JPS59207059A - Automatic disc replacing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To retrieve a required disc from plural discs at high speed by providing a storage part where plural disc cases are arranged at intervals of a prescribed length and are stored and controlling operations of an inserting and removing means, a transfer means, and a deck part in accordance with commands of an external signal. CONSTITUTION:By the command of disc replacement start of an external device, a solenoid 56 is turned on to release a clamper 50 after a disc motor 83 is stopped. A disc 7m and a disc case 8m set to a deck part 81 are stored in a slot (m) of a storage part 9. A carrier 62' is moved to a slot (n) of the storage part, and a disc 7n and a case 8n are detached from the storage part 9 and are mounted on a carrier 62'' and are moved, and the solenoid 56 is turned off simultaneously with stop of a carrier 62, and the disc 7n is set onto a turntable 82. In the deck part 81, a disc motor 83 is started, and an optical head 86 is moved by a linear motor to record or reproduce data on a required track.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to an automatic disc changing device that stores a plurality of discs and automatically selects a desired disc for recording or playing back based on commands such as external signals. .

Structure and Problems of Conventional Examples Jukeboxes and compact disc automatic performance devices are conventionally known as such automatic disk exchange devices.

However, in both cases, bare disks are directly handled and replaced by a machine, and it is necessary to prevent scratches or deformation of the disks, making it impossible to speed up handling. In the latter case, the player selects a disc by moving the playing means, but since the playing means is equipped with a pickup,
High-speed movement was not possible due to the need to prevent vibration. On the other hand, there is also a method of moving the disk storage section, but as the number of disks increases, the weight increases, and it is not suitable for high-speed movement. Therefore, these disk exchange devices are inadequate for the purpose of exchanging disks in a short period of time.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems and provides an automatic disk exchange device that can quickly search for a desired disk from a plurality of disks.

Recently, by recording digital signals on disks,
Several types of disk file devices for filing document information have been proposed. In particular, the method using an optical disk focuses the laser beam to about 1 μm and forms continuous signals on the optical disk with a track pitch of about 2 μm, resulting in a recording density several hundred times higher than that of ordinary magnetic recording. The amount of recorded information can be 10,000 sheets of regular A4 size documents per side of the disc. Therefore, for example, 500,000 documents can be filed on 50 disks.

By using optical disks in this way, huge amounts of boat documents do not take up valuable office space.

By using the automatic disk exchange device of the present invention,
By operating a keyboard or the like on an external device, a desired disc can be searched for from a plurality of discs at high speed. Therefore, you can instantly obtain the necessary information from a large amount of information, so you can easily check documents in the office,
This streamlines work such as confirmation and investigation.

Structure of the Invention The present invention provides a disc case that rotatably houses discs therein, a storage part that stores a plurality of disc cases arranged and arranged at predetermined intervals, and an inserter that allows the disc case to be inserted into and removed from the storage part. an ejecting means, a deck portion for recording or reproducing required information on the disc, a first position for inserting and removing the disc case from the storage portion, and a second position in which the deck portion is placed, for the ejecting means. It is composed of a transfer means for loading and moving in the disk arrangement direction of the storage section, and a control section for controlling the operations of the insertion/removal means, transfer means and deck section in accordance with commands from external signals, It searches for the required disk at high speed.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the overall configuration of an automatic disk exchange device according to the present invention. In the figure, a device main body 1 stores a plurality of disks and searches for a desired disk at high speed.The device main body 1 is a device main body that stores a plurality of disks and searches for a desired disk at high speed. A replacement port 4, which is configured with a control unit 3 and built into a housing 5, is used to take in and take out the entire storage unit, which will be described later, and is configured to be openable and closable. Various commands for searching are sent out as signals from means separate from the main body 1 of the apparatus (not shown).

Since the main body of the device has a housing structure, the storage capacity can be expanded by stacking similar devices on a rack or the like.

Additionally, the entire disc storage section can be replaced through the replacement port.

2 and 3 show a disk case containing a built-in disk applied to this automatic disk exchange device. FIG. 2 shows a plan view, and FIG. 3 shows a side view. In this figure, a disk 7 is rotatably housed in a disk case 8. 6
indicates the center hole of the disk. The disk 7 is configured not to separate from the disk case due to the side wall 9 of the disk case 8 and the side plate 10 screwed to the disk case 8. The center portion of the disc case 8 is constructed so that both sides of the disc 7 are exposed, as shown in a sectional view in FIG. The disc case 8 also has an arc-shaped positioning groove 11 for regulating the position within the storage section. An engagement protrusion 12 that engages with the insertion/removal means. It is comprised of a positioning hole 13 for positioning the disc case 7 on the deck and a reflecting plate 14 for detecting the presence or absence of the disc case.

FIG. 4, FIG. 5, and FIG. 6 show an outline of the internal structure of the disk exchange mechanism section 2 of the automatic disk exchange apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a front view, FIG. 5 is a side view, and FIG. 6 is a plan view.

In the figure, the disk storage section 16 has an upper rail 17 and a lower rail 18, each having a plurality of grooves 16 formed at a constant pitch, fixed by side plates 19 and 20 at an interval slightly larger than the outer diameter of the disk case 8. It is attached to the board 21. The disc case 8 is housed in a slot narrowed by two upper and lower partition plates 22, and the surface of the groove 16 is coated with Teflon in order to reduce friction when inserting and removing the disc case 8. has been done. On the upper rail 17, as shown in FIG. 5, positioning rollers 24 supported by leaf springs 23 are arranged in each groove 16 of the upper rail 1. The positioning roller 24 is connected to the groove 1 of the upper rail 1γ.
6 and engages with the positioning groove 11 of the disc case 8 to regulate the position of the disc case 8 within the storage section 15. The lower rail 18 has a detection hole 25 for confirming that the disc case 8 is positioned at a predetermined position in the storage section 15, and detects the light of a reflective photosensor 8o placed on a moving means to be described later. However, the position of the disc case 8 is confirmed by being returned by the reflecting plate 14.

Place the disc case 8 against the disc case storage section 15,
An insertion/removal section 26 serving as an insertion/removal means is mounted on the carrier board 2. A movable body 30 with an engaging claw 29 coupled to a sliding guide 28 fixed to a carrier substrate 27
moves in the direction of arrow A. The engaging claw 29 is for engaging the protrusion 12 of the disc case 8 and transporting the disc case 8. The engaging pawl 29 is fixed to the carrier substrate 27 and is driven by a motor 31 via a wire 32. The wire 32 is stretched between a motor pulley 33 connected to the motor, a relay pulley 34 attached to the carrier board 27, and fixed to the engaging claw 29.

The upper drawer rail 36 and the lower drawer rail 36 are guides when pulling out the disk case 8 from the disk case storage section 15, and are installed at the same height as the upper rail 17 and the lower rail 18, respectively, and are connected to the carrier board 27 and the support column. 3γ, fixed at 38. The upper rail 35 and the lower rail 36 have extra edition fittings 41a.

41 b, 41 Q, 41 d and elastic body 42a
, 42by42C, side guide 43 via 42d
．． 44 is installed. In addition, the upper drawer rail 35
At the top, a positioning roller 45 for positioning the disk case 8 is supported by a leaf spring 46 and intervenes in a hole 47 of the upper drawer rail.

The operation of the insertion/removal section 26 in this configuration will be explained with reference to FIG. 7. The disk case 8 is stored at a predetermined position in the storage section 15. In this case, the engaging claw 29' is located at the center of the groove 12a of the protrusion 12 of the disc case 8.

