 14 is an enlarged sectional view of a main part of FIG. Also,
FIG. 15 is a perspective view showing a disk recording / reproducing apparatus using the disk cartridge according to the first example.

The disk cartridge KD according to the first example shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 is a disk cartridge using an optical disk D for both recording and reproduction as a specific example of a disk-shaped storage medium. This disk cartridge KD is
A cartridge housing 10 formed by stacking a pair of upper shell and lower shell, an optical disk D rotatably stored in a disk storage chamber formed in the cartridge housing 10, and a cartridge housing 10. A rotary shutter 12 and the like that can open and close the opening 11 for head access provided are provided.

The cartridge housing 10 is formed of a thin box having a substantially quadrangular planar shape. As shown in FIG. 2, the cartridge housing 10 is mounted on a disk recording / reproducing apparatus at the front center of the upper surface of the cartridge housing 10. Disk cartridge K
An insertion direction indicating arrow 13 indicating the insertion direction X of D is provided. A relatively large arc portion 10a is provided on both front sides in a direction Y orthogonal to the insertion direction X of the cartridge housing 10.
The front and rear of the cartridge housing 10 can also be determined based on the presence or absence of the arc portion 10a. A guide groove 14 for preventing erroneous insertion when the cartridge case 10 is mounted on a disk recording / reproducing apparatus is provided on one side surface of the cartridge housing 10 so as to extend in the front-rear direction which is the insertion direction X. .

Further, a label sticking portion 15 having a predetermined width extending from the upper surface to the lower surface via the back surface is provided at the rear central portion of the cartridge housing 10. And the label sticking unit 1
On one side of 5, an erroneous erasure prevention unit 16 for preventing erroneous erasure of information recorded on the optical disc D is provided.
The erroneous erasure prevention section 16 has a through hole 17 penetrating the upper and lower surfaces of the cartridge housing 10 and a movable piece 18 fitted and held in the through hole 17 so as to be slidable in the front-rear direction. By moving the piece 18 in the front-back direction,
It is possible to selectively switch between a state in which writing on the optical disk D is possible and a state in which writing is disabled.

As shown in FIG. 1, a substantially fan-shaped opening window 20 is provided substantially at the center of the lower surface of the cartridge housing 10. The opening window 20 has a fan shape slightly larger than 180 °, and a key portion of the fan is set at a substantially central portion of the cartridge housing 10. Both end edges 20 a of the fan are inserted in the insertion direction X. Are set so as to intersect at an angle of approximately 45 °. In relation to this opening window 20, a predetermined portion extending from the outer peripheral edge of the opening window 20 to the front surface and a halfway portion of the side surface is provided at a substantially central portion of the front surface of the cartridge housing 10 and a substantially central portion of the side surface with the guide groove 14. A front notch 10b and a lateral notch 10c having a width are provided. Therefore, the two notches 10b and 10c are installed at an angle of about 90 ° about the central portion of the fan of the opening window 20 as a center.

A substantially semicircular interior cover 21 which is slightly smaller than the opening window 20 and has a similar development angle is provided in the opening window 20 of the cartridge housing 10. The interior cover 21 includes a substantially semicircular lower surface plate 21a and an outer peripheral surface plate 21b that is raised continuously from the outer peripheral edge of the lower surface plate 21a. A bearing hole 21c for rotatably supporting the rotary shutter 12 is provided in a portion of the lower surface plate 21a of the interior cover 21 which is a main part of a fan. Then, the inner edge of the outer peripheral surface plate 21b is adhered to the inner surface of the upper half by a fixing means such as an adhesive (otherwise, the contact surface may be welded and fixed) so that the inner cover 21 is attached to the cartridge. It is configured integrally with the housing 10.

The above-described disk storage chamber is formed between the inner surface of the interior cover 21 and the inner surface of the cartridge housing 10. In the disk storage chamber, the optical disk D is provided with predetermined gaps in the vertical and diametric directions. Opened and rotatably housed. At positions of the interior cover 21 corresponding to the two notches 10b and 10c provided in the cartridge housing 10, as shown in FIGS. A front opening 11a and a lateral opening 11b for exposing the portion are provided. The front opening 11a and the lateral opening 11b are formed of wide notches extending inward in the radial direction with substantially the same width as the respective notches 10b and 10c, and are formed in these openings 11a and 11b. Is used as a head unit of a pickup device (not shown) for performing recording for writing new information on the optical disc D and reproducing for reading out pre-recorded information on one or both of them as necessary. Of the optical head.

