JPS6050660A - Disc device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce a device size and to speed up disc loading by arranging a cartridge storage case and plural disc driving devices in the longitudinal direction and loading one cartridge taken out from the storage case to any one of the disc driving devices. CONSTITUTION:When a control part receives a loading command by designating a cartridge No. and a driving device from an automatic device, the cartridge holder 5 is ascended or descended together with a carrier 8 and is located on a required cartridge position. The cartridge is fed from the storage case 1 to the cartridge holder 5. The carrier 8 reaches the inlet/outlet of anly one of the disc driving devices 2a, 2b. Before or after said arrival, the cartridge holder is inverted upside-down. Then, the selected cartridge is inserted into the disc driving device. On the other hand, the cartridge is removed by a procedure reverse to the loading operation. Said constitution makes it possible to reduce the device size and speed up the replacement of the disc.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a disk device, and more particularly to a disk loading system in which a disk housed in a cartridge is automatically loaded into a disk drive device.

[Background of the invention]

In 1988, optical discs capable of storing large amounts of information were used,
An information retrieval system for office use that records a large amount of text or image information on a disk and allows the necessary information to be retrieved at any time is attracting attention. In this type of system, the number of disks increases depending on the type and creation of information, so disks must be replaced frequently in the disk drive during information processing. If the disc replacement work is done manually, there will be a loss of time, and there is a risk of inadvertent disc replacement mistakes. Therefore, it is recommended to store multiple discs that will be used all the time in a storage compartment in advance. , it is desirable to have a type of disk device in which a disk selected from among these is automatically loaded into a drive device and replaced.

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to provide a disk device capable of automatically loading an information recording medium as described above, in particular, to provide a device configuration that can reduce the installation size of the device and quickly replace the disk.

[Summary of the invention]

``In order to achieve the second object, the disk device according to the present invention includes several disk drive devices arranged one on top of the other, and a plurality of disk cartridges located above or below these disk drive devices. horizontal direction C (cartridge storage that can be taken in and out, and the above-mentioned disk drive device and car); It is characterized by comprising a means for moving in the horizontal direction, and after one cartridge taken out from the cartridge storage is conveyed in the vertical direction by the means, it is loaded into any one of the disk drive devices described above. do.

[Embodiment of the Invention] Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the overall configuration of a disk device according to the present invention, and in the figure, 1 indicates a plurality of disk cars each containing an optical disk. It is a cartridge storage, and each cartridge 10&J, .

2a and 2 are disk drive devices stacked vertically below the IJ storage 1, and have cartridge entrances and exits 5a and 5h on the front side, respectively.
When a cartridge is received from this entrance, the disk in the cartridge is rotated by a built-in driving means (spindle), and the optical head writes information to the disk or reads information from the disk. is a box-shaped cartridge holder that allows cartridges to be delivered horizontally; this cartridge holder 5 guides two vertically erected ball screws (shirts) 16' and attaches them to the carrier 8, which moves up and down. Reversibly mounted. - The carrier 8 described in 1. is placed in the cartridge storage. A light emitting element 9 is provided at a part of one corner, and light receiving elements 10, which indicate the position of the cartridge, are arranged side by side in the connection direction on the side of the cartridge storage 1, facing the light emitting element. Therefore, when the carrier 8 moves up and down, the light spot from the light emitting element 9 moves, and its position can be detected by the light receiving element 10.
As a result, the cartridge holder 5 can be positioned at a predetermined position σ) facing the cartridge. The vertical movement of the cartridge holder can be controlled by a motor M I K that rotates the ball screw shaft 6.6 degrees, and the reversal of the cartridge holder can be controlled by the motor M2 provided on the side of the carrier 8, which rotates the holder spindle 11. This is done by rotating. At the other corner of the carrier 8 facing the cartridge storage 1 is a cartridge holder equipped with two rollers 12, 12' that touch the sides of the IJ joint and feed it horizontally, and a passing mechanism is attached thereto. be. Each of the rollers mentioned above is attached to the tip of an arm 13, 13' (see Fig. 2), and is connected to the clutch 14 via a belt to the CC spline shirt 7VC. The spline shaft 7 is rotated by the motor M3, and this rotation is transmitted by the clutch 14, so that the rollers 12, 12' can be rotated to the right or left.
° can be swung, and while the roller 8 is moving up and down, the roller 12 ° 12 is in a state floating from the side of the cartridge.
, C The leak cartridge can come into contact with the side of the cartridge when moving horizontally.

Next, the automatic disk loading operation in the above device will be explained. When the control unit (not shown) receives a loading command from the host device specifying the cartridge number and drive device, the motor M1 rotates and the 17 rotations are caused by the ball screw shaft 6.
6°, and the cartridge holder 5 moves up or down together with the carrier 8. During this movement, the light emitting element 9
When a predetermined light receiving element detects the light output from the cartridge, the motor M1 stops rotating, thereby positioning the cartridge holder 5 at a desired cartridge position. During the above-mentioned movement of the cartridge holder 5, the clutch mechanism is disengaged, and the feed roller 12, 12' maintains an appropriate distance from the sides of the cartridge 4 and the cartridge holder 5. When the position search is completed, the motor M5 starts rotating, and the rotation is transmitted to the spline shaft 7V via the belt.
c is transmitted. When the clutch mechanism 14 is connected, the arm 13.13° moves inward, and the feed roller 1
2 comes into contact with the side surface of the target cartridge and feeds the cartridge from the storage 1 toward the cartridge holder 5. When this feeding operation is completed, the clutch mechanism 14 is disconnected and the motor M3 is also turned off. Next, the motor M1 is restarted and the carrier 8 is lowered. When the carrier 8 reaches the entrance/exit of either the designated disk drive device 2a or 2J -j7s, the motor M1 stops. In this case, position detection is carried out by providing a light receiving element facing the light emitting element 9 on the front surface of the disk drive device, or by providing a microswitch that is turned on when the carrier 8 is lowered.

