JPH11288572A - Disk cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To surly prevent the erroneous insertion of a disk cartridge and to attain the safe handling by making the disk cartridge unable to be pushed into a recording/reproducing device even though the disk cartridge is tried to insert to the recording/reproducing device in the reverse direction. SOLUTION: A shutter 5 mounted on a case so as freely to slide is composed of a left side shutter 51 and a right side shutter 52 which are formed to have the nearly U-shaped cross section with a plate to connect an upper plate and a lower plate opening/closing the opening part, and they are mounted so as to respectively stride over an upper case 1 and a lower case 2, and also engaging projected parts 53, 54 engaged with an operating member P for opening/ closing the shutter in the recording/reproducing device are provided on the connection plate of the shutter 5 to perform the opening/closing operation of the shutter, then an erroneous insertion preventing mechanism is made up by providing engaging recessed parts 13, 14 for inserting the operating member P for opening/closing the shutter in the recording/reproducing device at the positions corresponded to the engaging recessed parts 53, 54 on the case side surface opposite to the connection plate of the shutter 5, thereby the safe handling is attained with the simple constitution.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a disk cartridge for rotatably storing a disk-shaped medium such as an optical disk or a magneto-optical disk in a case, and more particularly to a disk cartridge in which both sides of the disk-shaped medium can be used and the disk cartridge is turned upside down. Also relates to a disc cartridge of a type that uses the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a disk-shaped medium such as an optical disk or a magneto-optical disk has a disk diameter of 5 inches or 3.5 inches.
Inches or 6.5 cm (MD) of optical disc, 8
A plurality of sizes such as cm (CD single) and 12 cm (CD) are used. Most of these disk cartridges are mechanisms that use only one surface, and as an erroneous insertion prevention mechanism, erroneous insertion is prevented by changing the shape of one end on the disk cartridge insertion side. I have. With this configuration, it is possible to prevent erroneous insertion in the vertical direction and also prevent erroneous insertion in the front-rear direction of the cartridge. (Tokuhei 7-6
No. 6618)

[0003]

However, in the case where the upper and lower shapes are substantially the same so that both sides of the conventional disk-shaped medium can be recorded and reproduced, and the disk cartridge can be inserted upside down, the front-back direction can be reduced. As the wrong insertion prevention mechanism,
Since the function of preventing erroneous insertion is not performed in the conventional embodiment, grooves B are provided on both sides near the insertion side of the case A as shown in FIG. And was performing detection. In the case of such a detection structure, in the mold for molding the case, the joint between the fixed side and the movable side, for example, a parting line (hereinafter abbreviated as PL surface) changes, so that the structure of the mold is changed. In addition to the complexity, the recording / reproducing apparatus also needs an extra erroneous insertion prevention mechanism member, which causes a problem that the cost is increased.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate these conventional drawbacks, and when a disk cartridge is erroneously mounted on a recording / reproducing apparatus in a reverse direction, a disk cartridge which can reliably perform an erroneous insertion prevention function with a simple mechanism. Is provided in an inexpensive form.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a first aspect of the present invention is to store a recordable / reproducible disk-shaped medium in a rotatable manner, and to insert a drive shaft insertion hole or a recording / reproducing head. A disk comprising: a case having an opening such as a hole; and a shutter slidably mounted in the case and having an upper plate and a lower plate for opening and closing the opening, each having a substantially U-shaped cross section formed by a connecting plate. In the cartridge, an engagement convex portion for engaging with a shutter opening / closing operation member of the recording / reproducing apparatus is provided on the connection plate of the shutter, and the engagement convex portion is provided on a side of the case opposite to the connection plate of the shutter. An engaging recess for inserting a shutter opening / closing operation member of the recording / reproducing apparatus is provided at a position to provide an erroneous insertion preventing mechanism.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the disk cartridge according to the first aspect, an engaging concave portion for engaging with a shutter opening / closing operation member as the erroneous insertion preventing mechanism is provided on a connecting plate of the shutter. It is characterized by having a depth equal to or greater than the height of the projection. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the disk cartridge according to the first aspect, the shutter is divided into two parts, a left shutter and a right shutter, and a slider is provided on the inner surface of the back of the left shutter and the right shutter. A shutter formed in the case is engaged with an engaging portion formed on the slider so that each shutter can be slid and displaced along the groove. An engaging protrusion engaging with the member is provided, and a distance between the engaging recess engaging with the shutter opening / closing operation member of the recording / reproducing apparatus is equal to or greater than a distance between the engaging protrusions. It is characterized by.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the present invention, an engaging projection for engaging a shutter opening / closing operation member of a recording / reproducing apparatus is provided on a connecting plate of a shutter, and on a case side opposite to the connecting plate of the shutter. At a position corresponding to the engagement convex portion, an engagement concave portion for inserting the shutter opening / closing operation member of the recording / reproducing device is provided and provided as an erroneous insertion prevention mechanism. At the time of mounting, the shutter opening / closing operation member of the recording / reproducing apparatus is inserted into the engagement concave portion of the case, thereby preventing the disk cartridge from being inserted, so that the erroneous insertion preventing function can be reliably performed by a simple mechanism. When the disc cartridge is normally mounted on the recording / reproducing apparatus, the shutter opening / closing operation member of the recording / reproducing apparatus engages with the engaging projection provided on the connecting plate of the shutter to slide the shutter on the case. Then, openings such as a drive shaft insertion hole and a recording / reproduction head insertion hole are opened. That is, when the disk cartridge is not used, the opening of the disk cartridge is closed by the left and right shutters divided into two parts.
When the shutter is normally mounted on the recording / reproducing apparatus, the left shutter and the right shutter slide against each other in the direction away from each other against the urging force of the coil spring, so that the opening is opened and the shutter can slide. By effectively utilizing the above, it is possible to make the opening portion large while reducing the size of the disk cartridge, and to provide a disk cartridge having a simple configuration without increasing the number of parts.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A description will now be given of an embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 5. FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a disk cartridge 10. FIG. In FIG. 1, the disk cartridge has an upper case 1 and a lower case 2 connected to each other, and has a disk-shaped medium 4 rotatably housed therein. The disc-shaped medium 4 is a small-diameter high-density recording optical disc (more specifically, a DVD) in the present embodiment.
It is of a type that can record and reproduce on both sides.

