JPH11328793A - Recording medium cartridge library device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easilily and automatically correct the positional deviation of a robot mechanism hand from a drive in a recording medium cartridge library device. SOLUTION: In the hand assembly of a robot mechanism for carrying a recording medium cartridge, a base is attached vertically slidably along a guide column. One end of a horizontal guide shaft 13 is attached vertically oscillatingly to/from the base end part of the base, and the other end thereof is attached to the top end part of the base via a spring 16. A hand section 7 is attached to the horizontal guide shaft 13 slidably to detachably hold a recording medium cartridge C to be carried. When the hand section 7 collides with a wall part forming an insertion port while approaching the cartridge insertion port of a drive to transfer the recording medium cartridge C, the hand section 7 is slid and retreated from the drive along the horizontal guide shaft 13 by a resisting force from the wall part. Accordingly, since the additional elastic pressing force of a spring 16 is applied, the hand section is automatically corrected in a position facing the insertion port.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording medium cartridge library apparatus using a standard type stand-alone cartridge drive, and more particularly to a simple structure for automatically detecting the displacement of a hand portion of a robot mechanism with respect to the drive. The present invention relates to a hand mechanism that can correct the speed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Storage and drive (read / write) of a magnetic tape cartridge (hereinafter, also simply referred to as "cartridge").
Tape cartridge library device that performs
“MTL” is generally referred to as a storage shelf for storing a large number of cartridges in respective storage cells, a drive for driving a desired cartridge, and the transfer of cartridges between the storage shelf and the drive. , That is, a robot mechanism. The robot mechanism has a hand assembly, and moves up, down, left and right while a desired cartridge is detachably held by the hand assembly, thereby carrying the cartridge. For example, when trying to drive a cartridge stored in a specific storage cell by the drive, the robot mechanism moves the hand portion of the hand assembly to a position directly facing the specific storage cell, and The cartridge accommodated in the cartridge is taken into the hand unit and held in a detachable manner. Thereafter, the cartridge is moved to a position directly opposite to the drive, and the cartridge is inserted into a cartridge insertion port (usually also serving as a cartridge entrance / exit) for leading the cartridge to a loader of the drive. Perform the operation of sending to. By the way, as this type of MTL, there is a type using a standard type stand-alone drive (hereinafter, also referred to as “MTU”) that can be shared by many MTLs instead of using a dedicated drive.

[0003]

However, such M
In the case of using the TU, it is difficult to accurately face the hand unit to the cartridge insertion slot of the MTU due to mechanical and electrical control errors and the like. From the hand section into the cartridge insertion opening of the MTU loader,
There has been an inconvenience that the cartridge cannot be inserted smoothly without hitting the outer end wall of the cartridge insertion port or cannot be inserted at all. In order to avoid such inconveniences, extremely high mechanical precision and electrical control precision were required to realize a precise facing positional relationship between the hand section and the cartridge insertion slot of the MTU. The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and in a recording medium cartridge library apparatus using a standard type stand-alone cartridge drive, the positional deviation of the hand portion of the robot mechanism with respect to the drive can be automatically determined by a simple configuration. It is an object of the present invention to provide a mechanism capable of performing a dynamic correction.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, a housing for accommodating a large number of recording medium cartridges,
A standard type stand-alone cartridge drive for driving the recording medium cartridge, and moving up, down, left and right while holding the desired recording medium cartridge detachably via its hand assembly,
A library mechanism for transporting the cartridge between the storage body, the drive, and the like, wherein the hand assembly of the robot mechanism is slidable up and down along a predetermined guide column. A base, a horizontal guide shaft having one end attached to the base end of the base so as to be swingable in a vertical direction, and the other end attached to a tip end of the base via a spring; A hand unit slidably mounted on the guide shaft for transferring the recording medium cartridge between the storage body and the drive, the hand unit holding the received recording medium cartridge in a detachable manner. I have.

[0005] The drive is a standard type stand-alone cartridge drive applicable to other recording medium cartridge library devices, so that the hand unit accurately faces the cartridge insertion slot of the drive. Settings may not be set. Due to such inaccurate settings, the hand portion approaching the cartridge insertion slot of the drive for delivery of the recording medium cartridge may hit the wall forming the insertion slot. In that case, the hand portion slides and retreats slightly from the drive along the horizontal guide shaft due to the reaction force from the wall portion, thereby reducing the load on the spring. Thus, the additional elastic urging force of the spring acts on the hand portion, and as a result, the hand can be automatically corrected to a position directly facing the insertion slot.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the spring is a tension spring fixed between the lower surface of the base and the guide shaft, and the tension of the spring is applied to the spring. The weight is set so as to be larger than the weight of the hand portion and the horizontal guide shaft, but not to exceed a force required to maintain the recording medium cartridge held by the hand portion substantially horizontal. In this case, when the hand portion collides with the lower portion of the outer end wall portion of the insertion port, the additional upward pulling force of the spring generated along with the sliding retreat from the drive causes the insertion port to be subjected to the insertion port. It can be automatically corrected to a position facing directly.

