JP3423097B2 - Disk cartridge - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a disc cartridge such as an optical disc cartridge and a magnetic disc cartridge which accommodates a disc-shaped recording medium rotatably therein and has a shutter slidably supported in a cartridge case. It is about.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A disk cartridge of this type is shown in FIG.
A cartridge case 103 having a head insertion opening 101 and a spindle insertion opening 102 at predetermined positions as shown in FIG.
A shutter 104 slidably supported by the cartridge case 103 so as to open and close the head insertion opening 101; a spring member (not shown) for constantly elastically biasing the shutter 104 in the closing direction; The disk-shaped recording medium 105 is rotatably housed inside the case 103.

9 and 10 are plan views of an upper case 106 and a lower case 107 used in this disk cartridge.

As shown in FIG. 9, the upper case 106 has a regulating rib 108 (108a, 1) continuous with the inner surface thereof.
08b, 108c, 108d, 108e, 108f), and a disk rotation region 1 in which a disk-shaped recording medium (not shown) is housed inside the regulation rib 108 and rotates.
09, and corner regions 110 (110a, 110b, 110c, 110d) are formed at the four outer corners of the regulating rib 108. A head insertion opening 101a is formed in the disk rotation area 109.

As shown in FIG. 10, the lower case 107 has a regulating rib 111 (111a, 111a,
111b, 111c, 111d, 111e, 111f)
And a disk rotation region 112 is formed inside the regulating rib 111, and corner regions 113 (113a, 113b, 113c, 113d) are formed at four outer corners of the regulating rib 111.
Are formed. In the disk rotation area 112, a head insertion opening 101b and a spindle insertion opening 102 are provided.
Has been established.

As shown in FIG. 8, the cartridge case 10
3 is formed by superimposing the upper case 106 and the upper case 107, and the regulation ribs 108 (108a, 108b, 108) are formed by superimposing the both cases 106, 107.
c, 108d, 108e, 108f) and the regulating rib 111
(111a, 111b, 111c, 111d, 111
e, 111f) are in close contact with each other, and the entire periphery of the disk-shaped recording medium 105 is completely surrounded by the regulating ribs 108 and 111.

As a related technique, for example,
No. 16697 is cited.

[0008]

When the disc cartridge is not used, the head insertion opening 101 (101a, 10a) is formed.
1b) is covered by a U-shaped shutter 104, and the spindle insertion port 102 is closed by a center hub 114 provided in the central portion of the disk-shaped recording medium 105, so that dust may enter the cartridge case 103 from the outside. Don't worry about entering.

However, since the head insertion opening 101 is opened when the disk cartridge is used, dust floating in the drive device may enter the cartridge case 103 through the head insertion opening 101.

As described above, since the entire circumference of the disk-shaped recording medium 105 is completely surrounded by the regulating ribs 108 and 111, the cartridge case 10 is temporarily
Dust that has entered the inside of the disk 3 is not discharged, but is accumulated in the disk rotation areas 112 and 109, which often causes an error when writing or reading information, and there is a problem in reliability.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art and to provide a disk cartridge having excellent operation reliability.

[0012]

To achieve this object, the present invention provides a cartridge case having a head insertion opening at a predetermined position, and a slidably supported cartridge case for opening and closing the head insertion opening. The present invention is directed to a disk cartridge including a shutter, a spring member that constantly elastically biases the shutter in a closing direction, and a disk-shaped recording medium rotatably housed inside the cartridge case.

A regulation rib larger than the disc-shaped recording medium is provided on the inner surface of the cartridge case,
A disc rotation region for storing and rotating the disc-shaped recording medium is formed inside the regulation rib, and a corner region is formed outside the regulation rib, and dust is discharged near the spring member arrangement of the regulation rib. notch is provided, wherein
Two spring members, each extending from the middle part and the middle part
Has a first arm , and one of the arms is locked by the first locking portion described above.
Installed on the shutter or a slider that moves integrally with the shutter.
Only, a second engagement portion other arm of the spring member is engaged, the spring
The middle part of the member elastically contacts and the middle part moves when the shutter is opened and closed.
An intermediate portion movement guide for restricting movement of the cartridge,
Provided in the corner area of the case, the middle part movement guide is
It is located outside the dust discharge notch and also serves as a dust discharge guide.
It is characterized by sleeping.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the notch for discharging dust is provided on the regulation rib as described above, the dust that has entered the cartridge case is utilized by the air flow formed by the high speed rotation of the disk-shaped recording medium. It is possible to smoothly eject from the notch to the outside of the disc rotation area.

Further, since the middle The inter moving guide is projected in the vicinity of the spring member disposed in the cartridge case, wherein by providing a notch in the vicinity of the spring member disposed, the intermediate portion moving guide dust such emissions It can also be used as a guide for use, which facilitates the discharge of dust, and it is not necessary to separately provide a special dust discharge guide.

As described above, it is possible to reduce the occurrence of errors due to invasion and accumulation of dusts, and to provide a highly reliable disk cartridge.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An optical disk cartridge according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 7 are views for explaining the optical disc cartridge,
1 and 2 are plan views of an upper case and a lower case, FIG. 3 is a front view of a disk cartridge, FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged plan view showing the movement of a spring member when a shutter is opened and closed, and FIG. A sectional view taken along the line a, FIG. 6 is a view showing the spring member, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is a partial side view showing a state of an outlet.

The disk cartridge comprises a cartridge case 3 consisting of an upper case 1 and a lower case 2, a shutter 4 slidably supported by the cartridge case 3, and a spring member for constantly elastically biasing the shutter 4 in the closing direction. 5 and a disk-shaped recording medium 6 composed of a magneto-optical disk rotatably housed in the cartridge case 3.

The upper case 1 is, as shown in FIG.
A regulation rib 7 having a substantially circular shape is provided on the inner surface of the regulation rib 7, and a disc rotation region 8 for rotating the disc-shaped recording medium 6 is formed inside the regulation rib 7, and the corners are formed at four outer corners of the regulation rib 7. Partial regions 9 (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d) are formed. A head insertion opening 10 is provided in the disk rotation area 8.

A notch 11 is provided at a position corresponding to the corner region 9d of the regulation rib 7, and the disk rotation region 8 and the corner region 9d communicate with each other through the notch 11.

The upper case 2 is, as shown in FIG.
A substantially circular restriction rib 12 is provided on the inner surface of the restriction rib 12, a disk rotation region 13 is formed inside the restriction rib 12, and corner regions 14 (14a, 14a,
14b, 14c, 14d) are formed. Further, a long opening 15 having a head insertion opening and a spindle insertion opening is formed in the disk rotation area 112.

A notch 16 is provided at a position corresponding to the corner region 14d of the restriction rib 13, and the notch 1
6 through 6, the disk rotation area 13 and the corner area 14d
Are in communication.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the rotation direction R of the disk-shaped recording medium 6 is provided outside the cutout portion 16.
An intermediate portion movement guide 17 extending substantially along the
A base end portion 17a of the intermediate portion movement guide 17 is continuous with one end 12a of the regulation rib 12, and a tip portion 17b side of the intermediate portion movement guide 17 faces the other end 12b of the regulation rib 12 via a passage 18. There is.

A second engaging portion 19 is continuously provided from the intermediate portion of the intermediate portion moving guide 17 toward the outside, and the intermediate portion moving guide 17 and the second engaging portion 19 are formed from a projecting wall having substantially the same height. It is configured.

When the upper case 1 and the lower case 2 are combined, as shown in FIG. 7, the notch 11 on the upper case 1 side and the notch 16 on the lower case 2 face each other, and the large discharge port 30 is formed.
Is formed.

The spring member 5 for constantly elastically biasing the shutter 4 in the closing direction is formed of a torsion coil spring as shown in FIG. 6, and has a coiled intermediate portion 20 and an intermediate portion 2 thereof.
A first arm 21a and a second arm 21b extending from 0 respectively.
have. The tip portion of the first arm 21a is bent into a substantially L shape to form a bent portion 22, and the second arm 21b is formed.
The front end portion of is bent in an arc shape to form a curved portion 23.

As shown in FIG. 4, the slider 24 to which the shutter 4 is screwed is molded of a slippery material such as polyacetal resin, so that the slider 24 slides with respect to the cartridge case 3. A first locking portion 25 is provided so as to project inside.

At the time of assembling the disk cartridge, the spring member 5 is inserted toward the inside of the intermediate portion moving guide 17 with the intermediate portion 20 ahead of the opening portion 26 formed in the front surface of the cartridge case 1 shown in FIG. Bending portion 2 of spring member 5
2 is locked by the first locking portion 25, the intermediate portion 20 is elastically contacted with the inner side surface of the intermediate portion movement guide 17, and the curved portion 23 is the second.
It contacts the side surface of the locking portion 19.

When the head insertion opening 10 and the opening 15 are closed by the shutter 4, that is, when the disk cartridge is not used, the spring member 5 has an intermediate portion 20 therebetween as shown by the solid line in FIG. Is elastically contacted with the side surface of the tip portion 17b of the intermediate portion movement guide 17, so that the spring member 5 does not jump out even if an impact is applied from the outside due to a drop of the disk cartridge or the like. The elastic bias to the shutter 4 when the disk cartridge is not used is
It is mainly formed by the elastic force of the spring member 5 between the first locking portion 25 and the intermediate portion movement guide 17. The posture of the spring member 5 is particularly stable because the periphery of the coiled intermediate portion 20 elastically contacts the side surface of the intermediate portion movement guide 17.

When the disk cartridge is inserted into the drive device, the shutter opening / closing pin 27 provided on the drive device abuts on the pin abutting portion 28 provided on the end portion of the slider 24 to push the shutter opening / closing pin 27. Due to the pressure, the shutter 4 and the slider 24 move in the opening direction against the elasticity of the spring member 5.

At this time, since the second arm 21b of the spring member 5 slides along the side surface of the second locking portion 19, the intermediate portion 20
Moves in the elastically contacted state along the side surface of the intermediate portion movement guide 17 as shown by the dotted line. An arcuate curved portion 23 is formed on the tip side of the second arm 21b, and the curved portion 23 slides along the side surface of the second locking portion 19 and is wound into a coil. The peripheral surface of the intermediate portion 20 is the intermediate portion movement guide 1
Since the sliding action is smooth along the side surface of 7, the second locking portion 19 and the intermediate portion moving guide 17 are scraped by the sliding of the spring member 5, and dust such as abrasion powder is removed. There is no worry about it occurring.

When using the disc cartridge, as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, the disk-shaped recording medium 6 rotates in the direction of arrow R at a high speed, and the air flow 29 generated thereby is generated in the cutout portion 16.
Since it flows through the (exhaust port 30) toward the passage 18, the dusts entrained in the air flow 29 are carried out from the disk rotation regions 8 and 13. At the time of this unloading, the intermediate portion movement guide 17 provided on the outside of the cutout portion 16 also serves as a guide for the airflow 29, smoothing the flow of the airflow 29 and discharging dust more smoothly.

Although the shutter and the slider are integrated in this embodiment, the spring member can be directly engaged with the shutter without using the slider.

Further, although the above-mentioned embodiment shows the case of the optical disk cartridge, the present invention can be applied to the disk cartridge of other constitutions such as the magnetic disk cartridge.

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the notch for discharging dust is provided in the regulation rib as described above, the dust that has entered the cartridge case is prevented from flowing through the air flow formed by the high speed rotation of the disk-shaped recording medium. It can be used to smoothly eject from the notch to the outside of the disk rotation area.

