Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Akihiro Nishimura

Yoshinori Shiomi

Hideki Sakumoto

Masao Kawagishi

Masahiko Matsui

Masahiro Yao

Sadayoshi Azuma

Hiroyuki Matsumoto

Takashi Hiraoka

Kenji Iwano

Toshibumi Kamiyama

Akio Ohno

Kazuhiro Ueda

Shuji Uematsu

Toru Ichimura

Kunihiko Kaneda

A cassette loading apparatus of the present invention is capable of loading a plurality of tape cassettes different in size from each other, while achieving the following effects. Tape damage or tape breakage when the lids of the tape cassette are opened/closed can be prevented. The opening height of a rear lid when the lids are opened can be maintained constant, and at the same time, a gap is not produced between the lids when the lids are closed, thereby preventing an increase of drop-outs due to the invasion of dust or the like into the gap. Damage of a rear lid opener or the rear lid when the lids are opened/closed can be prevented. These effects are accomplished by providing the tape cassettes with rear lids each having a laterally extending protruding portion and a bottom end located below the protruding portion. The cassette loading apparatus has the rear lid opener positioned and configured to advantageously abut against the protruding portion of the rear lid in order to open the rear lid.

Cassette loading apparatus

Digital video cassette

A cassette loading apparatus of the present invention is capable of loading a plurality of tape cassettes different in size from each other, while achieving the following effects: A tape damage or a tape break when the lids of the tape cassette are opened/closed can be prevented; the opening height of a rear lid when the lids are opened can be maintained constant, and at the same time, a gap is not produced between the lids when the lids are closed, thereby preventing an increase of drop-outs due to the invasion of dust or the like into the gap; and damage of a rear lid opener or the rear lid when the lids are open/closed can be prevented.

A set of tape cassettes of successively larger sizes, each cassette having a housing elongated in a longitudinal direction and having a front face with a tape accommodating opening symmetrical about a center line extending in a lateral direction transverse to the longitudinal direction and midway between side faces of the housing, the housing further having a bottom face with a plurality of cassette guide grooves therein parallel to each other and extending transversely of the housing and engagable with guide projections on a cassette holder for guiding the cassette into the cassette holder. The opening and the cassette guide grooves in each cassette are in the same position relative to the center line of the cassette housing, and a distance in the longitudinal direction between neighboring cassette guide grooves and a distance in the longitudinal direction between the cassette guide grooves closest to the side faces and the side faces in the housing of each of the tape cassettes of the set other than the smallest cassette of the set are smaller than a width of the smallest of the cassettes in the set in the lateral direction. Thus, erroneous insertion of the cassettes into the cassette holder in the longitudinal direction of the cassettes is prevented.

Tape cassette

A tape cassette which includes a cassette shell housing in which reels wound with a magnetic tape are incorporated, a depressing member for depressing an upper surface of each reel, and a reel displacing amount reducing member having its one end engaged with the depressing member, and its other end, exposed on an upper surface of the cassette shell housing through a through-hole formed in the cassette shell housing. The amount of displacement of the reels is reduced by restricting displacement of the exposed portion of the reel displacing amount reducing member.

Magnetic tape cassette with novel tape reel movement limiting means

A tape cassette for use in a video tape recorder or the like, which includes a cassette main body having an upper case and a lower case fitted to each other to define the main body, and a front cover movably mounted on the cassette main body for covering a magnetic tape stretched along a front face of the cassette main body, and is characterized in that there are provided a protrusion formed at the lower portion of the front cover so as to extend in a direction toward the lower case, and a corresponding protruding portion formed on the lower case so as to extend in a direction toward the magnetic tape, and thus, upon closure of the front cover, the protrusion of the front cover is adapted to be located at a position below the protruding portion of the lower case.

Tape cassette with improved cover structure

An improved standard size video cassette has a top shell and a bottom shell held together so as to define a rectangular casing for storing therein a magnetic tape wound on reels. The bottom shell is formed with a groove having a width sufficiently wide to receive the projection therein with hardly any contact during cassette insertion into or ejection from the holder. An improved reduced size video cassette has a top shell and a bottom shell held together so as to define a rectangular casing for storing therein a magnetic tape wound on reels. The bottom shell is formed with the groove which is located such that a distance between the center of the groove and one end of the rectangular casing is slightly smaller than the distance between a center of the projection and one of the opposite side plates.

Growing community of inventors

Higashiosaka, Japan

Akihiro Nishimura