JPS6245354Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a tape cassette equipped with means for automatically detecting accidental erasure prevention and detecting various other tape conditions.

In recent years, small and ultra-small tape cassettes have come into use, and in these small cassettes, the means to prevent accidental erasure or to detect the state of the tape, such as the type of tape, is provided by a bag-shaped bag inside the cassette housing. In order to prevent accidental erasure, if it becomes necessary to record after the user has opened the window by breaking off the claw provided on the cassette case, use cellophane tape, etc., to close the window. This required cumbersome operations such as blocking.

There are also some cassettes that allow you to easily restore the protection against accidental erasure, but these types of cassettes require a considerable amount of space inside the cassette to accommodate the mechanism, making the cassette larger. , making it unsuitable for small cassettes.

Therefore, the present invention has been devised in view of the above-mentioned conventional situation, and provides a detection means for preventing accidental erasure and other means for detecting various tape conditions without taking up space on the cassette and at low cost. The purpose is to achieve this goal.

That is, the tape cassette of the present invention has a trapezoidal cross section in which the width on the bottom wall side that is within the thickness of the peripheral side wall of the cassette outer casing and that is continuous in the thickness direction of the cassette outer casing is wider than the width on the opening side. a plurality of grooves are provided, and a sliding member is held in each groove to indicate the state of the cassette and has a trapezoidal shape corresponding to the cross-sectional shape of the groove and has a height approximately 1/2 of the cassette outer casing; Furthermore, locking means is provided between the groove and the sliding member for locking the sliding member at a predetermined sliding position within the groove.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention shown in the drawings will be described.

In the figure, 1 is the cassette outer case, and the upper half 1A
and the lower half 1B, and a magnetic tape is wound inside so that it can run freely between the reel hubs.

Reference numeral 2 denotes a plurality of grooves formed in the peripheral side wall 11 of the cassette outer casing 1, each having a trapezoidal cross-section and a so-called dovetail groove shape. That is, the groove 2
In the illustrated example, the bottom surface 2A is formed wider than the opening 2B, and both side surfaces 2C and 2D are inclined walls that are inclined toward each other from the bottom surface 2A toward the opening 2B. Each of the grooves 2 is
As shown in the figure, it is provided within the thickness of the peripheral side wall 11 of the cassette outer casing 2 and continuously in the thickness direction of the cassette outer casing 2.

In this example, both sides 2C and 2D of the groove 2 are
In the figure, protrusions 3, 3 are provided in a protruding manner at each intermediate portion in the vertical direction, and are adapted to be relatively engaged with recesses 5, 6 of a slide tip 4, which is a sliding member, which will be described later. 4 fits into the groove 2 and closes the groove 2.
It is a slide chip made of a synthetic resin molded product that is formed so as to be able to slide up and down in the figure along the left and right side walls 41 and 42 of the groove 2.
It is formed as an inclined wall corresponding to D, and each of these walls 41 and 42 has grooves 5 and 6 carved in two places on the upper and lower sides, respectively. Further, reference numeral 7 denotes a groove provided in the center of the back surface 43 of the slide tip 4, which is connected vertically in the figure, and leg-like portions 4A and 4B are arranged on both sides of the back surface of the slide tip 4 by this groove 7. It has a U-shaped cross section and is easy to bend.
Reference numeral 8 designates a small circular recess provided on the front surface 44 of the slide tip 4, which serves as an engaging portion that can be engaged with a hair pin, the tip of a ballpoint pen, etc. when the slide tip 4 is moved within the groove 2. be.

Therefore, the concave portions 5 and 6 of the slide tip 4 are
When one of the grooves 5 at the upper side in the figure is engaged with the protrusion 3 in the groove 2, the slide tip 4 is moved to the lower end side in the groove 2 in the figure as shown in FIG. When the tip 4 is moved in the groove 2 and the other concave strip 6 at the bottom in the figure engages with the protrusion 3 in the groove 2, the slide tip 4 moves into the groove in FIG. Locked in upper position within 2. In this way, the slide tip 4 has two locking positions within the groove 2, at the upper and lower positions.