Further, since the middle The inter moving guide is projected in the vicinity of the spring member disposed in the cartridge case, wherein by providing a notch in the vicinity of the spring member disposed, the intermediate portion moving guide dust such emissions It can also be used as a guide for use, which facilitates the discharge of dust, and it is not necessary to separately provide a special dust discharge guide.

From the above, it is possible to provide a disk cartridge with excellent reliability, in which the occurrence of errors due to invasion and accumulation of dust is reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an upper case used for a disc cartridge according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a lower case used for the disc cartridge.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged front view of the disc cartridge.

FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged plan view showing the movement of the spring member when the shutter of the disc cartridge is opened and closed.

5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line EE in FIG.

6A and 6B are views showing a spring member used for the disc cartridge, FIG. 6A is a plan view of the spring member, FIG. 6B is a partial front view of the spring member, and FIG. 6C is a partial rear view of the spring member. .

FIG. 7 is a partial side view showing a state of an ejection port formed inside the disc cartridge.

FIG. 8 is an exploded perspective view of a part of a conventional disc cartridge.

FIG. 9 is a plan view of an upper case used for the disc cartridge.

FIG. 10 is a plan view of a lower case used for the disc cartridge.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 upper case 2 lower case 3 cartridge case 4 shirt 5 Disc-shaped recording medium 7 regulation rib 8 disk rotation area 9 corner area 10 Head insertion port 11 Notch 12 restriction ribs 13 Disk rotation area 14 corner area 15 openings 16 Notch 17 Middle part movement guide 18 passages 19 Second locking part 20 Middle part 21a First arm 21b Second arm 22 Bend 23 Wand 24 slider 26 First locking part 26 opening 29 airflow 30 outlet R Disk recording medium rotation direction

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G11B 23/03 604

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A cartridge case having a head insertion opening at a predetermined position, a shutter slidably supported by the cartridge case so as to open and close the head insertion opening, and an elastic biasing force of the shutter in the closing direction. A disk member provided with a spring member and a disk-shaped recording medium rotatably housed in the cartridge case, wherein a regulation rib larger than the disk-shaped recording medium is provided on the inner surface of the cartridge case, A disk rotation area for storing and rotating the disk-shaped recording medium is formed inside the restriction rib, and a corner area is formed outside the restriction rib. A notch is provided, and the spring member extends from the intermediate portion and the intermediate portion, respectively.
The first locking portion having two arms and one of which is locked by the shutter or
Is provided on a slider that moves integrally with the shutter, and has a second locking portion with which the other arm of the spring member is locked, and a spring member.
The middle part of the elastic contact makes it possible to move the middle part when opening and closing the shutter.
The intermediate part movement guide that regulates the cartridge case
Is provided in the corner area of the
It is located outside the discharge notch and also functions as a dust discharge guide.
Disc cartridge, characterized in that there. 2. The cartridge case according to claim 1, wherein the cartridge case includes an upper case and a lower case, and the upper case and the lower case are provided with the restriction rib and the notch, respectively, and the upper case and the lower case are overlapped with each other. Thus, the disk cartridge, wherein the cutout portion on the upper case side and the cutout portion on the lower case side face each other to form a dust discharge port. A disk cartridge characterized in that 3. The intermediate movement guide according to claim 1 , wherein the intermediate movement guide is provided outside a notch formed in the restriction rib, and the intermediate movement guide extends substantially along a rotation direction of the disc-shaped recording medium. A disc cartridge characterized by being extended. 4. The disk cartridge according to claim 3 , wherein the intermediate portion movement guide is provided continuously with one end of the regulation rib. 5. The disk according to claim 1 , wherein the spring member is a torsion coil spring, and a coil-shaped intermediate portion is in elastic contact with an inner side surface of the intermediate portion movement guide. cartridge. 6. The method according to claim 1 or 5, wherein said second locking portion is constituted by a protruding wall, curved portion arcuate in a portion in contact with the second engagement portion of said spring member is formed, the shutter A disc cartridge, wherein the curved portion of the disc cartridge slides along the protruding wall when the disc cartridge is opened or closed.