Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Masuo Maruyama

Yoshito Saji

Benichi Miyazaki

Yasuhisa Fukushima

Hiroyuki Yamaguchi

Teruyuki Takizawa

Kanji Wakabayashi

Hiroshi Takahashi

Masahiro Inata

Kozo Ezawa

Yuji Ariyoshi

Shinichi Yamada

Masanari Mohri

Shinichi Maeda

Takeo Santo

Teruyuki Naka

Yukio Morioka

Masaya Kuwahara

Masayoshi Shioya

Goro Naoki

Yoshinobu Nakata

Akihiro Sakaguchi

Yasuo Nishihara

Tadashi Kuroda

Provided is a turntable for rotatably supporting a disc member on a disc support surface in a state where the disc member is sandwiched and held between the turntable and a clamp member placed opposite thereto, wherein the disc support surface is provided with an elastic layer having a predetermined width, and configured to project from the disc support surface, and at least one of an outer peripheral part and an inner peripheral part of the elastic layer is provided with a high contact pressure portion of which a contact pressure generated by pressing the clamp member thereto is higher than that of other portion.

Turntable having elastic layer with high contact pressure portion

An optical disk device includes: an optical disk drive mechanism disposed in a housing-shape drive case (), the optical disk drive mechanism including an optical head () on which a semiconductor laser () is mounted, a rotary driver for driving an optical disk (), and a transfer mechanism for transferring the optical head (); and an agitating fan () for making air in the drive case () flow. In the optical disk device, a wind path is formed so that the air in the drive case () flows in a manner in which it is drawn toward an agitating fan () side and the drawn air is discharged toward the optical head () or the semiconductor laser () by rotation of the agitating fan (). Therefore, a rise in temperature of the semiconductor laser () can be suppressed effectively, while the dust proofing is ensured.

Optical disk device

A disk drive includes a plurality of optical heads corresponding to a plurality kind of disks, and a disk distinction device for distinguishing whether a set disk is a first disk or a second disk when a disk is set on a disk tray, a first disk tray conveying mechanism for the first disk and/or the second disk tray conveying mechanism for the second disk conveys the disk tray to a first tray position in which recording and/or reproducing is performed on the first tray or the second tray position in which recording and/or reproducing is performed on the second tray, according to a result distinguished by the disk distinction device, thereby, an optical head corresponding to a disk set to the disk tray is selected correctly and a recording or reproducing operation is performed on the disk.

Disk drive

A disk apparatus to which a cartridge accommodating a disk for recording or reproducing information thereon is loaded, the cartridge having a shutter capable of opening so as to expose the disk is provided. The disk apparatus includes: a disk transporting section for transporting the cartridge from an unloaded position to a loaded position; and an opener for opening the shutter in a slide direction which is perpendicular to a transportation direction of the cartridge. A leading end face of the cartridge in the transportation direction of the cartridge has a first end face and a second end face, the first end face extending in the transportation direction and the second end face extending in the slide direction. The shutter is opened responsive to a pressurizing force applied in the slide direction to the first end face from the opener. The opener applies a pressure to the first end face, but does not substantially apply a pressure to the second end face, during substantially a first half of an opening operation of the shutter.

Disk apparatus

Optical disks compliant with different standards are recorded or reproduced by a single recording/reproducing apparatus by a first step of determining a substrate thickness of the disk based on a focusing error signal, when a focusing section for bringing the light beam into a focus on the disk is moved in such a way as to approach or withdraw from the recording surface of the disk; a second step of performing any one step of determining the number of recording surfaces of the disk when the focusing section is moved in such a way as to approach or withdraw from the recording surface of the disk, and determining whether or not the disk can be recorded and reproduced using a tracking error signal detected when the light beam crosses the track.

Disk type determination method

A cartridge loading device comprising a cartridge holder for receiving therein a cartridge; a base provided with guide grooves through which pins formed on side walls of the cartridge holder are received for guiding the cartridge holder; a loading plate supported movably to the base for causing the cartridge holder to reciprocatingly move along the guide grooves of the base between a first position where the cartridge is loaded/unloaded and a second position where a disc received in the cartridge is rotated; an eject plate supported movably to the base for unloading the cartridge received in the cartridge holder at the first position and for allowing, when the cartridge is loaded, the cartridge holder to the second position; a sub-eject plate supported movably to the base coming into contact with the loading plate; at least one first resilient member connected at one end to the loading plate and at the other end to the sub-eject plate for resiliently engaging the loading plate and the sub-eject plate with each other; at least one second elastic member for biasing the loading plate in one direction; at least one third resilient member for biasing the eject plate in a direction for discharging the cartridge; a first lock lever engaging with a lock claw formed in the loading plate to thereby lock the loading plate and restrict a movement of the loading plate; a second lock lever for locking the sub-eject lever and restricting a movement of the sub-eject lever; and a solenoid for driving the first lock lever.

Loading device for a cartridge

A cartridge includes a shutter movably mounted along and on outside surfaces of a cartridge box for opening or closing a central hole and a head slit together, a slider for driving the shutter, and guide grooves provided outside a receptacle for a disk and serving to guide the slider. The shutter normally closes the central hole and the head slit to permit the cartridge to completely surround the disk, thereby preventing entry of dust from the outside. Even when the slider is broken by accident, the disk is immune from scratches to be constantly held in a good state since the slider is moved on the outside of the receptacle. Moreover, a drive for the shutter is provided forwardly of the center of the receptacle to enable increasing the recording capacity of the disk and miniaturizing the cartridge.

Disk cartridge having a shutter mechanism

Growing community of inventors

Moriguchi, Japan

Masuo Maruyama