JP2990931B2 - Cassette loading device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cassette loading device most suitable for use in, for example, a CD-ROM drive, and more particularly to a cassette loading device for automatically loading a cassette containing a recording medium into a cassette holder. It concerns the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a cassette loading apparatus applied to a CD-ROM drive, when an operator manually inserts a cassette into a cassette holder, the operator pushes a loading lever with the cassette and turns on a loading switch. A lock lever attached to the tip of the loading lever is engaged with an engaged portion of the cassette, and the loading lever is driven by a motor activated by a loading switch to automatically draw the cassette into the cassette holder. There is.
In this cassette loading device, the lock lever is disengaged from the engaged portion of the cassette when the ejection is completed.

[0003]

However, in the prior art, after the loading switch is turned on,
Since the lock lever is engaged with the cassette, the loading switch is turned on when the operator roughly inserts the cassette into the cassette holder.
Then, before the lock lever is engaged with the cassette, the cassette is pushed back by the reaction force of the loading lever, and only the loading lever is driven by the motor without the lock lever being engaged with the cassette. There is a problem that a loading mistake is likely to occur.

In addition, since the lock lever is disengaged from the engaged portion of the cassette when the ejection is completed, the temperature of the drive changes due to environmental temperature changes such as extreme high heat or low temperature, or the level of the drive is not uniform. There has been a problem that the ejection amount of the cassette from the cassette holder tends to vary.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has as its object to provide a cassette loading apparatus which can prevent a cassette from being loaded incorrectly and can keep the eject amount of the cassette constant.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, a cassette loading apparatus according to the present invention comprises an insertion position at which a cassette containing a recording medium is inserted, and a recording and / or reproducing apparatus for recording and / or reproducing the inserted cassette. A cassette holder configured to be reciprocally movable between a mounting position to be mounted and a cassette holder slidably mounted on the cassette holder and pressed by a cassette inserted into the cassette holder to turn on a loading switch. Slider and
A lock lever, which is attached to the slider and is engaged with an engaged portion of the cassette immediately before the cassette inserted into the cassette holder comes into contact with the slider, and a motor activated by the loading switch A loading mechanism that is driven to slide the slider in the cassette insertion direction and draw the cassette into the cassette holder via the lock lever.

[0007]

With the cassette loading device of the present invention constructed as described above, when the operator manually inserts the cassette into the cassette holder, the lock lever is engaged with the cassette immediately before the cassette comes into contact with the slider. After that, the cassette is brought into contact with the slider,
The loading switch is turned ON only when the slider is pressed. Even when the ejection is completed, the lock lever maintains the state of being engaged with the engaged portion of the cassette.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of a cassette loading apparatus in which the present invention is applied to a CD-ROM drive will be described with reference to the drawings.

First, as shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, a CD-ROM (hereinafter simply referred to as a CD) 2 as a recording medium is accommodated in a cassette 1 formed in a flat rectangular parallelepiped. And the front end face 1 of the left and right side faces 1a of the cassette 1.
On the b side, a pair of left and right concave portions 3 as engaged portions is formed. A slot-shaped bottom opening 4 is formed from the center of the bottom 1c of the cassette 1 to the front end 1b, and a shutter 5 for opening and closing the bottom opening 4 is moved along the front end 1b in the directions of arrows a and a '. Is slidably mounted on the
Further, a clamper 6 is housed in the upper portion of the center of the CD 2 in the cassette 1.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 5 to 10, a cassette holder 8 is horizontally mounted on the upper portion of the chassis 7 and extends along the upper left and right edges of the horizontal bottom plate 8a of the cassette holder 8. A pair of left and right cassette insertion guides 8b each having a U-shaped cross section are integrally formed so as to face each other. The cassette holder 8 is kept horizontally between the cassette insertion position, which is a raised position shown in FIG. 7, and the cassette mounting position, which is a lowered position shown in FIG. , That is, reciprocally movable.

At this time, the bottom plate 8a in the cassette holder 8
Four vertical support shafts 9 suspended upward from the chassis 7
Between the stopper ring 10 fitted to the lower ends of these support shafts 9 and the lower surface of the chassis 7, four compression coil springs fitted around the outer periphery of these support shafts 9. 11, the cassette holder 8 is urged to move in the direction of arrow b, which is downward. A horizontal slide plate 13 is guided by a plurality of guide grooves 14 and guide pins 15 on the lower surface of the bottom plate 8a, and slides in the directions of arrows c and c 'which are the cassette insertion and discharge directions, that is, the slide plate 13 is reciprocally movable. Have been. Then, four cams 16 which are sled-like projections are fixed to four corners on the lower surface of the slide plate 13,
Four cam grooves 18 having cam guide pieces 17 are formed on the chassis 7 on the sliding locus of these cams 16.

When the slide plate 13 reciprocates in the directions of arrows c and c 'with respect to the cassette holder 8, these cams 16 are simultaneously guided in the cam grooves 18 while being guided by the cam guide pieces 17. Get in and out,
The cassette holder 8 is configured to reciprocate in the directions of arrows b and b ′ with respect to the chassis 7 in cooperation with the four compression coil springs 11.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 5 to 8, a slider 20 is mounted on the bottom plate 8a of the cassette holder 8 at a position deviated in the directions of arrows c and a.
The slider 20 has a guide groove 21 and a guide pin 22.
And a guide plate 23 extending in the direction of arrow c from the side plate of one of the cassette insertion guides 8b, and is slidably mounted in the directions of arrows c and c '. And
As shown in FIG. 4, a cassette contact piece 24 perpendicular to the directions of arrows c and c 'is formed on the end of the slider 20 in the direction of arrow c'. On the end on the side, a switch operation piece 25 parallel to the guide groove 21 is formed.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, a lock lever 27 is mounted on the slider 20 via a vertical fulcrum pin 28 so as to be rotatable in the directions of arrows d and d '. A hook 27a formed at the tip end of the lock lever 27 in the direction of arrow c 'extends in the direction of arrow a', bypassing the cassette contact piece 24 of the slider 20, and extending in the direction of arrow c '. A slope 29 is formed on the tip of the hook 27a in the direction of arrow c '. And
The lock lever 27 is rotationally urged in the direction of arrow d 'by a tension coil spring 30 provided between the lock lever 27 and the cassette contact piece 24, and the free end 27 b of the lock lever 27 in the direction of arrow c is placed on the slider 20. It is in contact with the formed stopper piece 31. A vertical stopper piece 32 is formed on the lock lever 27 on the side of the fulcrum pin 28 in the direction of the arrow a, and the stopper piece 32 extends from the upper surface of one of the cassette insertion guides 8b in the direction of the arrow c. The piece 33 is configured to be abuttable from the direction of arrow c '. The hook 27a is moved in the direction of arrows c and c 'and arrows d and d' in a long hole 34 formed in the guide plate 23.
It is arranged movably in the direction.

Next, a loading switch 36 is mounted on the bottom plate 8a of the cassette holder 8 in the vicinity of the slider 20 in the direction of the arrow a ', and the operated portion 36a of the loading switch 36 operates the slider 20 to operate the switch. It is arranged on one side 25.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 5 to 10, a loading mechanism 38 is mounted at a position offset from the bottom plate 8a of the cassette holder 8 in the direction of arrow c. The loading mechanism 38 includes a motor 39 mounted on the lower surface of the bottom plate 8a and a gear train 40 by the motor 39.
, A rack 42 attached to the lower end of the slider 20 in the direction of arrow c in parallel with the slider 20 and driven by the pinion 41, and a fulcrum pin perpendicular to the bottom plate 8a. And a loading lever 44 rotatably mounted in the directions of arrows e and e 'via the lever 43.

The loading lever 44 is substantially L
A pin 45, which is formed in the shape of a letter and is vertically attached to the lower surface of the tip of one of the arms 44 a, protrudes downward through the arc hole 46 of the bottom plate 8 a, and the lower end of the pin 45 is connected to the slide plate 13. It is loosely fitted in the formed drive groove 47. Further, a pin 48 vertically attached to the upper surface of the tip of the other arm 44b of the loading lever 44 is loosely fitted to the slider 20 with play in a groove 49 formed parallel to the cassette contact piece 24. I have. The loading lever 44 is fitted around the fulcrum pin 43,
Both ends are urged to rotate in the direction of arrow e 'by a torsion coil spring 50 locked to the bottom plate 8a and the other arm 44b.