The upper case 1 and the lower case 2 have substantially semicircular drive shaft insertion holes 11 and 21 into which a drive shaft for driving the disk-shaped medium 4 is inserted, and heads for recording and reproducing. Of the upper case 1 and the lower case 2 are, for example, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS) resin or the like. Both are connected by fixing means such as screwing or ultrasonic welding.

The shutter 5 has a substantially U-shaped cross section.
The disk cartridge 10 includes a left shutter 51 and a right shutter 52 that are divided into two parts at the center of the disk cartridge 10. The left shutter 51 and the right shutter 52 are attached so as to straddle the front ends of the upper case 1 and the lower case 2, respectively. It is sunk under the shutter guide 3 attached to the case. In the case of this optical disk, the size of the drive unit and the laser pickup is relatively large, so
The division ensures the size of the opening when the shutter 5 is opened, which is effective for providing compatibility with a standard-sized disk cartridge having a large diameter.

The shutter 5 slidably mounted on the case includes a left shutter 51 having an upper plate and a lower plate for opening and closing the opening and having a substantially U-shaped cross section formed by a connecting plate 55.
And a right shutter 52, which are mounted so as to straddle the upper case 1 and the lower case 2, respectively, and which are engaged with the shutter opening / closing operation member P of the recording / reproducing apparatus on the connecting plate 55 of the shutter 5. Engagement projection 53,
A shutter opening / closing operation member of the recording / reproducing apparatus is provided at a position corresponding to the engagement projections 53 and on the side of the case opposite to the connecting plate 55 of the shutter 5. Engaging recesses 13, 1 for inserting P
4 is provided as an erroneous insertion prevention mechanism.

In this case, the engaging recesses 13 and 14 of the erroneous insertion prevention mechanism come into contact with the shutter opening / closing operation member P and do not move the case when trying to insert the disc cartridge 10 in the recording / reproducing apparatus in the reverse direction. Further, the disk cartridge 10 cannot be pushed further into the recording / reproducing apparatus. In addition, this engagement recess 1
Reference numerals 3 and 14 denote end faces of both ends of the case in substantially vertical planes 13.
a, 14a to increase the certainty that the disk cartridge 10 will not enter in the event of an erroneous insertion. Further, the end face from the center opposite to the vertical faces 13a, 14a is a slope 13
As b and b, the shutter opening / closing operation member P is easily guided and pulled in to enhance the function of preventing erroneous insertion. The engaging recesses 13 and 14 are formed over the entire width of the rear ends of the upper and lower cases 1 and 2 in the case thickness direction.
Since the PL surface in the molding die can be constituted by the same surface, the simplification of the die can be achieved.

