JPH1166830A - Storage device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve assembly work relating to a storage device. SOLUTION: This device is constituted by freely advanceably and retreatably mounting an operation button 3 for medium discharge operation at an operation panel 2 fixed to the front surface of a device body 1. A guide part 20 which guides the advancing and retreating action of this operation button 3 is formed at the operation panel 2. Elastic legs 4 which are elastically deformable in the advancing and retreating direction of the operation button 3 are formed at either of the operation panel 2 or the operation button 3. A projection 5 loosely fitting into a fitting hole 40 bored near the free end of these elastic legs 4 is disposed at the other thereof. The operation button 3 is moved to a reset position by the elastic restitutive force of the elastic legs 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a storage device such as an optical disk device and a cartridge type tape device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIGS. 5 and 6 show a conventional example of a storage device such as an optical disk device. In this conventional example, the optical disk device is formed by fixing an operation panel 2 on the front surface of a disk main body 1 on which an optical element such as an optical head is mounted. The operation panel 2 is provided with a medium insertion slot 21. An operation button 3 for taking out the medium and a light emitting unit 22 for displaying a disk access state are provided near the insertion slot 21. .

Under the above configuration, the state of access to the storage medium such as a magneto-optical disk inserted from the insertion slot 21 is caused by the blinking of the transparent light emitting section 22 for guiding the light emission of the light emitting element 6 arranged in the main body. By pressing down the operation button 3, the eject switch 10 arranged in the main body is operated to discharge the storage medium.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, it is necessary to return the operation button 3 to the original position after the pressing operation, and therefore, as shown in FIG. Has a disadvantage that the workability of assembling is poor because the elastic legs 4 are formed and it is necessary to heat-weld the elastic legs 4 to the inner wall of the operation panel 2.

Further, the light emitting portion 22 is formed separately from the operation button 3 and is heat-welded to the inner wall of the operation panel 2 similarly to the operation button 3 described above separately, so that the number of parts increases and the assembly is increased. There is a disadvantage that workability is poor.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, and has as its object to provide a storage device having good assembling workability.

[0007]

According to the present invention, an object of the present invention is to provide a storage device having an operation panel 3 fixed to the front surface of a disk main body 1 and having an operation button 3 for a medium ejection operation movably mounted thereon. The operation panel 2 is provided with a guide portion 20 for guiding the operation button 3 to move forward and backward. Either the operation panel 2 or the operation button 3 can be elastically deformed in the direction in which the operation button 3 moves forward or backward. The elastic leg 4 is formed, and the other end of the elastic leg 4 is provided with a protrusion 5 which is loosely fitted in a fitting hole 40 formed near the free end of the elastic leg 4. To a return position.

The operation button 3 is movable back and forth along a guide portion 20 formed on the operation panel 2, and a protrusion 5 formed on one of the operation button 3 and the operation panel 2 is fitted on the other. It is loosely fitted in the hole 40. The fitting hole 40 is formed in an elastic leg 4 that can be elastically deformed in the direction in which the operation button 3 moves forward and backward. Gives a return force to the position.

With the above configuration, for example, an elastic leg 4 formed on the operation button 3 side is fixed to the operation panel 2.
In the present invention in which one is loosely connected to the other in the present invention in which one is connected to the other in a loosely-fitted state, a fixing operation such as heat welding is not required, as opposed to a conventional example in which a restoring force of the operation button 3 is generated by fixing one to another. Workability is improved, and parts replacement and the like are facilitated.

If the elastic leg 4 is elastically deformable in the direction in which the projection 5 projects (claim 2), the operation button 3
The operation button 3 can be mounted simply by pushing the control button 3 into the guide portion 20, so that the workability can be further improved.

The elastic legs 4 can be formed in a floating island shape on the wall surface of the operation panel 2 (Claim 3), and thus the construction is simplified. Here, the floating island shape refers to, for example, a state in which a punched opening 41 is formed in a peripheral portion of the elastic leg 4 forming region as shown in FIG.

Further, the operation button 3 can be formed of a transparent material and used as a light guide (claim 4). In this case, since it is not necessary to separately set a light guide member, the number of parts is reduced. And the number of man-hours can be reduced.