The drive groove 47 is formed by forming a linear pin lock portion 47b at an end of the pin drive portion 47a formed in an arc shape in the direction of arrow c.
Is bent in a direction substantially parallel to the pin lock portion 47b.

The rack 42 is mounted on the lower surface of the slide plate 13.
A substantially triangular switch operation projection 5 at a position opposite to
The loading completion switch 52 and the ejection completion switch 53, which are alternately operated by the movement of the projections 51 in the directions of arrows c and c ', are attached to the bottom plate 8.
a through a bracket (not shown).

A shutter opening / closing lever 54 is mounted on the bottom plate 8a at a position opposite to the slider 20 via a vertical fulcrum pin 55 so as to be rotatable in the directions of arrows f and f '. The stopper 5 of the bottom plate 8a is fitted to the outer periphery of the pin 55 and is urged to rotate in the direction of arrow f 'by a torsion coil spring 56 whose both ends are locked by the bottom plate 8a and the shutter opening / closing lever 54.
7.

The disk table 61 and the optical pickup 62 on the spindle motor 60 mounted on the chassis 7 are arranged below the openings 63 and 64 formed in the slide plate 13 and the bottom plate 8a of the cassette holder 8. .

Next, the operation of the cassette loading device configured as described above will be described.

Before starting loading, as shown in FIG. 7, the slide plate 13 is slid in the direction of the arrow c, the cam 16 rides on the chassis 7, and the cassette holder 8 is moved to the cassette insertion position by the arrow b. ′ Direction.

As shown in FIG. 5, the loading lever 44 is rotated in the direction of arrow e 'to
Is slid in the direction of arrow c '. Then, at the time of loading, first, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 7, the operator manually inserts the cassette 1 horizontally between the cassette insertion guides 8b of the cassette holder 8 in the direction of arrow c. Then, the shutter opening / closing lever 54 is moved by the front end face 1b.
The pin 54a on the end of the cassette 1 is pushed, the shutter opening / closing lever 54 is rotated in the direction of arrow f against the torsion coil spring 56, and the pin 54a presses the shutter 5 of the cassette 1 against the built-in spring (not shown). To open in the direction of arrow a.

When the cassette 1 is inserted in the direction of arrow c to the position shown by the solid line in FIG. 5, the hook 27a of the lock lever 27 is engaged with the concave portion 3 on one side surface 1a of the cassette 1, and immediately thereafter. Then, the front end face 1b of the cassette 1 pushes the slider 20 in the direction of arrow c.

At this time, first, as shown in FIG. 1A, the arc-shaped corner 1d of the front end face 1b of the cassette 1 inserted in the direction of the arrow c is engaged with the hook 27 of the lock lever 27.
1A, the lock lever 27 escapes in the direction of the arrow d against the tension coil spring 30, and then the lock lever 27 is moved by the tension coil spring 30 as indicated by the arrow d in FIG. 'Return to the hook 27
a is engaged in the recess 3 of the cassette 1 and the lock lever 2
7, the cassette 1 is held.

Immediately thereafter, as shown in FIG. 2A, the front end face 1b of the cassette 1 comes into contact with the cassette contact piece 24 of the slider 20 in the direction of arrow c, and the cassette 1 the pushing stroke S ₁ minute in the direction of arrow c.

Then, as shown in FIG. 2A, the switch operation piece 25 of the slider 20 pushes the operated portion 36a of the loading switch 36 in the direction of arrow g, and the loading switch 36 is turned on, and the loading mechanism 38 is turned on. Starts the forward rotation drive.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 9, the loading lever 44 moves in solid line in conjunction with the slider 20 by the play of the pin 45 in the direction of arrow e in the tip 47c of the drive groove 47 of the slide plate 13. since the stop is rotated in the arrow e direction against the torsion coil spring 50 from the position to the position of the dotted line, the slider 20 is stopped when pushed to the stroke S ₁ minute arrow c direction shown in FIG. 2 (a) I do. Therefore, the operator may release his hand from the cassette 1.

When the motor 39 is driven to rotate forward, the pinion 41 is driven to rotate forward in the direction of arrow h in FIG. 7 via the gear train 40, and this pinion 41 drives the rack 42 in the direction of arrow c '. As shown in FIG.
Is slid in the direction of arrow c 'from the position shown in FIG.