In the figure, the engaging claw 2σ moves in the force direction of arrow A' to transport the disk case 8. At the position where the disk case 8 is detached from the disk case storage section 15, the shielding plate 39 attached to the movable body 30 closes off the photocoupler 4Q, and the motor 3
1. At the stopped position, the engaging claw 29 and the projection 12' are in contact with each other, but the positioning roller 45 engages with the positioning groove 11 of the disc case 8, and the disc case 8 is moved in the direction indicated by the arrow A'. The disk case 8 is moved to a predetermined position and the operation of pulling out the disk case 8 is completed. Further, when storing the drawer disc case 8 in the disc case storage section 16, the operation is similar to the above-mentioned pull-out operation, and the engaging claw 29
Move the photocoupler 48 in the direction of arrow A'', and connect the photocoupler 48 to the shielding plate 39'.
Disk case 8 is stopped by stopping at the closed position.
', (broken line) to the position of disk case 8 (solid line). In Figure 4, Figure 5, and Figure 6 □□□□
□□□ A clamp portion 49 is arranged on each of the pillars 37 and 38, and a clamper 50 fixes the disk to a turntable to be described later.A shaft 51 is fixed to the clamper 50. A spring 52 and a thrust bearing 59 are inserted into the shaft 51, and the clamper 50 moves the spring 5 in the direction of arrow B'.
2 is in a negative position. The shaft 51 passes through the clamp substrate 53, and a stopper 54 is fixed thereto. A release block 55 for releasing the clamp is fitted into the clamp shaft 51, and the release lever 57 engaged with the solenoid 56 and the pin 58 fixed to the release block 56 are engaged, so that the solenoid 56
As a result of this attraction, the release lever 57 rotates in the direction of arrow C around the rotation shaft 6o.

Therefore, the spring 52 is compressed and the clamper 50 moves in the direction of the arrow BN. When the solenoid 56 is turned off, the clamper 50 returns to the direction of arrow B'. The damper 61 is for slowing down the return speed when the solenoid 66 is turned off, and is for preventing impact force from being applied to the disk when the disk is clamped, which will be described later.

The carrier 1 gloss 62 on which the above-mentioned insertion/removal portion 26 is mounted is driven by a carrier driving motor 63 via a wire 64 in the direction of arrow B, which is the direction in which the disk cases in the disk case storage section 15 are arranged. The sliding guide 65 is fixed to the substrate 21 in parallel to the direction of arrow B, and the movable body 67 attaches the carrier substrate 27 and guides the movement of the carrier 62. Wire 64 connects to motor pulley 68 . connected to motor 63 . Drive pulley 69°70 attached to carrier board 27
．． 71. γ2 and an intermediate pulley 73 attached to the board 21, and is fixed to a stopper 74 that can reach the board 21. The carrier positioning sensor for detecting the moving position of the carrier 62 is configured to move between a positioning plate 6 having a slit formed therein corresponding to the storage position of the disk case 8 in the disk case storage section 15 and a carrier board 27 with the main positioning plate 6 in between. Photocoupler 77 attached to
It consists of The carrier 62 carries the insertion/removal part 26 1
．． A first position, which is a storage position of a required disc case in the disc case storage section 15, and a second position, which is a position of a deck section for recording and reproducing a disc, are moved. At the second position, a photocoupler 78 is provided as a carrier stop position detection sensor for detecting the stop position of the carrier 62.
is fixed to the substrate 21, and when a blocking plate 79 fixed to the carrier substrate 27 blocks the photocoupler 78, the motor 63 is stopped and the carrier 62 is positioned at a predetermined position.

A reflective photosensor 80 is attached to the carrier board 27 in order to detect the presence or absence of a disc case in the disc case storage section 15. The reflective photosessor 80 detects the presence or absence of a disc case based on the returned light from the disc case's reflective plate 14 .

In the deck unit 81 for recording or reproducing required information on the disc, a disc motor 83 integrated with the turntable 82 is installed. An optical head 86 and the like, which are guided by guide shafts 84 and 85 and transported in the direction of arrow C by a linear motor (not shown), etc., are arranged on the substrate 8a. A lock part 88 for regulating the movement of the carrier 62 is located at the bottom of the deck part 81.
has been reprinted on 21st April 2015. The lock portion 88 is a lock lever 8 that engages with a pin 93 of the gear 62.
9, Solenoid 902 rotation lI! 1l191. spring 92
．． The carrier 62 is made up of a mounting bracket, and the carrier 62 is attached to the deck part 8.
1, the log lever 89 is negatively biased by the spring and engages with the pin 93, and the carrier 62 is restricted to the second position and cannot move. Solenoid 90 is O,
When the plunger is sucked with N1, the lock lever 89 is rotated, and the locking lever 89 is released from the pin 93, and the carrier 62 becomes movable.