Note that when the slide tip 4 is moved within the groove 2, a force is applied to the slide tip 4 inwardly from the left and right side walls 41, 42 due to the protruding provision of the protrusion 3; This chip 4
Since the above-mentioned groove 7 is formed, it is easily bent inward, and when the slide tip 4 is forcibly moved, it can climb over the protrusion 3.

An example in which the detection structure consisting of the groove 2 and the slide chip 4 is applied to detection to prevent erroneous erasure will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

In FIGS. 3 and 4, the same reference numerals as those in FIGS. 1 and 2 indicate the same members, and 9 is a detection lever of an accidental erasure prevention mechanism provided in the magnetic recording/reproducing device; Reference numeral 10 denotes a spring means for pressing the lever 9 in the direction of the cassette 1. The erroneous erasure detection mechanism of this example is based on a mechanical detection method using the lever 9, and is configured so that the recording button is activated or deactivated depending on the position of the lever 9.

Therefore, when the slider chip 4 is inserted into the groove 2 of the cassette outer casing 1 from below in the figure, the protruding strip 3 engages with the upper recessed strip 5 provided on the chip 4 and is locked. It is commercialized as a tape cassette (this state is similar to that shown in FIG. 1). So, with the cassette in this condition,
First, when the slide chip 4 is installed in the magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus as shown in FIG. is in contact with the front surface 44 of the slide tip 4 and is located on the left side in FIG. 3. In this state, the record button can be pressed, that is, it is in a recordable state. After recording on the tape inside the cassette outer casing 1, in order to prevent accidental erasure, a hairpin or the like is inserted into the small circular recess 8 of the slide tip 4 and engaged to push the tip 4 into the groove 2. When you slide the protrusion 3 upward, the protrusion 3 will slide into the slide tip 4.
comes off from the upper concave portion 5, and eventually the protruding portion 3
is engaged with and locked in the lower concave portion 6. In this case, since the aforementioned groove 7 is cut into the slide tip 4, the sliding operation and locking can be performed smoothly due to the springiness of the slide tip 4 itself.

Therefore, when a tape cassette with the slide tip 4 moved upward in the groove 2 is loaded into a magnetic recording/reproducing device, the slide tip 4 is moved upward from the position facing the detection lever 9, as shown in FIG. , the detection lever 9 of the accidental erasure prevention mechanism of the magnetic recording/reproducing device moves to the right in the figure so as to enter into the groove 2, and the record button cannot be pressed, resulting in a state in which recording is not possible, i.e. The state is set to prevent accidental erasure.

If the need for recording arises after the recording is disabled, the user should move the slide tip 4 at the position shown in Figure 4 into the groove by reversing the operation explained with reference to Figure 4 above. 2, and the recordable state can be easily achieved without requiring any troublesome operations.

In the structure of the above embodiment, the detection movement amount of the detection lever 9 may be about 1 mm, and if the thickness of the peripheral wall of the cassette outer casing 1 is about 1.5 mm, space inside the cassette outer casing 1 can be saved. Therefore, it can be provided not only on the side surface of the cassette outer casing 1, but also on the bottom surface, the back surface, etc., and a large number of automatic tape cassette detection mechanisms can be provided at arbitrary positions.

Further, it is desirable that the grooves be provided separately on the left and right sides in order to correspond to the A side and the B side of the tape.

The detection member composed of the slide tip 4 and the groove 2 can be used not only to determine whether or not to record on a tape as a means to prevent accidental erasure, but also to detect the presence or absence of noise reduction processing and its type, for example. The playback circuit can be automatically switched to the corresponding noise reduction circuit, and if the slide chip is set to correspond to the tape speed at which the tape was recorded, the tape speed can be changed automatically. It can be used to set.