That is, in a disk recording / reproducing apparatus using this disk cartridge KD, when one pickup device is used, the disk cartridge K
The pickup device can be installed at any one position corresponding to the front opening 11a or the lateral opening 11b at a predetermined position where D is mounted. In this case, the pickup device is installed in the corresponding one opening 11a or 11b. The optical head will face.
When two pickup devices are used, the pickup devices are installed at both positions corresponding to the front opening 11a and the lateral opening 11b at the predetermined positions where the disk cartridge KD is mounted. Opening 1
The optical heads individually face 1a and 11b, respectively.

A rotary shutter 12, which is a specific example of a shutter for opening and closing the front opening 11a and the horizontal opening 11b, is rotatably provided outside the interior cover 21. The rotary shutter 12 has a fan-shaped opening / closing plate 12a having a deployment angle of about 90 °, a ring-shaped rotating support portion 12b provided continuously inside the opening / closing plate 12a in the radial direction, and an opening / closing plate 12a. Step 12c provided continuously to the outside in the radial direction, and outer peripheral flat portion 12d developed to the outside in the radial direction continuously to the step 12c.
And an outer peripheral vertical portion 12e as a skirt portion formed so as to be vertically bent continuously to the outer peripheral flat portion 12d.
And

The rotary support 12b of the rotary shutter 12
The inner peripheral edge of the inner cover 21 is bent so as to be folded inward as shown in cross section in FIGS.
1c, whereby the rotary shutter 12 is guided and rotated by the bearing hole 21c. The opening / closing plate 12a of the rotary shutter 12 has a front opening 11
a and the lateral opening 11b can be closed at one time, and the peripheral edge thereof abuts on the edge 20a of the opening window 20 when rotated in either the clockwise direction or the counterclockwise direction. , The opening 1 located on the opposite side
It is configured so that substantially the entirety of 1a or 11b can be opened.

The step portion 12c of the rotary shutter 12 is provided so as to be located radially outside the outer peripheral surface plate 21b of the interior cover 21, and the outer peripheral flat portion 12c located outside the outer peripheral surface plate 21b.
“d” is provided so as to enter the inside of the overlap portion 10 d of the cartridge housing 10. By preventing the outer peripheral flat portion 12d from being lifted by the overlap portion 10d, the outer peripheral portion of the rotary shutter 12 is prevented from coming off the cartridge housing 10.

Further, the front opening 11a and the lateral opening 11b
On the outer peripheral surface of the outer peripheral vertical surface 12e of the rotary shutter 12 provided so as to close each of the front surfaces, a number of convex portions 22 are provided at substantially equal intervals in the circumferential direction. These convex portions 22
It serves as a non-slip for rotating the rotary shutter 12 in response to an external force applied from the lateral direction, and is formed as a ridge extending in a vertical direction perpendicular to the insertion direction X. The convex portion 22 may be formed as a hemispherical protrusion, and conversely, may be formed as a long groove or a hemispherical hole.

As shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 9, etc., both ends of an outer peripheral portion of a sector formed between the front opening 11a and the lateral opening 11b of the interior cover 21 project radially outward. Stop plates 23 and 24 are provided. These stop plates 23 and 24 have slits 2 opening upward.
3a and 24a are provided respectively. The spring compression pins 25 and 26 erected on the outer peripheral flat portion 12d of the rotary shutter 12 are inserted into the slits 23a and 24a of the stop plates 23 and 24 so as to be able to pass in the circumferential direction.

The interior cover 2 is located between these stop plates 23 and 24.
A coil spring 27, which is a specific example of an elastic body for setting the rotary shutter 12 at the initial position, is mounted outside the outer peripheral surface plate 21b in a slightly compressed state. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 10, the coil spring 27 is provided on the outer peripheral surface plate 21b of the interior cover 21, the outer peripheral vertical portion 12e and the outer peripheral horizontal portion 12d of the rotary shutter 12 located on the opposite side, and the upper surface of the cartridge housing 10. It is stored in the space surrounded by the half. And the rotary shutter 12
With this rotation, the coil spring 27 is pressed by the spring compression pin 25 or 26 located rearward in the rotation direction, and moves while being compressed between the stop plates 23 and 24 at both ends.

As shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, the optical disk D has a disk 6 having a hub 6 provided at the center and a disk 7 extended radially outward from the hub 6. The lower surface, which is one surface of the disk unit 7, is provided with an information recording surface on which the objective lens of the optical head is opposed and capable of recording information. The hub portion 6 of the optical disc D is provided with a hub hole 6a, and the hub hole 6a is provided with a chucking plate made of a magnetic material such as an iron plate for mounting on a turntable provided in the disc recording / reproducing apparatus. 8 is fitted and fixed. As a material of the optical disc D, for example, polycarbonate (P
Synthetic resins such as C) and polyolefins are suitable, but other synthetic resins can be used as well as materials other than synthetic resins, for example, various materials such as glass materials and aluminum alloys. Can be used.

The cartridge housing 10, the interior cover 21, and the movable piece 18 are made of, for example, A
Synthetic resins such as BS resin (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene resin), HIPS (high impact polystyrene), and PP (polypropylene) are suitable, but other synthetic resins can also be applied. Also, the rotary shutter 1
As the second material, for example, a metal such as stainless steel or an aluminum alloy having high corrosion resistance is suitable, but various synthetic resins can also be used. In this case, the rotary shutter 12 is formed of a material such as stainless steel, which can be easily bent, so that the rotary support portion 12b of the rotary shutter 12 is rotatably fitted into the bearing hole 21c of the interior cover 21. As a means, for example, crimping, burring, or the like can be applied to easily attach.

The disk cartridge KD having such a configuration is used, for example, in a disk recording / reproducing apparatus 30 having an external configuration as shown in FIG. The disc recording / reproducing apparatus 30 has an apparatus main body 3 having a cartridge insertion port 31 into which a disc cartridge KD is inserted.
2 is provided. Inside the apparatus main body 32, there is provided a cartridge loading mechanism for transporting the inserted disk cartridge KD to a predetermined position for positioning and holding. The cartridge loading mechanism has a shutter rotation for rotating the rotary shutter 12. A roller 33 or 34 is provided.

These shutter rotating rollers 33, 34
When only one pickup device is used, only one of them is sufficient. When the front opening 11a is used, the front opening 11a is disposed in front of the disk cartridge KD and is used. If you use
It is used by being arranged on the side surface of the disk cartridge KD. On the other hand, when the disk recording / reproducing device 30 uses two pickup devices, both the shutter rotating rollers 33 and 34 are used.

The disk cartridge KD is conveyed to a predetermined position on the shutter rotating roller 33 or 34, and is held in the cartridge housing 1.
The shutter rotation roller 33 is provided in the front notch portion 10b of 0.
Further, a shutter rotation roller 34 enters into the lateral cutout portion 10 c of the cartridge housing 10 and comes into contact with the outer peripheral vertical portion 12 e of the rotary shutter 12. After the disc cartridge KD is mounted, the rotary shutter 12 is rotated by a drive mechanism (not shown) to rotate the rotary shutter 12 as described later, and the front opening 11a and the horizontal opening Part 11b
Are selectively opened and closed.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the disk cartridge KD before being mounted on the disk recording / reproducing apparatus 30 has a rotary shutter 1 by the action of a coil spring 27.
2 is located at a neutral position at the center, and at this time, the front opening 11a and the lateral opening 11b are both closed.

From this state, the disk cartridge KD
6 and 7, when the rotary shutter 12 is rotated clockwise as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the two springs provided integrally with the rotary shutter 12 are rotated. The compression pins 25 and 26 are similarly rotated clockwise. As a result, the front spring compression pin 25 is turned into the slit 23a of the stop plate 23 on the front opening 11a side.
At the same time, the horizontal spring compression pin 26 enters the coil spring 27 side from the slit 24a of the stop plate 24 on the side of the horizontal opening 11b.

