Victor Company of Japan, Limited

Hiroyuki Umeda

Haruki Ogata

Kimio Ogawa

Yasufumi Hashimoto

Hisashige Fujiwara

Shigeru Ishikawa

Tsunehisa Ohira

Yoshiaki Wakui

Takashi Uchimi

Kazutaka Ashida

Toshio Imamura

A tape cassette has a cassette case with top face, under face, front face, rear face, and a pair of right and left side face portions. A pair of supply and take-up tape containers sides is provided in the cassette case. A tape is wound around a pair of reels and contained in the pair of tape containers. A first wall portion connects the rear and right side face portion with each other and forms part of the take-up side tape container. A second wall portion connects the rear and left side face portion with each other and forms part of the supply side tape container. A first prism portion extends from the rear face portion to the right side face portion and refracts or reflects light from a light emission element of a recording and reproducing apparatus for detecting presence and absence of the tape cassette.

Tape cassette of high transparency material

In a tape cassette having sensor optical path holes provided on respective wall portions on a straight line coupling a position of a light emission element with a position of a light reception element so that light from the light emission element is introduced into a tape container and light passing through a tape running path of the tape container comes out of the tape container and reaches a light reception element, a light shielding member having a light shielding effect is bonded around a sensor optical path hole right after the light from the light emission element comes out of the tape container.

A tape cassette for a tape recording and reproducing apparatus having a cassette holder with an erroneous insertion preventing member. The cassette has a rectangular case having front and rear portions longer than a side portion, and has a loading pocket extending along the front portion, a magnetic tape wound on a pair of reels and extended along the loading pocket, a front lid provided at the front portion to cover the tape, an erroneous insertion preventing slot communicated to the loading pocket at a bottom of the case. The slot is extended to along a normal insertion of the cassette, with the front lid being forward, into the holder engaging with the erroneous insertion preventing member. An escaping slot is provided on the bottom of the case nearby the rear portion leaving a slight space therefrom. The escaping slot is disposed along an erroneous insertion direction of the cassette for allowing the erroneous insertion of the cassette, with the rear portion being forward, into the holder by causing the detecting member to be inserted into the escaping slot after a wall of the rear portion overrides the detecting member with the further erroneous insertion of the tape cassette into the holder.

Tape cassette having an escape slot arrangement

The present invention discloses a tape cassette having a front lid for protecting a magnetic face of a magnetic tape accommodated in a casing made of upper and lower half members against dust or the like, and a connecting plate and a rear lid suspended from the connecting plate for protecting an upper portion and a lower portion of the rear face of the magnetic tape respectively. The front lid is rotatably supported at sides of the casing. The rear lid is rotatably suspended on the connecting plate which is rotatably supported on the front lid. The magnetic tape is protected between the front lid and the rear lids together with the connecting plate in a lid closed state. A pair of pins provided on the rear lid are snugly fitted in a pair of guide grooves formed in protruding portions provided in the lower half member so that the rear lid may move in opening and closing directions. The guide grooves have open tops so that the pins of the rear lid are easily inserted into the guide grooves in the assembly process. The open tops are covered with front rims provided on the upper half member in the assembly process.

Tape cassette having a rear cover composed of two pieces of plates

A helical scan type magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus comprises a rotary erase head mounted on a rotary drum at such a position that in a normal recording mode the rotary erase head does not erase a portion of a track formed on a magnetic tape by a rotary recording and/or reproducing head which leads the rotary erase head and in a long-time recording mode the rotary erase head erases an overlapping portion of two mutually adjacent tracks formed by a pair of rotary recording and/or reproducing heads respectively leading and lagging the rotary erase head.

Magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus

A helical scan type of recording apparatus includes means for controlling the supply of recording current to one or more rotary recording heads and erase current to one or more erase heads whose width is selected to produce erasure of each tape signal track twice in succession, the control being executed such that when recording is to be ended, the erase current supply is first terminated and thereafter the recording supply current is terminated after a specific time interval has elapsed, thereby eliminating from the end of each recorded portions the occurrence of a short tape segment which has been erased and not thereafter recorded on. Disturbances during playback, e.g. of a displayed video signal, are thereby eliminated.

Magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus

A tape cassette is used with a recording and/or reproducing apparatus which has an optical tape end detector which is constituted by a light emitting element and light receiving elements. The tape cassette comprises an opaque cassette case having a transparent window, and a lid located at the front of the cassette case. The cassette case accommodates therein a supply reel, a take-up reel, and a magnetic tape. The transparent window enables visual detection of a wound state of the magnetic tape with respect to the reels. The magnetic tape has transparent tapes connected at ends thereof, and forms a predetermined tape path along the front of the cassette case. The transparent tapes are optically detected by the optical tape end detector when the transparent tapes are drawn out from the reels. The lid is capable of assuming an open state and a closed state, and covers the magnetic tape in the predetermined tape path in its closed state. The transparent window is formed in a top plate of the cassette case, in a region which is closer to the rear of the cassette case than a line which passes centers of the reels in a plan view of the tape cassette.

Tape cassette having a transparent window

An automatic tape loading type recording and/or reproducing apparatus comprises a guide drum having one or a plurality of recording and/or reproducing heads for recording and/or reproducing a signal on and/or from a tape, first and second loading members which relatively enter within a tape cassette which is loaded into the apparatus, a first loading mechanism for moving the first loading member over a short distance so as to draw the tape out of the loaded tape cassette and wrap the tape around a peripheral surface of the guide drum, a second loading mechanism comprising a rotatable loading ring mechanism which is disposed to encircle the guide drum, for moving the second loading member along the peripheral surface of the guide drum in a direction opposite to the moving direction of the first loading member so as to draw the tape out of the loaded tape cassette and wrap the tape around the peripheral surface of the guide drum, and a control mechanism for controlling an operating timing of the first loading member so that the tape wrapping operation of the first loading member is completed in an initial operating stage of the second loading member.