Before or after the lowering operation of the carrier 8, the motor M2 is driven as necessary, and the cartridge holder 50
Front and back reversal is performed. This reversing operation may be performed while the carrier 8 is being transported in order to shorten the disk loading time, so that either the front or back side of the disk can be fitted to the disk drive device.

When the cartridge holder 5 is positioned in the designated disk drive and the motor M1 is stopped, the motor M5 is driven in the opposite direction to the previous direction, and the rollers 12° and 12 move the cartridge toward the holder 5 and the disk drives 2a and 2J. It is sent out and inserted into the entrance/exit 3a or 3k. When the disk drive receives the cartridge, it positions it on the spindle and makes it accessible, as in the case of manual operation, and waits for the next command from the host device.

The recovery operation of the +7 disk from the disk drive device can be performed by reversing the loading operation procedure described above. In addition, the automatic loading operation of Kartorille is
Since information can be written and read in parallel to the disk, it is possible to load the next disk cartridge into the other disk drive while one disk is being accessed.

The operation of loading a cartridge into a disk drive device has been explained above.Next, with reference to Figures 1 to 4, the operator should replace the IJ screw in the cartridge storage 1. Explain the operations to be added.

Normally, the IJ storage compartment 1 is placed in the position shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, with the end of the cartridge 4 facing the transport mechanism. When trying to replace a cartridge in the storage 1, one work space overlaps with the installation space of the conveying mechanism, so there is a problem in that the shafts 6', 6.degree. and the cartridge holder 5 interfere with the loading and unloading of the cartridge. Furthermore, if the operator tries to perform the replacement operation from the direction indicated by the arrow in FIG. 1, the cartridge must be moved along an L-shaped trajectory, making it difficult to load the cartridge into the storage compartment.

Therefore, in the above embodiment device, the IC
As shown, a support shaft 20.20'' protrudes above and below the storage compartment 1.
The storage compartment can be rotated between the bases 21° and 22 using this as a fulcrum. The rotation of storage compartment 1 is
This is done by connecting the pulley 23 attached to the support shaft 20 to the motor M4 via a belt and driving the motor. When an operator operates a switch (not shown) provided on the outer surface of the housing when replacing a cartridge, the motor M4 is started, and the cartridge storage 1 is rotated 90 degrees to the state shown in FIG. 3. At this point, the interior of the storage compartment 1 is in a position that is easy for the operator to see, and the cartridge can be pulled straight toward you to take it out of the housing.
Replacing the cartridge is extremely easy. Furthermore, the door for IJ screw replacement will be unlocked in conjunction with the above switch operation, and when the work is completed, the motor M4 will reverse in conjunction with the closing of the door, and the storage compartment 1 will return to its normal position. You may also do so.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above (in the disk device of the present invention, the card)
Since the II Tsuji storage box and multiple disk drives are housed in the same housing and arranged vertically, the structure of the cartridge transport mechanism is simple, and the cartridge carrier can be easily moved by simply changing its vertical stroke. This has the advantage that the number of cartridge containers and drive devices can be changed, and the installation space for the device can be reduced. Further, in the disk device of the present invention, the cartridge is raised horizontally,
Since the storage compartment and the cartridge inlet/outlet of the disk drive device are located in the middle of the vertical movement stroke of the cartridge, the cartridge has the advantage of shortening the transport distance and shortening the loading time. In addition, in the embodiment, the disk drive device is placed below the cartridge storage, and the IR relationship between the two cars may be reversed.Furthermore, the configuration of the present invention is suitable for using storage media other than optical disks. This can also be applied to equipment.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the overall configuration of a disk device according to the present invention, Figures 2 and 4 are top views showing two postures of the disk cartridge storage, and Figures 4 and 4 are top views of the disk car.
FIG. 2 is a side view for explaining the IJ body storage. Cartridge storage, 4 Cartridge 2a, 24-
- Disk drive device, 5... Cartridge holder 8... Cartridge carrier M1 to M4... Motor. 1st closing) Procedural amendment (U2゛) Display of the case Showa Ω Year Special R' ``Gan No. /♂l ;!jJ'''
Name of the invention: ! Name of the patent applicant: ! I'l
Written by Tokoro A Rishi ☆ 4 units Embusiarin'2'' Saimakuhekai・Ode-Representative person

Claims (1)

[Claims] a plurality of disk drives arranged one on top of the other;
located above or below the strip of the disk drive device,
It consists of a cartridge storage that stores a plurality of disk cartridges horizontally so that they can be taken in and taken out, and a cartridge conveyor slide that reciprocates downward in front of the disk drive device and the cartridge storage,
The cartridge transport mechanism includes means for horizontally moving a cartridge, and after one cartridge taken out from the cartridge storage is transported vertically by the means, it is loaded into one of the disk drives. A disk device characterized by: