Sony Corporation

Mitsuru Ida

Yasuhiro Yamaguchi

Noriyuki Koga

Toshio Arai

Kazutaka Nakashima

Minoru Shimada

Takashi Kubo

Kiminobu Ichimura

Koichi Numata

Shinjiro Akiha

Taizo Ogawa

Hiroshi Murata

A recording and/or reproducing apparatus of a disc-shaped recording medium includes a main body portion, a shutter mechanism, a drive mechanism, an elevation mechanism and an eject mechanism. The main body portion has an opening portion through which a disc-shaped recording medium is inserted or ejected. The shutter mechanism opens and closes the opening portion. The shutter mechanism is provided on the main body portion to be freely movable and closes the opening portion under a state that the disc-shaped recording medium is completely inserted into the main body portion. The drive mechanism rotatably drivers the disc-shaped recording medium. The elevator mechanism is moved up and down in an interlocking manner with a movement of the shutter mechanism. The elevator mechanism mounts the recording medium on the drive mechanism when the shutter mechanism is moved to a position to close the opening portion, while makes the disc-shaped recording medium apart from the drive mechanism when the shutter mechanism is moved to a position to open said opening portion. The eject mechanism ejects the recording medium from the opening portion. The eject mechanism ejects the disc-shaped recording medium made apart from the drive mechanism by the elevator mechanism from the opening portion when the shutter mechanism is moved from the position to close the opening portion to the portion to open the opening portion.

Disk loading apparatus with interlocked shutter mechanism, elevator mechanism and eject mechanism

A recording and/or reproducing apparatus for a recording medium, such as a magnetic tape, includes a recording and/or reproducing unit, a main body portion, a signal line and a take-up mechanism. The main body portion houses the recording and/or reproducing unit. The external equipment includes an input unit for entering a signal for setting the operating mode of the recording and/or reproducing unit and an electro-acoustic transducer for converting signals from the recording and/or reproducing unit into audible sound. The external equipment may be attached to and detached from the main body portion and exchanges signals with the recording and/or reproducing unit. The signal line interconnects the external equipment and the recording and/or reproducing unit. The signal line has its one end connected to the external equipment and its other end connected to a circuit board housed within the main body portion for exchanging information signals with the recording and/or reproducing unit. The take-up mechanism takes up the signal line and houses it within the main body portion. The take-up mechanism is arranged on the circuit board within the main body portion.

Recording and/or reproducing apparatus with external controller and

A recording and/or reproducing apparatus, such as a tape recorder, includes a recording and/or reproducing unit housed within a main body portion, an electro-acoustic transducing section, an actuating input unit, first and second connection cord assemblies and first and second cord take-up units. The recording and/or reproducing unit records and/or reproduces the information on or from a recording medium, such as a magnetic tape. An electro-magnetic transducer is fed with information signals reproduced by the recording and/or reproducing unit. An actuating input unit, removably mounted on the main body portion, sets or switches the recording or reproducing state of the recording and/or reproducing unit. The first connection cord assembly interconnects the actuating input unit and the recording and/or reproducing unit for exchanging information signals, and the second connection cord assembly interconnects the electro-acoustic transducing unit and the actuating input unit. The first take-up unit is provided in the main body portion for taking up the first connection cord assembly and the second take-up unit is provided in the actuating input unit for taking up the second connection cord assembly.

Recording and/or reproducing apparatus

A motor includes a bearing portion, a chassis, a thrust pad and a plurality of supporting members. The bearing portion is formed of a sintered oilless bearing or the like and supports a rotary shaft of the bearing portion. The chassis has a stator attached thereto and has a cylindrical holding portion for retaining therein the bearing portion integrally formed therewith. The thrust pad is disposed within the holding portion and pivotally supports the rotary shaft in the thrust direction. The supporting members are disposed on the bottom surface portion of the holding portion and support the thrust pad.

Motor

A cassette tape player utilizes a tape cassette having apertures formed through one side wall of its casing to accept a magnetic head and a pinch roller. The cassette tape player has a body assembly on which the tape cassette is freely loaded or unloaded and a lid supported by the body assembly so as to be freely rotatable for closing and opening the cassette tape player. The tape cassette is inserted into a loading region of the body assembly by closing the lid. A head assembly chassis is supported by one side end portion of the cassette loading portion so that its moves together with the lid. The head assembly also supports a magnetic head holder and the pinch roller. The tape cassette is supported by securing the upper surface wall of the cassette casing by inserting cassette holding members into the pinch roller insertion openings of the tape cassette. These holding members which are substantially parallel to the inner top wall of the lid support one side of the upper surface wall of the tape cassette while spring members provide opposing pressure to the opposite side of the upper surface wall of the tape cassette. The holding member and spring member combination hold the tape cassette for loading in a compact arrangement to ensure efficient use of space in the cassette tape player.