[0007]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing the overall configuration of the MTL according to one embodiment of the present invention. The storage body 2 formed in a shelf shape has a large number of cartridges C (only one is shown for simplicity of illustration), and only a part of each storage cell 2a (for simplicity of illustration). Although it is shown in the figure, thousands are usually provided). The MTU 4 (only one is shown for simplicity of illustration, but a plurality are usually provided) is a standard type stand-alone drive that can be commonly used for other MTLs, Reading and writing, that is, driving of the cartridge C inserted from the cartridge insertion port (usually also serving as a cartridge entrance) 4a leading to the loader is performed. A robot mechanism 6 (only one is illustrated, but a plurality of robots are usually provided), which is an automatic cartridge transport mechanism, includes a hand assembly RH.
The storage unit 2 or MT by the hand unit 7 (FIG. 1)
The cartridge C is transferred to and from the UTU4, and the cartridge C is moved vertically and horizontally while holding the received cartridge C in a detachable manner.
The cartridge C is conveyed between the same. As a preferred example, the hand unit 7 moves in the left-right direction as the entire robot mechanism 6 moves along the horizontal rail 10, and the hand assembly RH is connected to the guide column 11 via a belt or other known means. , Can be moved up and down. In the illustrated example, the storage body 2 and the MTU 4 are provided on one side of a horizontal rail 10 which is a movement guide path of the robot mechanism 6.

FIG. 1 is a view for explaining the details of the hand assembly RH of the robot mechanism 6. In the illustrated hand assembly RH, a base 12 slides up and down along the guide column 11. The horizontal guide shaft 13 is attached at one end thereof to a base end of the lower surface of the base 12 via a support shaft 14 so as to be vertically swingable, and at the other end thereof via a spring 16. It is attached to the tip of the lower surface of the base 12. A slider 17 slidable in the longitudinal direction is attached to the guide shaft 13.
The hand unit 7 is fixedly connected to a slider 17, and is slidable back and forth in the longitudinal direction of the guide shaft 13 through the sliding action of the slider 17. The hand portion 7 is attached to the base 12 via a guide shaft 13 and a spring 16 supported by the support shaft 14 so as to be elastically swingable in the vertical direction. It can slide up and down along the guide column 11.

[0009] As described above, the hand portion 7 is connected to the guide shaft 1.
3 and the hand unit 7 holds the cartridge C while the hand unit 7 holds the cartridge C.
C and guide shaft 13 held in
Are maintained substantially horizontal. That is,
According to this embodiment, the spring (tensile) of the spring 16 is used.
The force is larger than the weight of the hand 7, slider 17 and guide shaft 13 applied to the spring 16, but does not substantially exceed the force required to maintain the cartridge C held by the hand 7 substantially horizontal. It is set as follows.

Next, the operation of the hand assembly RH according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. For example, when the cartridge C stored in a specific storage cell 2 a is to be driven by the MTU 4, the hand unit 7 includes the horizontal rail 10 and the guide column 11.
Is moved to a position directly facing the specific storage cell 2a along the line, and the cartridge C stored in the storage cell 2a is sandwiched and taken in via a known pickup roller or the like, and is held detachably. Thereafter, the hand unit 7 moves the MTU along the horizontal rail 10 and the guide column 11 while holding the cartridge C.
4 is moved to a position directly facing the cartridge insertion port 4a. Then, the MTU 4 is transmitted through the slider 17.
And the cartridge C is moved toward MTU4.
The operation of feeding the cartridge into the cartridge insertion port 4a is performed. At this time, if the hand unit 7 and the cartridge insertion opening 4a of the MTU 4 are not properly designed and set in a mechanical and electrical control manner so as to properly face each other, as shown by a dashed line in FIG. Whether the cartridge C to be fed hits the outer end wall (the lower part of the outer end wall in the example of FIG. 3) forming the cartridge insertion port 4a, and the insertion of the cartridge C is not smoothly performed.
Or, it becomes impossible at all.

