Other

Archive Corporation

Conner Peripherals, Inc.

Seagate Technologies, Inc.

Kenneth C Campbell

Barry C Kockler

Roger M Gray

Haruhi Nakagawa

Bunroku Ochi

William L Theobald

Raymond D Heistand, Ii

Warren K Shannon

Lyle J Hedlund

Thomas Noonan

William I Theobald, Jr

A generally rectangular outer housing is sized to fit within the full height five and one quarter inch form factor. A drawer is mounted for sliding motion within the housing along a longitudinal axis thereof from a retracted position in which the drawer is substantially fully contained within the housing to an extended position in which a forward portion of the drawer extends beyond a forward transverse end of the housing. A DAT tape drive is mounted within a rear portion of the drawer and has a forwardly opening cassette insertion slot. A cassette magazine is provided that has a plurality of vertically spaced receptacles for holding a plurality of DAT cassettes in a vertically stacked configuration. A magazine loader is mounted in the forward portion of the drawer for receiving and vertically reciprocating the cassette magazine and for selectively transferring cassettes between the magazine and the cassette insertion slot of the DAT tape drive.

Five and one-quarter inch form factor combination DAT tape drive and cassette magazine loader

Five and one-quarter inch form factor combination DAT tape drive and

Disclosed is a cassette loading system in a housing having an aperture which delivers a plurality of cassettes one cassette at a time into a cassette drive. The system includes a cassette drive having a cassette acceptor and a cassette magazine mounted through the aperture. The magazine defines a plurality of spaces, with each of the plurality of spaces sized and shaped to receive a cassette. The magazine is also adjustable within the aperture to align each of the plurality of spaces with the cassette acceptor of the drive. The system also include a cassette transfer system which moves each of the cassettes into the acceptor of the drive and retracts each of the cassettes upon ejection by the drive. The transfer system includes a cassette transfer motor which is activated to cause motion which moves a cassette into and out of the acceptor, a plurality of cassette drive wheels which can engage a cassette to move the cassette into the acceptor of the drive and to retract a cassette upon ejection by the drive and an engagement assembly which is activated in order to engage the drive wheels with a cassette in order to move a cassette into the acceptor or to retract a cassette upon ejection by the drive. An engagement assembly for a loader is also disclosed. Additionally, there is disclosed a method of sequentially loading cassettes into a tape drive system using the novel cassette loading system.

Cassette loading system

The present invention provides an automated cartridge loader 10 of novel design for use with a cartridge drive 12. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sequentially loading cartridge loader 10 which allows the unattended storage of gigabytes of data. The loaders are adapted to be attached to a cartridge drive 12. The novel loaders of the present invention may comprise three moving components: the magazine 30, the pusher 91, and the gripper 93. Each moving component has its own drive motor 80, 94, 146. The magazine 30 has a plurality of slots 40 for holding cartridges 38 which are loaded into a cartridge drive 12. The pusher 91 of the present invention is aligned with the cartridge drive 12 and pushes the cartridges 38 into the cartridge drive 12. The gripper 93 closes on a cartridge 38 after it is ejected from the cartridge drive 12 and holds the cartridge 38 as the pusher 91 moves back to pull the cartridge 38 back into its slot 40 in the magazine 30. There is additionally provided a method of sequentially loading cartridges 38 into a cartridge drive 12 using the novel cartridge loader 10.

Method and apparatus for aligning cartridges with a cartridge insertion

Cartridge loader for loading each of a plurality of cartridges into a

This invention is proposed to increase the efficiency of all vaned diffusers used in centrifugal compressors, without in itself further increasing the overall diameter. The invention is to curve in a radial plane, the axial cross-sections of vanes from tip to near the throat, so as logically to accommodate the heretofore deleterious effect of the long-recognized highly-arched relative velocity traverse across the impeller exit annulus, a recognition seldom reflected in diffuser structure over the past approximately 49 years of vaned diffuser development.

Radially curved axial cross-sections of tips and sides of diffuser vanes

This invention is proposed as an aerodynamically more efficient vaned diffuser for centrifugal compressors than heretofore achieved, while still respecting the usual diffuser requirement of a limited overall diameter. The invention is so to shape the early entering portion of the diffuser side-walls and the vanes as to achieve for the first time, isobars across the so-called throat which are highly oblique to the flow direction there, instead of heretofore always an isobar which is very nearly normal or normal across the passage at that throat. This is more understandably but still briefly explained in the two sections following, on Background, and Summary, of the Invention.

Sawtoothed diffuser, vaned, for centrifugal compressors

Growing community of inventors

Orange, CA, United States of America

Kenneth C Campbell