KR20040046270A - Tray guide structure for optical disc drive - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A structure for a tray guide of an ODD(Optical Disc Drive) is provided to prevent jam between a sliding rail and a rail guide even if a considerable shock or force is applied to a tray or the sliding rail by equipping with a dual stopper restricting the rearward movement of the sliding rail. CONSTITUTION: A projection(125) is projected to an upward direction at a position of one sliding rail(122). A front stopper(124) installed to one rail guide(123) hangs the projection when the sliding rail is moved to the front at a predetermined distance. The first and the second rear stopper(126,127) installed to one rail guide respectively hang a rear part and the projection of the sliding rail when one sliding rail is moved to the rear at the predetermined distance.

Description

Tray guide structure for optical disc drive

The present invention relates to an optical disc drive, and more particularly, to a tray guide structure of an optical disc drive for stably guiding a reciprocating movement of a tray on which a disc is seated.

In general, an optical disc drive is a device for recording information or reproducing recorded information by irradiating light onto a recording medium such as a compact disc (CD) or a digital video disc (DVD). Such an optical disk drive is mainly employed in a computer, and especially a notebook computer employs a slim optical disk drive having a very thin thickness.

1 is an exploded perspective view schematically showing a structure of a conventional slim optical disk drive, FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view showing in detail a coupling structure of a conventional rail guide and a sliding rail shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a conventional An enlarged perspective view of the rear end of the rail guide for explaining the problem of the tray guide structure.

First, referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, a conventional slim optical disc drive includes a housing 10 including a lower case 11 and an upper case 12, and a tray 20 installed in and out of the housing 10. Equipped with. The main base 30 is coupled to the tray 20, and the main base 30 has a spindle motor 40 for rotating the disk D, and records / reproduces data on the rotating disk D. An optical pickup unit 50 and a transfer device (not shown) for reciprocating the optical pickup unit 50 in the radial direction of the disc are provided. At the top of the spindle motor 40, a turntable 42 on which the disk D is mounted is provided. As such, the spindle 20 is provided with the spindle motor 40 and the optical pickup unit 50, and they are brought into and out of the housing 10 together.

On the other hand, an eject button 62 for operating a tray takeout device (not shown) is provided in the front bezel 60 of the tray 20. The lower case 11 includes a main board printed circuit board 70 for interfacing the optical disk drive and an external device, and a spindle moving together with the fixed main board printed circuit board 70 and the tray 20. The motor 40 and the optical pickup unit 50 are electrically connected by a flexible printed circuit 72.

The optical disc drive is provided with a tray guide structure for guiding the reciprocating movement of the tray 20 as described above. The tray guide structure includes a rail coupling portion 21 formed on both sides of the tray 20, a sliding rail 22 slidably coupled to the rail coupling portion 21, and both sides of the lower case 11. It is fixed to the corner and consists of a rail guide 23 for reciprocating the sliding rail 22. Meanwhile, reference numeral 14 denotes a fixing plate for fixing the rail guide 23, and reference numeral 16 denotes a protrusion for guiding the sliding rail 22 not to reciprocate.

In a slim optical disc drive having such a configuration, when loading or unloading the disc D, the tray 20 is pushed out of the housing 10 by pressing the eject button 62. As described above, the tray 20 is taken out and the sliding rail 22 also moves forward along the rail guide 23, that is, in the takeout direction (arrow F direction). At this time, in order to prevent the tray 20 from being separated from the housing 10, the front stopper 24 protruding horizontally is provided in the longitudinal middle part of the rail guide 23, and the sliding rail 22 A protruding portion 25 protruding a predetermined height vertically is provided near the rear end portion. Therefore, when the tray 20 reaches the position where the disc D can be replaced, the protrusion 25 of the sliding rail 22 is caught by the front stopper 24 of the rail guide 23 so that the sliding rail 22 You will no longer be able to move forward.

The rear stopper 26 protrudes a predetermined height from the rear end of the rail guide 23 to restrict the rear movement of the sliding rail 22. Therefore, when the tray 20 moves to the rear (arrow R direction) and is completely inserted into the housing 10, the rear end of the sliding rail 26 is caught by the rear stopper 26 and no longer moves backward. On the other hand, reference numeral 28 denotes a protrusion for contacting the upper surface of the rail coupling portion 21 of the tray 20 to prevent vertical shaking of the tray 20 when the tray 20 is fully inserted into the housing 10. .