Then, as shown in FIG. 10, the driving groove 47 of the slide plate 13 moves in the direction of arrow c ', and the pin 45 is driven in the direction of arrow e by the pin driving portion 47a, so that the loading lever 44 is moved. 2 (A) to the position shown in FIG. 2 (B) in a direction indicated by an arrow e in a direction against the torsion coil spring 50.

Then, as shown in FIG. 2B, the pin 48 of the loading lever 44 drives the slider 20 in the direction of the arrow c for a stroke S ₂ , and is moved together with the slider 20 in the direction of the arrow c. cassette 1 by the hook 27a of the lever 27 is pulled in the direction of arrow c towards the inside stroke S ₂ minutes automatic cassette holder 8.

At this time, the operated portion 36a of the loading switch 36 is connected to the switch operating piece 25 of the slider 20.
Is kept pressed by loading switch 3
6 maintains the ON state.

Then, as shown in FIG. 6, when the CD 2 of the cassette 1 automatically drawn into the cassette holder 8 in the direction of arrow c reaches the position directly above the disk table 61, as shown in FIG. The pin 45 of the loading lever 44 is connected to the pin lock portion 4 of the drive groove 47 of the slide plate 13.
7B, the loading lever 44 is locked, the slider 20 and the lock lever 27 are stopped at the position shown in FIG. 2B, and the retraction operation of the cassette 1 in the direction of the arrow c is completed.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 6, the cassette opening / closing lever 54 is moved in the direction of arrow f against the torsion coil spring 56 by the cassette 1 automatically pushed in the direction of arrow c.
The shutter 5 is completely opened in the direction of the arrow a by the pin 54a at the tip.

On the other hand, when the slide plate 13 slides in the direction of arrow c ', the cam 16 is moved in the direction of arrow c' from the position shown in FIG. 7 to the position shown in FIG. It is guided by the cam guide piece 17 and falls into the cam groove 18.

Then, by the urging force of the compression coil spring 11, the cassette holder 8 is lowered in the direction of arrow b from the cassette insertion position shown in FIG. 7 to the cassette mounting position shown in FIG. The CD 2 in the cassette 1 is relatively inserted from below into the bottom opening 4 of the
1 is magnetically chucked by the clamper 6, and the CD 2 is brought close to the optical pickup 62.

Finally, as shown in FIG. 10, the switch operation projection 51 of the slide plate 13 turns on the loading completion switch 52, and the motor 39 is stopped.
A series of loading operations is completed.

Then, after this, the spindle motor 60
The CD 2 is rotationally driven integrally with the disk table 61 by the optical pickup 62.
Playback is performed.

The eject operation is the reverse operation of the above-described loading operation, and an eject button (not shown)
Is pressed, the motor 39 is driven to rotate in the reverse direction, and the pinion 41 is driven to rotate in the direction of the arrow h 'in FIG. 10, so that the slide plate 13 moves from the position of FIG. 10 to the position of FIG. The cam 16 is slid and the cam guide piece 17
The cassette holder 8 is guided from the cam groove 18 and pulled up onto the chassis 7 from the cam groove 18 so that the cassette holder 8 is opposed to the compression coil spring 11 in the arrow b 'direction from the cassette mounting position shown in FIG. Be raised.

The driving lever 47 of the slide plate 13 drives the loading lever 44 to rotate in the direction of the arrow e 'from the position shown in FIG. 6 to the position shown in FIG. 5, and the slider 20 moves from the position shown in FIG. Arrow c 'to the indicated position
The cassette 1 is slid in the direction indicated by arrow C ', and the cassette abutment piece 24 of the slider 20 causes the cassette 1 to be ejected from the cassette holder 8 in the direction of the arrow c' by an amount of S ₃ (where S ₃ = S ₁ + S ₂ ). Discharged).

Then, as shown in FIG. 9, the switch operation projection 51 turns on the eject completion switch 51, and
When the motor 39 is stopped, as shown in FIG. 3A, the switch operating piece 25 of the slider 20 moves away from the operated portion 36a of the loading switch 36 in the direction of arrow c ', and the operated portion 36a After returning to the direction g ', the loading switch 36 is turned off, and a series of ejecting operations is completed.

At the time of this ejection, as shown in FIG.
Engages in the recess 3 of the cassette 1 and the lock lever 27
While holding the cassette 1, the cassette 1 is ejected in the direction of the arrow c ′ by the cassette contact piece 24 of the slider 20, and the hook 27 a of the lock lever 27 remains in the recess 3 of the cassette 1 even when the ejection is completed. Is maintained in a state of being engaged with.

Accordingly, the ejected amount S ₃ of the cassette 1 matches the sliding amount of the slider 20 in the direction of the arrow c ′, and the ejected amount S ₃ can always be kept constant.

As shown in FIG. 3B, when the operator pulls out the cassette 1 from the inside of the cassette holder 8 in the direction of the arrow c 'after the completion of the ejection, the slider 20 shown in FIG. The play S ₄ of the pin 48 in the groove 49
The slider 20 is displaced in the direction of arrow c 'by the distance.
At this time, in a state where the stopper piece 32 of the lock lever 27 is in contact with the stopper piece 33 of the cassette holder 8,
Since the fulcrum pin 28 of the slider 20 is displaced in the direction of the arrow c ', the lever action at that time causes the lock lever 27 to move.
Rotates in the direction of arrow d against the tension coil spring 30 and escapes. Therefore, the hook 27a of the lock lever 27 can be easily removed from the recess 3 by only slightly pulling the cassette 1 in the direction of arrow c '.

As described above, one embodiment of the present invention has been described.
The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various modifications can be made based on the technical idea of the present invention. For example, the present invention is not limited to a cassette loading device of a CD-ROM drive, but can be applied to a cassette loading device of a recording / reproducing device of various cassettes in which various recording media are stored.

[0047]

The cassette loading apparatus of the present invention having the above-described structure has the following effects.

When the operator manually inserts the cassette into the cassette holder, the lock lever is engaged with the engaged portion of the cassette immediately before the cassette comes into contact with the slider, and thereafter, the cassette comes into contact with the slider. The loading switch is turned on only when the slider is pressed
Therefore, even when the operator roughly inserts the cassette into the cassette holder, the loading switch is always turned on after the lock lever is engaged with the cassette. Therefore, the inserted cassette can always be securely held by the lock lever and automatically retracted without being influenced by the strength or speed of the cassette insertion operation by the operator, so that the cassette loading mistake can be reliably prevented. In this way, stable cassette loading can always be performed.

Even when the ejection is completed, the state in which the lock lever remains engaged with the cassette is maintained, so that the ejection amount can be made to match the sliding amount of the slider. Therefore, there is no variation in the ejected amount of the cassette due to a change in the environmental temperature such as extremely high or low temperature, or the level of the drive is out of order, and the ejected amount of the cassette is always stabilized at a constant value. Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway plan view illustrating a loading operation of a main part of a cassette loading device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway plan view illustrating a continuation of the loading operation of the main part.

FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway plan view illustrating an ejecting operation of the main part.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the main part.

FIG. 5 is a plan view for explaining a cassette insertion operation of the entire cassette loading apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a plan view illustrating a state in which loading of a cassette of the entire cassette loading apparatus is completed.

FIG. 7 is a partially cutaway side view for explaining a cassette insertion operation of the entire cassette loading apparatus.

FIG. 8 is a partially cut-away side view for explaining a cassette loading completed state of the entire cassette loading apparatus.

FIG. 9 is a plan view taken along the line AA of FIG. 7;

FIG. 10 is a plan view as viewed in the direction of arrows BB in FIG. 8;

[Description of Signs] 1 cassette 2 CD-ROM (recording medium) 3 recess (engaged part) 8 cassette holder 20 slider 27 lock lever 36 loading switch 38 loading mechanism 39 motor 44 loading lever

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A cassette holder configured to be reciprocally movable between an insertion position where a cassette accommodating a recording medium is inserted and a mounting position where the inserted cassette is mounted for recording and / or reproduction. A slider slidably mounted on the cassette holder and pressed by a cassette inserted into the cassette holder to turn on a loading switch; and a cassette mounted on the slider and inserted into the cassette holder. A lock lever that is engaged with the engaged portion of the cassette immediately before contacting the slider, and a lock lever that is driven by a motor activated by the loading switch and slides the slider in the cassette insertion direction. A loading mechanism that draws the cassette into the cassette holder via Cassette loading device provided.