Pioneer Electronic Corporation

Pioneer Corporation

Kiyoshi Morikawa

Yoshinori Yamada

Kazuo Kobayashi

Atsushi Kurosawa

Masanori Sugihara

Masakazu Kurumada

Kiyohito Kajihara

Tomomichi Kimura

Jun Togashi

Sei Onishi

Takashi Ota

Kaoru Takemasa

Osamu Kitazawa

Hideki Kinoshita

Tatsuya Yanagisawa

Satoru Anada

Susumu Yoshida

Fumiya Yamada

Nobuo Ishida

Toshirou Yamashita

Hiroshi Akiyama

Nobuo Nohtomi

Testuro Kamimura

Toshiroh Yamashita

Yoshihumi Nakayama

Nobutaka Sawada

Akira Takahashi

Toshiyuki Kimura

Yoshio Aoyagi

Fumio Endo

Masahiko Kawamura

Toshiyuki Sakai

Shoichi Naruse

Seiichio Matsuki

Atsushi Kurokawa

Manabu Kiyota

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved disc changer adapted to exactly detect whether a magazine storing a plurality of discs has been attached in the disc changer. When a magazine storing a plurality of discs is inserted into the disc changer, a detection arm and a lock arm both serving as moving members are moved by such an insertion. The lock arm, by virtue of the movement of itself, engages into an insertion groove provided on the backside of the inserted magazine and locks the magazine on the disc changer. The detection arm, by virtue of the movement of itself, actuates a lock detection switch. Here, since the detection arm and the lock arm are both urged by an urging spring, it becomes possible to exactly detect the attachment of the magazine by allowing the moving members locking the magazine on the disc changer to actuate the lock detection switch.

Disc changer

A combination gear having a gear slipping-off preventing structure with an easier combining operation is provided, which includes: a first gear having a shaft hole; a second gear, having a shaft hole, to coaxially couple with the first gear so as to constitute the combination gear; and a shaft to be inserted into the shaft holes of the respective first and second gears, wherein either one of the first and second gears is provided with a coupling male-portion having a securing projection and the other of the first and second gears is provided with a coupling female-portion having a securing recess so that the first and second gears combine together by coupling the coupling male-portion with the coupling female-portion with an engagement between the securing projection and the securing recess. And, a relief portion to permit a relief of an end portion of the securing projection on coupling the coupling male-portion with the coupling female-portion is also provided inside the securing recess.

Combination gear having a gear slipping-off preventing structure

A feeding screw is rotatably mounted on a chassis of a recording medium reproducing device. A half nut having a semicircular sectional shape is mounted on an optical pickup carriage. The half nut has at least one thread which comprises a thick central portion to be engaged with the feeding screw and thin both side portions not to be engaged with the feeding screw. The optical pickup carriage is fed by a rotation of the feeding screw, being engaged with the half nut.

Mechanism for feeding a pickup carriage of a recording medium reproducing device

A pickup guide mechanism in which a shaft for guiding a pickup is arranged over an opening formed on a chassis and the shaft is fixed to the chassis by a fixing unit. The fixing unit includes a countersunk head screw, which is screwed to the chassis, the tapered face of the head portion of which pushes an end portion of the guide shaft, wherein the taper angle of the tapered face of the head portion exceeds 90&deg;.

Pickup guide mechanism

A disk changer stably maintains a tray with a selected disk loaded thereon even if a physical impact or vibration is loaded from outside therein while the tray is being drawn out, the disk is being reproduced, or the tray is being retained. The disk changer has a retaining device which retains therein a plurality of trays each for loading a disk thereon at corresponding retaining positions parallel to each other in a horizontal state and also draws each tray out from the retaining position in the substantially horizontal direction, a guide member provided at a position corresponding to the retaining position, a tray moving mechanism engaging with a tray selected from the plurality of trays, causing the selected tray to engage with the guide member, and drawing out the selected tray partially or entirely from the retaining device in the substantially horizontal direction to move the tray to a position corresponding to the selected tray, a driving device which drives a disk on the selected tray drawn out to the drawing-out position, having a tray loading section for loading thereon the selected tray, and the guide member engages with the selected tray when the selected tray is drawn out by the tray moving mechanism, and elastically maintains the selected tray on a plane substantially identical to that of the corresponding retaining position collaborating with the retaining device and/or the tray loading section.

Disk changer with trays movable between retaining and drawn-out positions

A casing of a device has a pair of vertical side walls, and a plurality of vertically arranged optical discs. Each side wall has a vertical guide slit. A disc player has two pins projected from opposite sides. Elevation plates are horizontally slidably mounted on the vertical side walls at outsides thereof. Each of the elevation plates has a V-shaped guide slit comprising an upper diagonal slit and a lower diagonal slit. Each pin is slidably engaged with vertical guide slit and with the V-shaped guide slit so that disc player is held at a vertical position. The elevation plates are driven in a horizontal direction which is changed to an opposite direction at a joint between the upper diagonal slit and the lower diagonal slit. Thus, each of the pins is moved along the vertical guide slit and the V-shaped guide slit, so that the disc player is carried to a position corresponding an optical disc.

Device for carrying a disc player in an automatic disc changer

A vibration damping support mechanism for a recored data reproducing apparatus is provided which allows the apparatus to be installed in either a horizontal or vertical position without shifting the tensioning direction of damper springs. Each pair of the damping springs is mounted between a main reproducing unit and an outer casing. The two damper springs are arranged to extend in the thicknesswise and depthwise directions of the main reproducing unit respectively or arranged tilting at a predetermined angle. In the horizontal position, external vibrations are absorbed by the elastic action of one of the two damper springs and thus prevented from propagating directly to the main reproducing unit. Similarly in the vertical position, such external vibrations are absorbed by the elastic action of the other damper spring and prevented from propagating directly to the same. In another construction, a damper spring is mounted between a side panel of the main reproducing unit and a projection of each spring loaded arm rotatably mounted to the outer casing. The spring loaded arm rotates 90 degrees when is actuated by a shift lever pressed with each shift pin of a vertical mounting bracket, thus resetting its damper spring for corresponding to the horizontal or vertical position of the main reproducing unit.