However, in this embodiment, when the cartridge C collides with the lower portion of the outer end wall of the cartridge insertion slot 4a, a reaction from the lower portion of the outer end wall causes a hand portion holding the cartridge C. Due to the sliding action of the slider 17, the slider 7 slides and retracts somewhat along the guide shaft 13 toward the support shaft 14 of the guide shaft 13 (in a direction away from the outer end wall). Thus, as the hand portion 7 slides and retracts somewhat, the guide shaft 1
The position of the center of gravity of the hand unit 7 in 3 moves to the support shaft 14 side, and therefore the load on the spring 16 is reduced.
Thus, the spring 16 contracts somewhat with a slight rotation of the guide shaft 13 about the support shaft 14, ie, an additional upward pulling force of the spring 16 acts. As a result, the cartridge C is
The position of the hand unit 7 can be automatically corrected upward so as to properly fit in a.

If the spring force of the spring 16 is set as described above, such automatic position correction of the hand unit 7 can be appropriately performed. Normally, since inclined surfaces are formed at the front and rear lower ends of the cartridge C, when the cartridge C hits the lower part of the outer end wall of the cartridge insertion opening 4a, the necessary contraction operation of the spring 16 is performed. Is more easily performed. If the cartridge C is of a type having no inclined surface at the front and rear lower ends thereof, a guide inclined surface that realizes the same function may be formed below the outer end wall of the cartridge insertion opening 4a.

In the above-described embodiment, the housing 2 and the MTU 4 are provided only on one side of the horizontal rail 10 which is a movement guide path of the robot mechanism 6, but the present invention has a larger capacity. For this purpose, the storage unit 2 may be applied to an extension type MTL provided on both sides of the horizontal rail 10. In this case, a configuration may be adopted in which the hand unit 7 is horizontally rotated by 180 ° by a known method so that the storage units 2 on both sides can be accessed.

The present invention is not limited to the MTL described above, but may be applied to other recording medium cartridge library devices that handle recording medium cartridges other than magnetic tape cartridges.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a hand assembly of a robot mechanism, one end of a horizontal guide shaft is attached to a base end of a base so as to be vertically swingable, and the other end is provided. Is attached to the tip of the base via a spring, and the hand is slidably attached to the horizontal guide shaft. In such a configuration, in a case where the setting is not made such that the hand unit accurately faces the cartridge insertion slot of the drive, when the hand unit collides with a wall forming the insertion slot, the hand unit is The reaction force from the wall portion allows the drive to slide and retreat from the drive along the horizontal guide shaft, while being automatically corrected to a position directly facing the insertion port by the elastic biasing force of the spring. As a result, according to the present invention, in a recording medium cartridge library apparatus using a standard type stand-alone cartridge drive, it is possible to automatically correct the positional deviation of the hand unit with respect to the drive with an extremely simple configuration.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view illustrating details of a hand assembly of a robot mechanism in an MTL according to a position embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing the entire configuration of the MTL.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Housing 4 Drive 6 Robot mechanism RH Hand assembly 7 Hand section 12 Base 13 Horizontal guide shaft 16 Spring

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A storage body for accommodating a large number of recording medium cartridges, a standard type stand-alone cartridge drive for driving the recording medium cartridges, and a detachable holding of a desired recording medium cartridge via its hand assembly. And a robot mechanism for moving the cartridge between the storage unit, the drive, and the like, thereby moving the cartridge mechanism between the storage body, the drive, and the like. A base slidable up and down along a predetermined guide column, one end of which is attached to the base end of the base so as to be swingable in a vertical direction, and the other end of the base is A horizontal guide shaft mounted via a spring, and slidably mounted on the horizontal guide shaft A hand unit for transferring the recording medium cartridge between the storage body and the drive, the hand unit holding the received recording medium cartridge in a detachable manner, wherein the hand unit In the case where the setting is not made so as to accurately face the cartridge insertion port, when the hand section collides with the wall section forming the insertion port, the hand section reacts by the reaction force from the wall section to cause the horizontal A recording medium cartridge library device, wherein the recording medium cartridge library device slides and retreats from the drive along a guide shaft, and is automatically corrected to a position directly facing the insertion port by an elastic biasing force of the spring. 2. The tension spring fixed between the lower surface of the tip of the base and the guide shaft,
The tension of the spring is set to be larger than the weight of the hand unit and the horizontal guide shaft applied to the spring, but not to exceed the force necessary to maintain the recording medium cartridge held by the hand unit substantially horizontal. When the hand portion collides with the outer end wall of the insertion slot, the additional upward pulling force of the spring acting due to the sliding retreat from the drive causes the insertion portion to be attached to the insertion slot. The recording medium cartridge library device according to claim 1, wherein the recording medium cartridge library device is automatically corrected to a position facing directly.