Nsk Corporation

Hideki Okatani

Katsuhiko Tanaka

Tetsuji Aoyagi

Michihiro Kuramochi

The interior of a casing or housing 8 for an optical disk drive apparatus is divided into a first space S1 where a optical head 3, an optical disk loading mechanism 7 and a means 15 for increasing the pressure to prevent the entrance of dust and dirt into the first space S1 from the outside are positioned and a second space S2 where an electrical equipment section 5, a power supply section 6 and a motor-driven fan 9 for cooling the second space S2 are positioned, whereby it is possible to effectively cool the electrical equipment section 5 and the power supply section 6 in the second space S2, as well as to prevent the optical head 3 in the first space S1 from being contaminated by dust and dirt, so that the operation of this optical disk drive apparatus can be effectively maintained in a stable condition.

Pressurized disk drive interior for air cooling and dust prevention

In order to provide an optical disk drive and read/write apparatus, the time of erasure, recording and reproduction of data by which is shortened to heighten the apparatus in access speed and data transfer speed, in the apparatus according to the present invention, an optical disk 4 is clamped to a turntable 2 supported with bearings 24 by a housing, and an optical head 5 is movably supported by the housing so as to face the disk. Four such optical heads 5 are disposed at equiangular intervals on a circle, and controlled independently of each other to perform the erasure, recording and reproduction of data from and in the disk 4 so as to make the apparatus much higher in access speed and data transfer speed than in the case that only one optical head is used.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Hideki Okatani