Further, the groove 2 does not communicate with both the upper and lower end surfaces of the cassette outer casing 1, and if banks 21 and 22 are provided at both ends as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the groove 2 can be incorporated into the groove 2. There is no need to worry about the slide chip 4 being accidentally detached and lost. In this example, the slide tip 4 may be inserted into the groove 2 of either of the halves 1A and 1B before assembling the upper half 1A and the lower half 1B.

Note that the detection method of the embodiment described above is based on the detection lever 9.
Accordingly, the presence or absence of the slide chip 4, which is a sliding member, is detected mechanically by a method, but other detection methods may also be used.

For example, according to the optical detection method, as shown in FIG. 7, the slide chip 4 is arranged so that the upper and lower halves of the slide chip 4 have different colors, the light emitting element 11 emits light, and the light reflected from the chip 4 is received. The light may be received by the element 12 and the discrimination may be made based on its output. In this case, the dimensions of the slide tip 4 may be made equal to the total length of the groove 2, and the colors of the upper and lower portions may be changed by changing the insertion direction of the slide tip 4 into the groove 2. In this case, one locking means between the slide tip 4 and the groove 2 is sufficient. Further, as in the previous embodiment, the size of the slide chip 4 may be shortened, and the color of the chip 4 and the cassette housing 1 may be made distinguishable.

Further, in the case of relying on an electromagnetic detection method, the slide chip 4 may be formed by pasting a magnetic material such as a piece of iron, and the presence or absence of magnetic coupling may be detected. Furthermore, if the slide chip 4 is made of a material that combines the above-mentioned components or is colored, the detection mechanism on the recording/reproducing device side can be freely selected from mechanical, electrical, optical, electromagnetic, capacitive, etc. Can be done.

Note that both left and right sides 4 of the slide tip 4
If the inclined surfaces 1 and 42 and the corresponding inclined surfaces 2C and 2D of the groove 2 have a pair of inclined surfaces for receiving the slide tip 4 in the groove 2,
These inclined sides 41 and 42 or 2C and 2D
may be symmetrical or asymmetrical.

Further, in the above embodiment, the locking means disposed relative to each other between the slide tip 4 and the groove 2 are the sloped both sides 2C and 2D of the groove 2 and the both sides 4 of the slide tip 4.
Although an example is shown in which the protruding portion 3 and the recessed portions 5 and 6 are relatively arranged between the grooves 1 and 42, if there are two locking positions, the bottom surface 2A of the groove 2 and the back surface 43 of the slider chip 4
It may be provided in between.

The detection mechanism using the groove 2 and the slide chip 4 in the present invention can be constructed within the wall thickness of the cassette, so that a large number of tapes can be set and arranged without reducing the tape storage volume in the cassette outer casing 1. Can be done. It is most suitable for small and ultra-small cassettes such as cassettes, etc., and it is also effective in responding to the increasing number of types of noise reduction and tape speed as technology advances.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing an enlarged main part of the same. FIGS. 3 and 4 are schematic enlarged cross-sectional views of essential parts showing detection states according to the present invention. Figures 5 and 6
The figures show other embodiments; FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of the main parts, and FIG. 6 is an assembled perspective view. 7th
The figure is a schematic perspective view schematically showing a detection state based on an optical detection method. 1...Cassette outer casing, 2...Groove, 2C, 2D...
...Both inclined side surfaces, 3... Protruding portion, 4... Slide tip, 41, 42... Left and right both inclined walls,
5, 6... Concave portion.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A plurality of grooves are provided within the thickness of the circumferential side wall of the cassette outer casing and have a trapezoidal cross section, with the bottom wall side continuous in the thickness direction of the cassette outer casing being wider than the opening side. A sliding member for displaying the state of the cassette, which has a trapezoidal shape corresponding to the cross-sectional shape of the groove and has a height approximately 1/2 of the cassette outer casing, is held in each of the grooves, and a sliding member is provided between the groove and the sliding member. A tape cassette comprising locking means for locking the sliding member at a predetermined sliding position within the groove.