In this configuration, the operation of mounting a disk onto the deck portion 81 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 4 and 8.

In FIG. 8, the carrier 62' is shown transporting the disk 7', and in FIG.
The figure shows the state where it is attached to the deck part 81.

In FIG. 8, the solenoid 1-56' is in the ON state and is suctioning, and the clamper 50' and the disk 7' are separated. In this state, the carrier 62' is moved to B' by the motor 63.
move in the direction. The carrier 62' is moved by the deck part 81.
When the carrier 62 approaches , the carrier 62 is moved to the second position, the shielding plate 79 blocks the photocoupler 8, the motor 63 is stopped, and the carrier 62 is positioned at the second position. As shown in FIG. 4, the positioned carrier 62 is engaged with a lock lever 89 by a pin 93, thereby restricting the carrier 62 from moving from the second position. The disc case 8 has a positioning post 9
4 and the positioning hole 13 of the disc case, and is positioned coaxially with the turntable 82.
314'4 is pushed back in the direction of arrow B'' by the disc case 8. Therefore, the disc case 8 is also positioned and fixed in the direction of arrow B by being negatively biased by the side guys 1-43 and 44 on the side of the positioning post 94. On the other hand, when the disc 7 is centered by the tapered portion (not shown) of the turntable 82, the solenoid 56 is turned off and the clamper 50 applies a negative force to the disc 7 against the turntable 82 surface, so that the turntable 82 Since the mounted disk 7 is positioned at the center of the disk case 8, it does not come into contact with the side wall 9 and side plate 10 of the disk case 8.

Next, the operation of the automatic disk exchange device with the above configuration will be explained.

First, to store the disks, the exchange port provided on the front side of the mounting device 1 is opened, and the storage section 15 in which the disk cases 8 containing the disks 7 are arranged is installed on the board 21. After installation, the carrier 62 is driven in the direction of arrow B, the presence or absence of a disk case in each slot is detected by the reflective photosensor 80, and this information is input into the memory of the control unit 3. Next, pull out the disc case from each slot that stores the disc case 8, attach it to the drawer deck part 81, play it, check the disc number, etc., and check the correspondence data between the disc number and the slot and the data registered on the disc that is necessary for searching. The information required to search for a disk is input into the memory of an external device that controls the search of the present disk exchange device, or the information required for the disk search is processed in another external memory, such as a magnetic disk. With the above steps, the initial setting of the automatic disk exchange device is completed.

In the search, when a keyword of the information to be searched is entered from the keyboard of the external device, the slot number and trunk address of the disk to be searched are specified from the external device. In response to commands from the external device, the control section 3 controls the operation of the disk exchange mechanism section 2.

The operation of each mechanism will be explained below based on FIG. 9. FIG. 9 shows the operation of each mechanism when the search for the disk 7m pulled out from the slot m is replaced with the disk in the slot n.

In this figure, the carrier 62 is in the second position, and the disk 7m is mounted on a turntable 82 and rotated by a disk motor 83. In response to a command to start disk replacement from an external device, first the disk motor 83 is stopped, and then the solenoid 56 is turned on to release the clamper 5o. Next, the solenoid 90 of the lock section 88 is turned on to release the second position restriction of the carrier 62, and then the carrier 62 is moved in the slot mt of the storage section 9. After the carrier 62' is positioned and stopped, the engaging claw 29 of the insertion/removal portion
’ move, position, and stop. By the above-described operation, the disk 7m and the disk case 8m that were mounted on the deck section 81 are stored in the slot m of the storage section 9. Next, with the engaging claw 29' located at the center of the groove 12a of the protrusion 12 of the disc case, the carrier 62' moves to the storage section. After the carrier 62'' is positioned and stopped, the engaging claw 29' engages with the disc case 8n, moves to the engaging claw 29, and stops. With this operation, the disc 7n and the case 8n are detached from the storage section 9 and the carrier It is mounted on 62″. Next, the carrier 62'' moves to the second position, and stops after being positioned by the position detection sensor. At the same time as the carrier 62 stops moving, the solenoid 56 is turned off, and the disk 7n has completed mounting on the turntable 82. On the other hand, as described above, the disk case 8n is also positioned at the same time as the carrier 62 is stopped.

Further, the carrier 62 is connected to the lock lever 8 of the lock portion 88.
9, the position is restricted to the second position. With the above steps, the disk exchange operation is completed. In the subsequent operation, the disk motor 83 is activated in the deck section 81, and the optical head 86 is moved by the rotary motor to perform recording or reproduction on a desired track.

As described above, in this embodiment, since the disk is housed in the disk case and the disk is transported in a mined state, the transport speed is not limited by scratches or deformation on the disk during transport, as in the conventional case. Furthermore, the deck section on which the optical head, which is slightly affected by vibrations, is mounted, the disk storage section, etc., which has a large transport weight, etc., are fixed, and only the carrier section that handles the disk is moved. The carrier section is only a mechanical section for handling the disk, and since it is easy to reduce the weight and there is no problem with vibration during high-speed transfer, this embodiment is most suitable for high-speed transfer.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the disks are all transferred within the same plane (no transfer against gravity), and the disks are transferred in a straight line, which facilitates high-speed transfer. However, since the disk is mounted on the deck using the disk transport operation, the mounting time can be eliminated.

As described above, this embodiment provides an automatic disk exchange device that is excellent in speeding up the transfer of disks during disk exchange in order to quickly search for a desired disk from a plurality of disks.

Effects of the Invention The automatic disk exchange device of the present invention includes a disk case that rotatably houses disks therein, a storage section that stores a plurality of the disk cases arranged at predetermined intervals, and a disk case that is connected to the storage section. an insertion/removal means for inserting/ejecting the disc; a deck portion for recording or reproducing required information on the disc; a first position for inserting/removing the disc case from the storage portion; and a second position for placing the deck portion; a transfer means for mounting the removing means and moving it in the disk arrangement direction of the storage section;
By comprising a control section that controls the operations of the insertion/removal means, transfer means, and deck section in accordance with commands from external signals, it is possible to speed up the search for a large amount of information using a plurality of disks. Waiting time can be significantly reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the overall configuration of an automatic disk exchange device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of a disk case used in the device, and FIG. 3 is a side sectional view of the disk case.
Figure 4 is a front view of the disk exchange mechanism of the device, Figure 5 is a side view, Figure 6 is a plan view, Figure 7 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the insertion/removal unit, and Figure 8 is the operation of the clamper. The explanatory diagram, FIG. 9, is an explanatory diagram of the operation of each mechanism of the disk exchange mechanism section. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Device main body, 2... Disk exchange mechanism section, 3... Control section, 7... Disk, 8... Disk case , 9...Storage section, 26...Insertion/removal section, 50...Clamper, 51...Carrier, 81...Deck section, 82. ...Turntable, 86...
...Optical head. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and 1 other person No. 1
figure

Claims (1)

[Claims] A disk case that rotatably houses disks, a storage section that stores a plurality of the disk cases arranged and arranged at predetermined intervals, an insertion/removal means for inserting and removing the disk case into and out of the storage section, and A deck part for recording or reproducing information, a first position for inserting and removing a disc case from the storage part, and a second position in which the deck part is placed are mounted on the insertion/removal means, and the discs are arranged in the storage part. 1. An automatic disk exchange device comprising: a transfer means that moves in the direction; and a control section that controls operations of the insertion/removal means, the transfer means, and the deck section in accordance with commands from an external signal.