When the operation button 3 is used as a light guide, the light emitting element 6 should be arranged at a position where no interference occurs at the stroke end position on the pushing side of the operation button 3 and at a position facing the operation button 3. By forming the light scattering surface 30 on the front surface of the operation button 3 (claim 5), the entire front surface of the operation button 3 can be illuminated. The light scattering surface 30 can be easily formed by setting the surface as a textured surface.

[0014]

1 to 4 show an embodiment of the present invention configured as an optical disk device. The optical disk device is formed by fixing an operation panel 2 on the front surface of a device main body 1. The device main body 1 is substantially the same as that shown in FIG.

The operation panel 2 is formed, for example, by injection molding a synthetic resin material, and has an opening 21 for a storage medium in the front wall 23. Although not shown, a shutter member is rotatably mounted on the insertion port 21 to prevent dust and the like from entering the apparatus main body 1. Also, from the upper edge of the front wall 23, the device body 1
A ceiling wall 24 is formed on the side, and a locking portion 25 is formed on the side wall portion. The locking portion 25 is elastically locked and mounted on the apparatus main body 1.

Reference numeral 26 denotes a button insertion opening formed in the front wall 23, and a cylindrical guide portion 2 extends rearward from a side edge thereof.
0 is formed. Elastic legs 4 are formed on a ceiling wall 24 of the operation panel 2 which also serves as a ceiling wall of the guide portion 20. The elastic leg 4 is formed by forming a punched lightening opening 41 therearound, and is formed in a cantilever shape that is long in a direction perpendicular to the depth direction of the guide portion 20. The free end of the elastic leg 4 is disposed so as to substantially coincide with the center position in the width direction of the guide portion 20, and a fitting hole 40 is opened at the free end.

Reference numeral 3 denotes an operation button, which is formed of a transparent synthetic resin material such as a transparent acrylic resin, and has a light scattering surface 30 formed by making the front surface a grained surface. The operation button 3 has a cross-sectional shape that can be inserted into the guide portion 20, and a projection 5 that can be loosely fitted into the fitting hole 40 of the elastic leg 4 is formed on the ceiling surface.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, a control board accommodated in the apparatus main body 1 has a light emitting element 6 for displaying an access state to a disk by blinking and a medium for ejecting a medium inserted in the main body. An eject switch 10 for turning on a driven eject motor (not shown) is fixed. These are arranged at positions facing the operation button 3 and at positions where the operation button 3 does not interfere with the operation button 3 even when the operation button 3 is pushed to the end of the pushing-side stroke described later. Further, as described later, the operation panel 2 also functions as a light guide for guiding the light emitted from the light emitting element 6, so that the amount of light received from the light emitting element 6 is increased as much as possible, and The light-emitting element 6 and the operation button 3 are arranged such that the optical axis of the light emitted from the light-emitting element 6 is located substantially at the center line so that light can be received evenly. Further, the light emitting element 6 is operated with the operation button 3
Eject switch 1
A switch operation piece 31 is provided at the end of the operation button 3 so as to extend outward in the width direction in order to reduce the area for pressing the 0.

To mount the operation button 3 formed as described above on the operation panel 2, the operation button 3 is inserted from the back side of the operation panel 2 as shown by an arrow A in FIG. What is necessary is just to push it in the mouth 26. When the operation button 3 is inserted, the projection 5 first interferes with the elastic leg 4 on the operation panel 2 side. Thereafter, when the operation button 3 is further depressed, the elastic leg 4 receives an upward component force due to the pressing force of the operation button 3 and resiliently bends upward to fend off the projection 5. At the position where the fitting hole 40 matches, it returns to the original position and the projection 5 is locked in the fitting hole 40. In this case, by forming a round surface at the contact portion between the projection 5 and the elastic leg 4 so that a large upward component force is given to the elastic leg 4, the upward bending of the elastic leg 4 is prevented. This is an effective modification for facilitating and improving workability.

Next, the operation of the disk device will be described. When an access or the like to the storage medium inserted through the insertion slot 21 occurs and the light emitting element 6 emits light, the emitted light from the light emitting element 6 irradiates the end of the transparent operation button 3 and is guided into the operation button 3. I will Since the light scattering surface 30 is formed on the front surface of the operation button 3, the radiated light guided into the operation button 3 brightens the entire front surface of the operation button 3 to notify the user of the access state. be able to.