By the way, in the above-described conventional tray guide structure, the rear stopper 26 is formed not higher than the thickness of the sliding rail 22 to avoid interference with the bottom surface of the rail coupling portion 21 of the tray 20. Therefore, when assembling the sliding rail 22 to the rail guide 23 or inserting the tray 20 into the housing 10, the sliding rail 22 or the tray 20 may be damaged due to user's carelessness or impact from the outside. When an excessive force is applied to the insertion direction (arrow R direction), as shown in FIG. 3, the rear end of the sliding rail 22 may be slightly bent to easily escape the rear stopper 26. In this case, the rear end of the sliding rail 22 is caught between the rear stopper 26 and the anti-shake projection 28 provided on the rail guide 23, and thus, when the tray 20 is to be taken out, the tray ( 20) is a problem that is not easily taken out.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems of the prior art, in particular by providing a double stopper means for limiting the rear movement of the sliding rail, even if a significant impact or force acting on the tray or sliding rail sliding rail It is an object of the present invention to provide a tray guide structure of an optical disk drive in which pinching between the rail guide and the rail guide does not occur.

1 is an exploded perspective view schematically showing the structure of a conventional slim optical disk drive.

2 is a partial perspective view showing in detail the coupling structure of the conventional rail guide and the sliding rail shown in FIG.

Figure 3 is an enlarged perspective view of the rear end of the rail guide for explaining the problem of the conventional tray guide structure.

4 is an exploded perspective view showing an optical disk drive employing a tray guide structure according to the present invention.

5 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the assembled state of the tray guide structure shown in FIG.

6 is a perspective view of a rear end of the tray and the front end of the sliding rail of the tray and the sliding rail shown in FIG.

7 is a perspective view of the rear end of the sliding rail and the rail guide for explaining the action of the first and second rear stopper in the tray guide structure according to the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

110 ... housing 111 ... lower case

112.Top case 114 ... Fixed plate

116 ... Turning 120 ... Tray

121 ... Rail coupling part 122 ... Sliding rail

123 Rail guide 124 Front stopper

125 Projection 126 First rear stopper

127 ... 2nd rear stopper 128 ... Anti-shake projection

130 ... main base 140 ... spindle motor

142 Turntable 150 Optical pickup unit

160 ... Front Bezel 162 ... Eject Button

170 Main board printed circuit board 172 Flexible printed circuit

192 ... Jack Jam 194 ... Bent

The present invention to achieve the above object,

The rail coupling portion is formed in the longitudinal direction on both sides of the tray on which the disk is seated, the sliding rails are coupled to both rail coupling portions of the tray to support the tray so as to slidably, and fixedly installed at both corners of the lower case. In the tray guide structure of the optical disk drive having a rail guide for guiding the sliding rail,

Protrusions protruding upward at a predetermined position of one sliding rail of the two sliding rails;

A front stopper for limiting a forward movement distance of the sliding rail, the front stopper being provided at one of the rail guides of the two rail guides to catch the protrusion when the one sliding rail moves a predetermined distance forward; And

A first rear stopper provided to the rear rail guide to limit the rear moving distance of the sliding rail, the rear end of the one sliding rail and the protruding part of the sliding rail when the one sliding rail moves a predetermined distance to the rear; It provides a tray guide structure of the optical disk drive having a second rear stopper.

The first rear stopper may protrude to a rear end of the lower plate of the one side rail guide at a predetermined height, and the second rear stopper may protrude laterally from an upper plate of the one side rail guide.

According to such a configuration, even if a significant impact or force is applied to the tray or the sliding rail, the rear movement of the sliding rail may be restricted by the double rear stopper, thereby preventing the jamming between the sliding rail and the rail guide. The take out operation can be made stable.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the tray guide structure of the optical disk drive according to the present invention.

Figure 4 is an exploded perspective view showing a slim optical disk drive employing a tray guide structure according to the present invention, Figure 5 is a vertical sectional view of the assembled state of the tray guide structure shown in FIG.

4 and 5 together, the optical disk drive includes a housing 110 including a lower case 111 and an upper case 112, and a tray 120 installed in and out of the housing 110. The housing 110 is fixedly installed in the body of an electronic device employing a slim optical disk drive, such as a computer, in particular a notebook computer. The main base 130 is coupled to the tray 120. The main base 130 has a spindle motor 140 for rotating the disk, an optical pickup unit 150 for reproducing data recorded on the rotating disk, and an optical pickup unit 150 for reciprocating transfer in the radial direction of the disk. A conveying device (not shown) is provided. In addition, a turntable 142 on which the disk is mounted is provided at the upper portion of the spindle motor 140. As such, the spindle motor 140 and the optical pickup unit 150 are installed in the tray 120, and they enter and exit the housing 110 together.