The left shutter 51 and the right shutter 52 of the shutter 5 are provided with a slider 6 having a spring locking portion 6.
1 and 62 are provided, and a tension coil spring 7 is interposed between the spring locking portions 6 and 6.
And the right shutter 52 are urged in a direction to approach each other. Then, the sliders 61, 62
Are mounted so as to engage with the slide guide rails 24 on the inner surfaces of the upper case 1 and the lower case 2 so as to slide horizontally.

In this embodiment, the erroneous erasure prevention plug for selectively setting whether or not information can be recorded on the disk-shaped medium 4 is not provided, but may be provided as needed. Then, in the case of recording and reproduction on both sides of the disk-shaped medium 4 as in the present embodiment, it is sufficient to provide two for the A side and the B side.

When the shutter 5 in this embodiment is divided into two parts, a left shutter 51 and a right shutter 52, sliders 61 and 62 are provided on the inner surface of the back of the left shutter 51 and the right shutter 52. At the same time, the engaging portion formed on the slider is engaged with a rail 24 formed in the case, for example, a groove, so that the shutters 51 and 52 can slide freely along and away along the groove so that the drive shaft is inserted. When the openings of the holes 11 and 21 and the head insertion holes 12 and 22 are opened, they are opened right and left so as to be separated from each other.
The distance W3 between the pair of engagement recesses 13 and 14 for inserting the shutter opening / closing operation member P of the recording / reproducing apparatus is equal to or greater than the distance W2 between the engagement projections 53 and 54 in FIG. Prevents incorrect insertion. The distance W2 between the engaging projections 53 and 54 is set to be larger than the distance W1 between the pins of the shutter opening / closing operation member P. Note that, depending on the configuration of the shutter opening / closing operation member P of the recording / reproducing apparatus, one of the engaging recesses 13 and 14 may be provided instead of a pair to serve as an erroneous insertion prevention mechanism. Further, unlike the split shutter 5 of the previous example, even if the shutter 5 is formed of a single member, it can be handled by the same erroneous insertion prevention configuration as the previous example.

The engaging portions of the sliders 61, 62 project toward the upper case 1 and the lower case 2 and are groove-shaped rails formed near the upper outer edges of the inner surfaces of the upper case 1 and the lower case 2, respectively. 24. Further, the spring receiving locking portion 6 is a portion to which a hook at the tip of the coil spring 7 is hooked.

When the upper case 1 and the lower case 2 are connected to each other, the grooves 24 of the upper case 1 and the lower case 2 are arranged to face each other, and the sliders 61 and 62 are engaged in the rails 24. The joint enters and the shutters 51 and 52
Are slidable along the rail 24. When the coil springs 7 are applied to the respective spring receivers 6 of the shutters 51 and 52, the left and right shutters 51 and 52 are urged in directions approaching each other. The coil spring 7 is located outside and above the area where the disk-shaped medium 4 is arranged, and its expansion and contraction direction coincides with the sliding direction of the shutter 5.

When the shutter 5 is in a position to close the openings of the drive shaft insertion holes 11 and 21 and the head insertion holes 12 and 22, as shown in FIG. Since the shutter 5 comes into contact with the end wall, the shutter 5 does not move further to the opposite side from the position where the opening is closed.
It should be noted that the left and right shutters 51 need not be formed in this manner.
It is also possible to simply abut the outer edges of the and 52.

When the shutter 5 is opened, as shown in FIG. 4, a shutter opening / closing operation member P provided on the recording / reproducing apparatus side, for example, a pin is engaged with an engaging projection on the back of the upper shutter 51 and the lower shutter 52, respectively. It is located inside of 53, 54, and moves outward by contacting with the engaging projections 53, 54, respectively. Thereby, the left and right shutters 51 and 52 are moved in the direction away from each other against the urging force of the coil spring 7, and the shutter 5 is opened. When the shutter 5 is closed, the operation is reversed. The left and right shutters 51 and 52 have holes 3 for fitting sliders 61 and 62, respectively.
Although the sliders 61 and 62 are integrally formed with the shutter 5 and the separate parts necessary for opening and closing the shutter 5 are made only the coil spring 7, the number of parts is reduced. It can be reduced.