At this time, since the front stop plate 23 supporting one end of the coil spring 27 holding the rotary shutter 12 at the neutral position does not move, the coil spring 27 is fixed with one end fixed to the other end. The side is compressed by the spring compression pin 26. By the rotation of the spring compression pin 26, the coil spring 27 is compressed and contracted as shown in FIG. 7, and the lateral opening 11b is opened. This rotary shutter 1
When the force for turning 2 is removed, the spring compression pin 26 is pushed back by the urging force of the coil spring 27. Then, the rotary shutter 12 is rotated counterclockwise until the other end of the coil spring 27 abuts against the lateral stop plate 24, whereby the horizontal opening 11b is closed and returned to the original position.

The opening / closing operation of the opening by the rotation of the rotary shutter 12 is the same when the shutter rotation roller 34 located on the side surface of the disk cartridge KD is rotationally driven. At this time, the shutter rotation roller 34
When the rotary shutter 12 is rotated in step, the front opening 11a is opened as shown in FIG.

According to a second embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIGS. 11 to 14, the rotary shutter 42 is rotated by about 1/4 turn to open the opening 41 at an angle of 90 ° or more. It was made. The second example is different from the first example in that the opening angle of the interior cover 44 is increased and the opening 41 is widened, while the coil spring for automatically closing the rotary shutter 42 is eliminated. The other configuration is the same. Therefore, the same components as in the first example are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted.
Modified portions of the cartridge housing 40, the rotary shutter 42, and the interior cover 44 will be described.

As shown in FIGS. 11 and 13, an opening window 40 provided substantially in the center of the lower surface of the cartridge housing 10 has a fan shape that is sufficiently larger than 180 °. The fan is provided such that the center side of the fan is located on the provided side. One end 40a of the fan of the opening window 40 is set substantially parallel to the insertion direction X, and a storage portion 40b into which the leading portion 42 of the rotary shutter 12 fits is provided on the outer peripheral side. .

A substantially semicircular interior cover 21 which is slightly smaller than the opening window 40 and has a similar development angle is provided in the opening window 40 of the cartridge housing 10. The lower plate 21a of FIG.
A fan-shaped opening 41 having a deployment angle of 0 ° is provided. One end of the opening 41 in the circumferential direction is set substantially parallel to the insertion direction X, and the other end is set to a direction Y orthogonal to the insertion direction X. The other edge of the opening 41 communicates with a lateral notch 10 c provided on the side surface of the cartridge housing 10.

The opening / closing plate 12a of the rotary shutter 12 has a shape such that the leading portion 42 is added to the rotary shutter 12 of the first example described above. And the outer peripheral vertical portion 12
On the other hand, a serrated convex portion 43 is provided on the entire outer peripheral edge of the outer peripheral horizontal portion 12d, and the shutter rotating roller 34 is brought into contact with the convex portion 43 so that the rotary shutter 12 is rotated by about 1/4 turn. It is configured to be able to. 13 and 14 when the rotary shutter 12 is completely opened.
As shown in FIG. 7, the convex portion 43 set up to the leading end of the leading portion 42 of the rotary shutter 12 is exposed in the horizontal notch 10c and comes into contact with the shutter rotating roller 34.

According to the second example of the present invention having such a configuration, the shutter rotating roller 34 is driven to rotate the rotary shutter 12, so that the opening shown in FIG. FIG.
Can be selectively taken as shown in FIG. In particular, according to the second example, the opening 41 is 9
Since the aperture is opened to a size of 0 ° or more, the two optical heads of the two optical pickup devices face the opening 41 at the same time, and the information signals are read and / or written by the two optical heads from a plurality of directions. The operations can be performed simultaneously.

As described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the above embodiment, writing and erasing are performed as the disk-shaped storage medium of the disk cartridge KD according to the present invention. An example in which a rewritable optical disk is applied has been described. However, a write-once optical disk which is permanently recorded after being recorded once may be applied, and it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to a read-only optical disk which can only be read. Furthermore, not only an optical disk but also a disk-shaped storage medium of another recording system such as a magneto-optical disk or a magnetic disk can be used.

