Fujitsu Corporation

Copal Company Limited

Hiroshi Shibuya

Daisuke Hori

Nobuhiko Motoyama

Chikatsu Kato

Keiichi Saito

Kohjiroh Hashimoto

Kengo Yamakawa

Hiroyuki Sugihara

Hidenori Maeda

Tatsuya Ohmido

Ichiro Sakuma

A cartridge transferring robot for use in a library apparatus includes a pair of upper and lower hand members made to vertically come into contact with a cartridge to grip the cartridge, a pair of left and right direct-acting beatings for fitting the hand members to a hand base so that they are vertically slidable, and an opening and closing mechanism for making the hand members take opening and closing actions. The hand members are independently guided by the direct-acting bearings, and the fitting portions of the hand members to the direct-acting bearings are made not to interfere with each other in a state where the hand members are in a closed condition. This invention is applicable to a library apparatus storing a large number of cartridges such as magnetic tape cartridges and optical disk cartridges.

Hand closing mechanism for library apparatus

A cartridge transferring robot for use in a library apparatus which is capable of improving the accuracy of the cartridge inserting/extracting angle of a hand mechanism and further of ensuring the positional accuracy of the tip portion of the hand mechanism sufficient for direct insertion and extraction of a cartridge into/from a drive unit. In the present invention, for these purposes, a tilt mechanism for adjusting the angle of the cartridge inserting/extracting direction with respect to a horizontal plane is composed of a tilt base for supporting a picker section so that the picker section is swingable around a supporting shaft located on a picker section front surface side facing a place for insertion or extraction of the cartridge, and a swinging drive mechanism disposed on the rear side of the picker section for making the picker section swing around the supporting shaft with respect to the tilt base. Further, this invention is for transferring cartridges among a storage unit, a cartridge entry/exit station and a drive unit within a library apparatus storing a large number of cartridges such as magnetic tape cartridges and optical disk cartridges.

High precision cartridge transferring robot for library apparatus

An accessor includes a drive mechanism having a direct drive swivel mechanism which does not utilize a timing belt, and reduces the required installation space while maintaining a high degree of positioning accuracy. The direct drive swivel mechanism preferably includes an external gear mounted coaxially to the swivel axis of the picker section and integrated into the picker section, an internal gear meshing with the external gear, and a drive mechanism for directly driving the internal gear to swivel the picker section.

Library unit having a cartridge transfer robot with a rotatable picker section

A library apparatus capable of directly entering a large number of recording medium cartridges all at once into a given cell column of a cell drum. The library apparatus includes a recording medium drive unit for writing and reading data to and from a recording medium cartridge; a cartridge entry unit for entering recording medium cartridges into the library apparatus; an automatic cartridge exit unit for automatically ejecting recording medium cartridges from inside the library apparatus; and an accessor for transporting recording medium cartridges through the cell drum, recording medium drive unit, cartridge entry unit and automatic cartridge exit unit. The library apparatus further includes a swinging door that opens and closes to allow recording medium cartridges to enter all at once into the cells of a given cell column in the cell unit, and a faulty cartridge entry detection mechanism for detecting any faulty entry of a recording medium cartridge into any cell of the cell column. The data about that cell column in the cell drum in which cartridges were switched are stored into a nonvolatile memory in an accessor controller that controls the accessor.

Library apparatus having cartridge direct entry and exit mechanism

A cartridge transferring robot for use in a library apparatus which is capable of certainly transferring a plurality of types of cartridges (media) to meet various needs from the users. In the present invention, for this purpose, in case where a plurality of types of cartridges are handled within the library apparatus, a picker section includes a type identifying mechanism to identify the type of the cartridge held in the picker section in a state of being gripped by a hand mechanism. Further, this invention is for transferring cartridges among a storage unit, a cartridge entry/exit station and a drive unit within a library apparatus storing a large number of cartridges such as magnetic tape cartridges and optical disk cartridges.

Cartridge transferring robot for library apparatus

A cartridge transferring robot which is capable of providing multiple functions to a hand mechanism to allow the direct insertion/extraction of a cartridge between a deck and the hand mechanism. The cartridge transferring robot according to the present invention has a hand mechanism comprising a pair of upper and lower hand members attached to a hand base to be slidable vertically, a spring for biasing the hand members in a direction of closing directions of gripping the cartridge, a pair of upper and lower cam followers attached to the hand members, a cam disposed between the cam followers for adjusting the separation between the cam followers to cause the hand members to take opening and closing actions against the biasing force of the spring, and a motor for rotationally driving the cam. This invention is applicable to a library apparatus storing a large number of cartridges such as magnetic tape cartridges and optical disk cartridges.

Cartridge transferring robot for library apparatus, and library apparatus

A library apparatus in which a plurality of cell drums are divided into two groups respectively placed on the left and right side of a recording/reproducing unit placed in a central part thereof. In this library apparatus, rails are placed in a direction along which the cell drums and the recording/reproducing unit are arranged. The conveying of media, which are contained in the cell drums placed on the left side of the recording/reproducing unit, is assigned to an accessor placed on the left side thereof. Simultaneously, the conveying of media, which are contained in the cell drums placed on the right side of the recording/reproducing unit, is assigned to an accessor placed on the right side thereof. A robot hand of each of the accessors is opened and closed by a turn of a motor. At that time, a power supply is turned off. Moreover, the robot hand is prevented by a locking mechanism from popping out of the accessor. Furthermore, ordinary cartridges are discriminated from cleaning cartridges.

Library apparatus

A hand mechanism of an accessor, capable of gripping a recording medium cartridge in a horizontal condition thereof. The accessor automatically exchanges the recording medium cartridge between a cell unit having a plurality of cells each accommodating the recording medium cartridge and a recording medium drive unit for performing read/write of data from/to the recording medium cartridge. The hand mechanism includes a base mounted swingably about a vertical axis, a grip hand mounted on the base movably between an advanced position and a retracted position, for gripping the cartridge, and a tray mounted on the base and under the grip hand movably between an advanced position projecting from the base and a retracted position. The hand mechanism further includes a cartridge gripped condition correcting mechanism for correcting a gripped condition of the cartridge gripped by the grip hand.

Growing community of inventors

Kawasaki, Japan

Hiroshi Shibuya