As described above, one embodiment of the present invention has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made. For example, in the present embodiment, the configuration of the two-part shutter has been described as an example, but the present invention can be similarly applied to a type that opens and closes with one shutter.

[0021]

According to the present invention, there is provided a case in which a recordable / reproducible disk-shaped medium is rotatably housed therein and which has an opening such as a drive shaft insertion hole or a recording / reproduction head insertion hole, and a slidable case. A disc cartridge having an upper plate and a lower plate for opening and closing the opening, the shutter being formed in a substantially U-shaped cross section by a connecting plate, wherein the shutter of the recording / reproducing apparatus is mounted on the connecting plate of the shutter. An engaging protrusion for engaging with the opening / closing operation member is provided, and a shutter opening / closing operation member of the recording / reproducing apparatus is inserted into a position corresponding to the engaging protrusion on a side surface of the case opposite to the connection plate of the shutter. When the disk cartridge is erroneously mounted in the recording / reproducing apparatus in the opposite direction, the shutter opening / closing operation member is inserted into the engagement concave portion and stops when the disk cartridge is erroneously mounted in the recording / reproducing apparatus. As a result, the disc cartridge cannot be pushed in any further, thereby preventing erroneous insertion without fail. The disc cartridge can be used safely, its handling is facilitated and its reliability is improved. Since the opening / closing operation member can be used as an erroneous insertion prevention mechanism, the recording / reproducing apparatus can be simplified without disposing any extra mechanical parts, and since the case of the disk cartridge is an engagement concave portion on the side of the case, the molding metal Since the parting line of the mold can also be formed on the same surface, simplification of the mold can be realized, and a disc cartridge having a low-cost erroneous insertion prevention mechanism can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIGS. 2A and 2B are diagrams showing a shutter operation state of the disk cartridge of FIG. 1, wherein FIG. 2A is a plan view of a lower case excluding an upper case when a shutter is closed, and FIG. FIG. 3C shows a rear side view of the disk cartridge.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a state in which the disk cartridge is mounted on the recording / reproducing apparatus in a reverse direction.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of preventing erroneous insertion in the operation state of FIG. 3,
(A) is a plan view excluding the upper case, and (b) is a partially oblique view.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged plan view of a part of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory plan view showing a state where a conventional disk cartridge is inserted into a recording / reproducing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Upper case 2 Lower case 3 Shutter guide 4 Disk-shaped medium 5 Shutter 6 Spring receiving part 7 Coil spring 51 Left shutter 52 Right shutter 53 Engagement convex part 54 Engagement convex part 55 Connecting plate 10 Disk cartridge 11 Drive shaft insertion hole 12 Drive Shaft insertion hole 13 Engagement recess 13a Vertical surface 13b Inclined surface 14 Engagement recess 14a Vertical surface 14b Inclined surface 21 Head insertion hole 22 Head insertion hole 24 Rail 61 Slide 62 Slide P Shutter opening / closing operation member

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A case in which a recordable / reproducible disk-shaped medium is rotatably accommodated therein, and a case having an opening such as a drive shaft insertion hole or a recording / reproduction head insertion hole is slidably mounted on the case. In a disc cartridge having a shutter in which an upper plate and a lower plate for opening and closing the opening are formed in a substantially U-shaped cross section with a connecting plate, a shutter opening / closing operation member of a recording / reproducing apparatus is engaged with the connecting plate of the shutter. And an engaging concave portion for inserting a shutter opening / closing operation member of the recording / reproducing apparatus at a position corresponding to the engaging convex portion on a side surface of the case opposite to the connection plate of the shutter. A disc cartridge characterized by having an erroneous insertion prevention mechanism. 2. An engaging concave portion for engaging with a shutter opening / closing operation member as the erroneous insertion preventing mechanism has a depth equal to or greater than a height of an engaging convex portion provided on a connecting plate of the shutter. 2. The disk cartridge according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The shutter is divided into two parts, a left shutter and a right shutter. A slider is provided on the inner surface of the back of the left shutter and the right shutter, and the shutter is formed in a groove formed in the case. An engagement portion formed on the slider is engaged so that each shutter can be freely slid toward and away along the groove, and each of the left and right shutters is provided with an engagement projection engaging with a shutter opening / closing operation member. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a distance between the engaging concave portions engaging with the shutter opening / closing operation member of the recording / reproducing apparatus is equal to or greater than a distance between the engaging convex portions. Disk cartridge.