Automatic tape loading type recording and/or reproducing apparatus

A tape loading device in a recording and/or reproducing apparatus which has a guide drum with heads for recording and/or reproducing signals onto a tape. A first belt is arranged along a first belt path which has a section extending between the guide drum and a cassette accommodating the tape. A second belt is arranged along a second belt path which has a section extending between the guide drum and the cassette. A driving mechanism drives the first and second belts so that each travels toward the guide drum during a tape loading mode and travels toward the cassette during a tape unloading mode. A pair of tape guide mechanisms are movable in response to the travel of the first and second belts for intercepting the tape within the cassette and for moving to predetermined positions in the vicinity of the guide drum during the tape loading mode to guide the tape at the predetermined positions. The tape travels along a predetermined tape path with respect to the guide drum. Guide paths guide the pair of tape guide mechanisms so that the tape guide mechanisms move along predetermined moving paths.

Tape loading device in a recording and/or reproducing apparatus

A tape cassette comprises a cassette case made up from an upper half and a lower half which are connected together, a tape accommodated within the cassette case, a lid located at the front of the cassette case for covering the tape when the tape cassette is not in use, and a lock mechanism for locking the lid in its closed position when the tape cassette is not in use. The lock mechanism unitarily comprises a locking member which is made from a synthetic resin and is rotatably supported on a side wall of the upper half, an engaging part which engages with an engaging part of the lid which is in its closed position so as to restrict the rotation of the lid toward an opening direction, an acting arm portion which acts on the locking member so that a lock release member of a recording and/or reproducing apparatus releases the engagement between the engaging part of the lock mechanism and the engaging part of the lid when the tape cassette is loaded into the recording and/or reproducing apparatus, and a resilient arm portion which is in engagement with a part of the side wall of the upper half. The resilient arm portion undergoes resilient deformation and urges the engaging part of the lock mechanism in a direction so as to engage with the engaging part of the lid when the lid is closed, and restricts the rotational position of the locking member with respect to the upper half when the upper half is connected to the lower half.

Tape cassette having a lock mechanism for locking a tape protecting lid

An adapter for a miniature type tape cassette has an external form and size smaller than those of a standard type tape cassette. The miniature type tape cassette is primarily designed for a recording and/or reproducing apparatus of a type different from a standard type recording and/or reproducing apparatus which is originally designed for the standard type tape cassette. The miniature type tape cassette has an erroneous erasure preventing tab which operates together with a detection mechanism of the recording and/or reproducing apparatus of the different type. While the standard type recording and/or reproducing apparatus has a detection mechanism which is primarily designed to operate together with an erroneous erasure preventing tab of the standard type tape cassette. The adapter comprises an adapter case having an external form and size substantially equal to those of the standard type tape cassette, an accommodating part for accommodating the miniature type tape cassette, and an erroneous erasure preventing mechanism provided within the adapter case. The erroneous erasure preventing mechanism has a tab part which moves at a position capable of operating together with the detection mechanism of the standard type recording and/or reproducing apparatus in response to the existence and non-existence of the erroneous erasure preventing tab of the miniature type tape cassette accommodated within the accommodating part.

Adapter for a miniature type tape cassette

A tape cassette loaded with respect to a recording and/or reproducing apparatus having a reel driving mechanism including at least one reel driving shaft comprises a cassette case, and a supply side reel and a take-up side reel provided within the cassette case, for winding a tape. One reel of the supply side and take-up side reels is constructed so that the reel driving shaft of the recording and/or reproducing apparatus is inserted into this one reel from a lower direction thereof to engage therewith when the tape cassette is loaded into the recording and/or reproducing apparatus, and driven at a center part of the one reel. The other reel of the supply side and take-up side reels is constructed so as to be transmitted of rotation by a rotation transmitting mechanism at a part other than a center part thereof and rotated.

Tape cassette

A miniature type tape cassette used with respect to a standard type recording and/or reproducing apparatus which performs recording and/or reproduction when loaded with a standard type tape cassette and with respect to a recording and/or reproducing apparatus of a type different from the standard type recording and/or reproducing apparatus comprises a cassette case having a size smaller than that of the standard type tape cassette, and a tape accommodated within the cassette case. The miniature type tape cassette is loaded independently into the recording and/or reproducing apparatus of a type different from the standard type recording and/or reproducing apparatus, and loaded into the standard type recording and/or reproducing apparatus together with a tape cassette adapter having an external form and size substantially equal to those of the standard type tape cassette, in a state where the miniature type tape cassette is accommodated within the tape cassette adapter and the tape is drawn out from the cassette case to form a predetermined tape path.

Miniature type tape cassette and adapter means

An adapter for a miniature type tape cassette which has an external form and size smaller than those of a standard type tape cassette, where the miniature type tape cassette is used with a recording and/or reproducing apparatus of a type different from a standard type recording and/or reproducing apparatus for performing recording and/or reproduction when loaded with the standard type tape cassette. The adapter comprises an adapter case having an external form and size substantially equal to those of the standard type tape cassette, an accommodating part for accommodating the miniature type tape cassette, and a tape guiding member provided within the adapter case, for guiding a tape drawn out from the miniature type tape cassette so as to form a predetermined tape path within the adapter case.

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Yokohama, Japan

Hiroyuki Umeda