Vibration damping suspension mechanism for recorded data reproducing

A vibration damping support mechanism for a recored data reproducing apparatus is provided which allows the apparatus to be installed in either a horizontal or vertical position without shifting the tensioning direction of damper springs. Each pair of the damping springs is mounted between a main reproducing unit and an outer casing. The two damper springs are arranged to extend in the thicknesswise and depthwise directions of the main reproducing unit respectively or arranged tilting at a predetermined angle. In the horizontal position, external vibrations are absorbed by the elastic action of one of the two damper springs and thus prevented from propagating directly to the main reproducing unit. Similarly in the vertical position, such external vibrations are absorbed by the elastic action of the other damper spring and prevented from propagating directly to the same. In another construction, a damper spring is mounted between a side panel of the main reproducing unit and a projection of each spring loaded arm rotatably mounted to the outer casing. The spring loaded arm rotates 90 degrees when is actuated by a shift lever pressed with each shift pin of a vertical mounting bracket, thus resetting its damper spring for corresponding to the horizontal or vertical position of the main reproducing unit. In a further construction, a connecting rod arranged extending at one end outward from the outer casing is used to rotate the spring loaded arm through 90 degrees upon coming into direct contact with e.g. the floor of a vehicle.

A CD player has a magazine having a plurality of shelves each of which is provided for mounting an ordinary 12 cm CD. An adapter has a thickness so as to be mounted on the shelf of the magazine and has a U-shaped form having an arc corresponding to a circumference of a small CD. The adapter is so arranged that the center of the small CD attached to the adapter is deflected from the center of the ordinary CD to be mounted on the shelf when the adapter is mounted on the shelf of the magazine.

Adapter for a small CD

A tray loading device has a fixed gear, a first gear coaxial with the fixed gear, and a first arm integral with the first gear. A second gear is rotatably mounted on the first arm and engaged with the fixed gear so as to revolve around the fixed gear. A third gear is rotatably mounted on the first arm and engaged with the second gear. A second arm is secured to the third gear. The second arm has a tray guide provided at an end portion thereof so as to be engaged with one of trays in a magazine. The tray guide is moved along a guide as the first and second arms rotate so as to draw the tray from the magazine.

Tray loading device of a CD player

A vehicle disk player is disclosed in which a disk is inserted through a disk inserting opening, the disk is fixedly mounted on a turn table by a clamper arm when conveyed to a predetermined position in the player, the turn table is rotated for reproduction of data recorded in the disk, and reproducing means including the clamper arm and turn table are supported in a floating manner. The player is provided with a centering mechanism for positioning said disk at the middle of the disk inserting opening with centering pins. The centering pins are arranged out of the range of vibration of the disk which is fixedly mounted on said turn table supported in a floating manner.

Centering mechanism for automotive disk player

A CD player has a magazine containing a plurality of trays each of which mounts a CD, and a moving device for moving one of the CDs between the magazine and a playback position. The starting of the operation of the moving device for moving the CD from the playback position to the magazine is detected and a CD start signal is produced. When the CD does not arrive to the magazine after a predetermined time from the production of the CD start signal, the CD is returned to the the playback position and moved from the playback position to the magazine again.

System for recovering a CD in a CD player having a magazine containing a

A disk playback apparatus with a centering mechanism for positioning a small or a large disk which comprises a support frame, a clamper arm swingably mounted on a rear portion of the support frame, and a centering mechanism for guiding large and a small diameter disks from a front side of the playback apparatus to a position between the support frame and the clamper arm when the disk is inserted into the playback apparatus. The centering mechanism has a pair of centering arms for contacting with a circumferential edge of the disk for positioning the disk in place, a centering lever provided in the clamper arm and connected to the pair of centering arms for simultaneously opening/closing the pair of centering arms, and lock arms each rotatably mounted on the associated centering arm for locking the centering arm independently, the lock arms allowing the pair of centering arms to be swingable when both the lock arms are released. This playback apparatus can center both the small and large size disks at a clamp position.

Disk playback apparatus with centering device for different disk sizes

A disc player is disclosed which includes a casing having a disc inserting opening, a turntable driven by a spindle motor, a clamper arm operating means for operating a clamper arm in cooperation with said turntable, a centering mechanism for guiding a disc from the disc inserting opening onto the turntable, the centering mechanism including a pair of centering arms (13, 14) each having at distal end portions contact portions which are to be brought into contact with a circumferential edge of the disc, the centering arms being pivotally movable at a predetermined distance in the disc inserting opening, a detecting lever (42) for detecting a condition that the disc is laid on the turntable, and a disc double insertion preventing lock linkage (43, 57) for preventing another disc from being inserted into the casing through the disc inserting opening when the first-mentioned disc is already located on the turntable, the double insertion preventing lock linkage being in cooperation with the centering mechanism.

Disc double insertion preventing mechanism for disc player

A CD player has a magazine containing a plurality of trays each of which mounts the CD, a magazine holder for holding the magazine, and a frame for vertically movably supporting the magazine holder. A pair of opposed stopper plates are provided on the frame adjacent an outlet of the tray provided on the magazine. Opposed ends of the stopper plates form a gap there-between having a width through which only one tray is passed.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Kiyoshi Morikawa