On the other hand, the front bezel (160) of the tray 120 is provided with an eject button 162 for operating the tray takeout device (not shown). In addition, the lower case 111 is provided with a main board printed circuit board 170, the main board printed circuit board 170 is a spindle motor 140 and the optical pickup unit 150 through a flexible printed circuit 172. Is connected to.

In addition, the optical disc drive is provided with a tray guide structure for reciprocating movement of the tray 120 installed in the housing 110 to be accessible. The tray guide structure according to the present invention is a sliding rail which is slidably coupled to the rail coupling portion 121 formed on both sides of the tray 120 on which the disk is seated, and the rail coupling portions 121 on both sides of the tray 120, respectively. Reference numeral 122 and rail guides 123 fixed to both corners of the lower case 111 are provided.

The rail coupling portion 121 is formed long on both sides of the tray 120 in the longitudinal direction, that is, the reciprocating movement direction. The sliding rail 122 has a cross-section of approximately "C" shape to accommodate the rail coupling portion 121 of the tray 120, the thickness is about 0.5mm. In addition, the sliding rail 122 is made of a metal press material having a high strength so as to support the tray 120. The rail guide 123 serves to guide the reciprocating movement of the sliding rail 122 coupled to the inner side, and as a plastic injection molding having a thickness of about 1mm to reduce friction noise with the sliding rail 122 It is made, it is fixed to both corners of the lower case 111 by the fixing plate 114 formed by bending the side wall of the lower case 111. In addition, the rail guide 123 also has a cross-section of a substantially "C" shape to accommodate the sliding rail 122. In addition, the rail guide 123 is formed with a protrusion 116 for guiding the sliding rail 122 not to escape the reciprocating path.

And, the tray guide structure is provided with means for limiting the front and rear movement distance of the sliding rail 122. The means may include one of two protrusions 125 provided on one sliding rail 122 of the two sliding rails 122 and two rail guides 123 installed at both corners of the lower case 111. A front stopper 124 and first and second rear stoppers 126 and 127 provided on the rail guide 123 are provided.

The protrusion 125 protrudes upward from the rear end of the sliding rail 122. The protrusion 125 may be formed by partially bending the upper plate of the sliding rail 122 made of a metal press. And. The height of the protrusion 125 is preferably formed slightly higher than the thickness of the rail guide 123 within the limit to avoid interference with other components.

The front stopper 124 is a means for limiting the forward movement distance of the sliding rail 122, and protrudes laterally from a predetermined position of the rail guide 123, for example, approximately the middle portion in the longitudinal direction or near the top plate near the front end portion. Is formed. The position of the front stopper 124 may be appropriately determined by the mutual relationship with the position of the protrusion 125 provided on the sliding rail 122. It is preferable that the front stopper 124 protrudes as much as possible within the limit to avoid interference with the side surface of the tray 120, since the strength thereof may be higher. The front stopper 124 may be integrally formed with the rail guide 123 during injection molding of the rail guide 123.

As described above, in the present invention, two rear stoppers 126 and 127 are provided as a means for limiting the rear movement distance of the sliding rail 122. The first rear stopper 126 is formed to protrude a predetermined height at the rear end of the rail guide 123. Specifically, the first rear stopper 126 may be formed on the upper surface of the lower plate of the rail guide 123, in which case the sliding rail 122 in order to avoid interference with the bottom surface of the rail coupling portion 121 of the tray 120 It is not formed higher than the thickness of.

The second rear stopper 127 is formed to protrude horizontally near the rear end of the rail guide 123. In detail, the second rear stopper 127 may be provided on the upper side surface of the rail guide 123, and the second rear stopper 127 may protrude as much as possible within the limit to avoid interference with the side of the tray 120. The second rear stopper 127 is provided at a predetermined position on the movement path of the protrusion 125 provided in the sliding rail 122. Specifically, when the rear end of the sliding rail 122 touches the first rear stopper 126, the second rear stopper 127 is provided at a position where the protrusion 125 may touch.