In the above embodiment, the example in which the coil spring 27 is applied as the elastic body has been described.
A rubber-like elastic body such as rubber or a synthetic resin similar to rubber can also be used. Furthermore, as an example of a method of pressing the disk-shaped storage medium to the turntable, an example is described in which a magnet attracting method in which the chucking plate 8 is attracted to the turntable by a magnetic force of a magnet is applied.
Various pressure bonding methods such as a disk self-weighting method using the weight of the information recording disk can be applied. Thus, the present invention can be variously modified without departing from the spirit thereof.

[0042]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The shutter is rotatably mounted on the cartridge housing, and the opening and closing portion is formed in a substantially sector shape with an angular range of 90 ° or more than 90 ° in the circumferential direction, so that the position of the pickup device is the same in the insertion direction of the disk cartridge. It can be arranged in both the direction and the orthogonal direction, and can also be arranged in two directions at the same time.
Therefore, it is possible to provide a disk cartridge which is suitable for use in a drive device incorporated and used in a personal computer and also suitable for use as a portable disk recording / reproducing device by using this drive device alone. The effect is obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a first example of a disk cartridge according to the present invention as viewed from a lower surface side.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a first example of the disk cartridge according to the present invention as viewed from the upper surface side.

FIG. 3 is a bottom view showing a first example of the disk cartridge according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing a state where a main part of the disk cartridge shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of a section taken along line AA of the disk cartridge shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a state in which a rotary shutter of the disk cartridge shown in FIG. 1 is rotated clockwise to open a lateral opening.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing a state where a main part of the disk cartridge shown in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a state in which a rotary shutter of the disk cartridge shown in FIG. 1 is rotated counterclockwise to open a front opening.

FIG. 9 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along a line BB of the disk cartridge shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 10 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along the line CC of the disk cartridge shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing a second example of the disk cartridge according to the present invention as viewed from the lower surface side.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view showing a second example of the disk cartridge according to the present invention as viewed from the upper surface side.

FIG. 13 is a perspective view showing a state in which a rotary shutter of the disk cartridge shown in FIG. 11 is rotated clockwise to open an opening.

FIG. 14 is an enlarged sectional view of a main part of the disk cartridge shown in FIG. 11;

FIG. 15 is a perspective view showing a disk recording / reproducing apparatus using the disk cartridge according to the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a perspective view showing a first example of a conventional disk cartridge.

FIG. 17 is a perspective view showing a second example of a conventional disk cartridge.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Cartridge housing, 10a, 10b notch part, 11a front opening part, 11b side opening part, 12
Rotary shutter, 20, 40 opening window, 21 interior cover, 22, 43 convex portion, 23, 24 stop plate, 25, 26 spring compression pin, 27 coil spring (elastic body), 30 disk recording / reproducing device, 33,
34 shutter rotation roller, 41 opening, 42
Leader

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Akira Shimazu 6-35 Kita Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Inside Sony Corporation

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A cartridge housing in which a disk-shaped storage medium is rotatably accommodated in a cartridge housing, and a head of a pickup device for recording and / or reproducing information on and from the disk-shaped storage medium faces. A disk cartridge in which an opening provided in the cartridge is configured to be openable and closable by a shutter, wherein the shutter is rotatably attached to the cartridge housing, and a shutter opening / closing part for opening and closing the opening is 90 ° in a circumferential direction. Alternatively, the disk cartridge is formed in a substantially sector shape having an angle range exceeding 90 °. 2. The disk cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the opening of the cartridge housing is provided at two positions, a direction approaching the pickup device and a direction orthogonal thereto, and the shutter is rotated forward. Alternatively, the disc cartridge is characterized in that one of the two openings is selectively opened by reversing the rotation. 3. The disk cartridge according to claim 2, wherein the shutter has two openings closed by a spring force of an elastic body in a free state, and the shutter is opened when the shutter rotates in any direction. A shutter for urging the shutter in a direction to close the formed opening. 4. The disk cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the opening portion of the cartridge housing has the head portion approaching in two directions, a direction approaching the pickup device and a direction orthogonal thereto. A disk cartridge having a substantially fan-shaped shape large enough to face a disk-shaped storage medium, wherein substantially the entire opening can be opened and closed by rotating the shutter. 5. The disk cartridge according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of convex portions or concave portions for transmitting a rotational force to the shutter are provided on the outer peripheral edge of the shutter at predetermined intervals in a circumferential direction. Disk cartridge.