On the other hand, when the operation button 3 is pushed in to take out the storage medium, the pushing operation force is transmitted to the elastic leg 4 via the projection 5. The cantilevered elastic leg 4 which is long in a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the operation button 3 is pushed follows the operation of the operation button 3 while easily elastically deforming.
Does not adversely affect the operational feeling of In order to prevent damage to the elastic leg 4 due to excessive bending of the elastic leg 4, the pressing stroke of the operation button 3 is restricted. In this embodiment, an end face of an opening 41 formed in the ceiling wall 24 of the operation panel 2 to form the elastic leg 4 is used as a stopper for controlling a stroke. With this configuration, it is possible to avoid the trouble of separately setting a stopper for stroke control, and also to reduce the dimensional error because the base of the elastic leg 4 controls the operation of the elastic leg 4. There is no accumulation and dimensional accuracy can be increased.

Since the elastic leg 4 is elastically bent by the pressing operation of the operation button 3, the operation button 3 returns to the original position by the elastic restoring force of the elastic leg 4 when the operation button 3 is released. The end of the protruding side stroke of the operation button 3 is regulated by the stopper boss 32 protruding from the operation button 3 abutting on the end surface 20 a of the guide portion 20.
If the elastic leg 4 is slightly elastically deformed while the stopper boss 32 is in contact with the end surface of the guide portion 20, the operation button 3 will not be in a no-load state. The rattling can be prevented.

[0023]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, since the operation buttons can be mounted without using heat welding or the like, the mounting workability can be improved.

When the elastic legs are made elastically deformable in the direction in which the projections protrude, the operation buttons can be mounted only by inserting them into the guide portions, so that the mounting workability is further improved. When the elastic legs are formed in a floating island shape on the wall surface of the operation panel, the elastic legs can be formed by a mold at the time of molding the operation panel, so that the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

When the operation buttons are formed of a transparent material,
Since a separate light guide component is not required, the number of components can be reduced. By forming a light scattering surface on the front surface of the operation button, the whole can be made evenly bright by the light emission of the light emitting element.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a main part of the present invention, in which (a) is a view showing the vicinity of an operation panel, and (b) is an enlarged view of (a).

FIG. 2 is a view showing an assembled state, (a) is a plan view,
(B) is a front view.

3A and 3B are diagrams illustrating the operation of the operation button, wherein FIG. 3A is a diagram illustrating a state where the operation button is not operated, and FIG. 3B is a diagram illustrating a state where the operation button is depressed.

4A is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 3, where FIG.
FIG. 4A is a sectional view taken along line 4A, and FIG. 3B is a sectional view taken along line 4B-4B in FIG.

5A and 5B are views showing a conventional example, in which FIG.
(B) is a front view.

6A is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 5, in which FIG.
FIG. 6B is a sectional view taken along line 6A, and FIG. 5B is a sectional view taken along line 6B-6B in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Storage main body 2 Operation panel 20 Guide part 3 Operation button 30 Light scattering surface 4 Elastic leg 40 Fitting hole 5 Projection 6 Light emitting element

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A storage device comprising an operation panel fixed to a front surface of an apparatus main body and an operation button for a medium discharge operation being mounted on the operation panel so as to be able to move forward and backward, wherein the operation panel guides movement of the operation button. An elastic leg capable of being elastically deformed in the advancing / retreating direction of the operation button is formed on one of the operation panel and the operation button, and the other is provided near the free end of the elastic leg. A storage device provided with a projection that is loosely fitted in a fitting hole, and moves an operation button to a return position by an elastic restoring force of the elastic leg. 2. The elastic leg is resiliently deformable in a projecting direction of the protrusion, and the protrusion is elastically deformable by pushing an operation button into a guide portion, and then can be loosely fitted into a fitting hole. 2. The storage device according to 1. 3. The storage device according to claim 1, wherein the elastic leg is formed in a floating island shape on a wall surface of the operation panel. 4. The storage device according to claim 1, wherein the operation button is formed of a transparent material, and guides light emitted from a light emitting element for displaying a medium access state. 5. The storage device according to claim 4, wherein a light scattering surface is formed on a front surface of said operation button.