On the other hand, at the rear end of the upper plate of the rail guide 123, the tray 120 is in contact with the upper surface of the rail coupling portion 121 of the tray 120 when the tray 120 is fully inserted into the housing 110, the vertical shaking of the tray 120 Protrusion 128 to prevent the may be provided. The first and second rear stoppers 126 and 127 and the anti-shake protrusion 128 may also be integrally formed with the rail guide 123 during injection molding of the rail guide 123.

4, 6 and 7, the operation of the tray guide structure according to the present invention will be described. Here, FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the rear end of the tray and the front end of the sliding rail of the tray and the sliding rail shown in FIG. 4 upside down, and FIG. 7 is a sliding rail for explaining the action of the first and second rear stoppers. A perspective view of the rear end of the rail guide.

First, referring to FIG. 4, at the same time as the tray 120 is taken out, the sliding rail 122 is also guided by the rail guide 123 and moved forward (arrow F direction), and the tray 120 moves by a predetermined distance. When the disc D is reached, the protrusion 125 of the sliding rail 122 is caught by the front stopper 124 of the rail guide 123. Accordingly, the sliding rail 122 is no longer moved forward.

On the other hand, as shown in Figure 6, the locking step 192 is formed inside the rear end of the rail coupling portion 121 of the tray 120, the bent portion 194 at the front end of the sliding rail 122 Is formed. When the tray 120 is moved forward (arrow F direction) to reach the disc detachment position, the protrusion (125 in FIG. 4) is caught by the front stopper (124 in FIG. 4) as described above, and the sliding rail 122 is It is no longer able to move forward, and also the latching jaw 192 of the tray 120 shown in FIG. 6 is caught by the bent portion 194 of the sliding rail 122 so that the tray 120 is no longer moved forward. You won't be able to. Thus, the tray 120 is prevented from being separated from the housing 110.

Next, referring to FIG. 4 and FIG. 7, when the tray 120 moves rearward (arrow R direction) and is completely inserted into the housing 110, the rear end of the sliding rail 122 may be the first rear stopper 126. At the same time, the protrusion 125 of the sliding rail 122 is also caught by the second rear stopper 127. Thus, the sliding rail 122 can no longer move to the rear. In particular, even if a force such that the rear end portion of the sliding rail 122 escapes the first rear stopper 126 acts, the rear end of the sliding rail 122 because the protrusion 125 is caught by the second rear stopper 127. The conventional problem of leaving the additional first rear stopper 126 does not occur.

As described above, according to the present invention, even when a considerable force is applied to the sliding rail 122 or the tray 120 in the insertion direction (arrow R direction) due to user's carelessness or impact from the outside, the sliding rail 122 The rearward movement of the sliding rail 122 can be more reliably suppressed by the resistance of the first rear stopper 126 acting on the rear end of the brake and the resistance of the second rear stopper 127 acting on the protrusion 125. . As a result, the conventional problem that the rear end portion of the sliding rail 122 escapes the rear stoppers 126 and 127 and is caught between the first rear stopper 126 and the anti-shake projection 128 does not occur.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the illustrated embodiments, it is merely exemplary, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible therefrom. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention will be defined by the appended claims.

As described above, according to the tray guide structure according to the present invention, even if a significant impact or force acts on the tray or the sliding rail, the rear movement of the sliding rail can be more reliably restricted by the double rear stopper. Therefore, the jamming between the sliding rail and the rail guide due to excessive rearward movement of the sliding rail can be prevented, and the take-out operation of the tray can be made stable.

Claims (2)

The rail coupling portion is formed in the longitudinal direction on both sides of the tray on which the disk is seated, the sliding rails are coupled to both rail coupling portions of the tray to support the tray so as to slidably, and fixedly installed at both corners of the lower case. In the tray guide structure of the optical disk drive having a rail guide for guiding the sliding rail, Protrusions protruding upward at a predetermined position of one sliding rail of the two sliding rails; A front stopper for limiting a forward movement distance of the sliding rail, the front stopper being provided at one of the rail guides of the two rail guides to catch the protrusion when the one sliding rail moves a predetermined distance forward; And A first rear stopper provided to the rear rail guide to limit the rear moving distance of the sliding rail, the rear end of the one sliding rail and the protruding part of the sliding rail when the one sliding rail moves a predetermined distance to the rear; And a second rear stopper. The method of claim 1, The first rear stopper is formed to protrude to the rear end of the lower plate of the one side rail guide at a predetermined height, and the second rear stopper is formed to protrude laterally from the upper plate of the one side rail guide.