Cassette holding structure for a cassette tape player

A normal/reverse mode changing mechanism for a tape transport apparatus comprises a mode selecting lever, cam arrangement, and an electromagnet, and one of two tape running modes is selectively obtained due to changing the number of current pulses supplies to the electromagnet. The mode selecting lever has such a function as to move a plurality of controlling members, such as a drive gear engaged selectively with one of the reel base gears, and a lever, which can selectively press one of the two pinch rollers against the corresponding one of two capstans for controlling the direction in which the tape is running. The cam arrangement has such a function as to hold the mode selecting lever selectively in one of two positions: a first position for obtaining the first tape running mode by a combination of a first pinch roller and a first capstan, and a second position for obtaining the second tape running mode by another combination of a second pinch roller and a second capstan. The electromagnet has such a function as to control the angle of rotation of the cam arrangement and the position of the mode selecting lever.

Normal/reverse mode changing mechanism for tape transport apparatus

A translation cam arrangement comprises a translation cam and an accentric gear rotatably secured to the translation cam, and as the eccentric gear is rotated by a driving gear meshed therewith, the translation cam reciprocates in correspondence with various distances between centers of both the gears. Thus, there is no need of another cam arrangement for moving the translation cam.

Translation cam means

A cassette type recording and/or reproducing apparatus having a chassis in which a cassette is mounted on an upper surface thereof. An upper surface of the chassis is formed with a recess in whcih a pair of reels and a gear machanism including a plurality of gears to actuate the pair of reels to rotate are mounted from an above direction, thus reducing a height dimension of the entire apparatus and achieving an easy assembly operation with fewer parts and less labor time for the assembly of the apparatus.

Tape bed and mode-changing mechanism arrangement for thin cassette type

In an auto-reverse type tape recorder also capable of repeatedly playing a tape in both directions, the tape travel is not shut off when the mode of operation is manually changed over from the normal run mode to the reverse run mode, or vice-versa, and after a changeover to the record mode, manual changeover operation is locked-out or made impossible in order to prevent the travel of the tape from being inadvertently changed over and, further, the travel of the tape is stopped without fail at the end of either the normal run mode or the reverse run mode.

Apparatus for controlling an auto-reverse tape recorder having a

A cassette tape recording and/or reproducing apparatus has a head base assembly comprised of a first arm mounted, at one end, on the chassis for swinging about a first axis perpendicular to a plane on which a cassette is located on the chassis, a second arm connected in end-to-end relation to the other end of the first arm by a joint structure permitting relative angular displacements about a second axis parallel to the first axis, and a fixed guide post extending parallel to the plane of the chassis and passing slidably through a slot in the second arm for stabilizing the position of a magnetic head on the second arm in respect to a cassette on the chassis. The joint structure includes a screw defining the second axis and being turnable to relatively displace the connected ends of the arms along that second axis for rocking the second arm about the fixed guide post and thereby varying the aximuth angle of the head.

Cassette tape recording and/or reproducing apparatus including an

Capstan friction drive apparatus of tape recorder

A cassette tape player is provided with a casing defining a compartment for receiving a cassette and including a hollow, box-like structure extending only partly across the casing to confront a corresponding portion of a long side of the cassette housing in the compartment, a battery receptacle extending longitudinally from the hollow, box-like structure across substantially the remainder of the casing for receiving at least one elongated cylindrical battery with the longitudinal axis of the latter extending parallel with the long side of the cassette housing in the compartment, and a closure engageable with the battery receptacle for retaining and locating said at least one battery in the receptacle and being configured to define, with the receptacle, a box-like extension of the hollow box-like structure which cooperates with the latter to define a substantially continuous surface for locating the cassette housing in the compartment.

Battery holder of single head minimum size cassette tape player

A compact cassette tape player has a motor drive system which enables a high-fidelity tape player to be made only slightly larger than the cassette being played. The tape player includes a motor which has a flat stator mounted to the player chassis, a motor shaft and a flat motor which is mounted to the motor shaft for rotation relative to the stator. The recorder includes reel pawl hubs or spindles for engaging the tape reels in the cassette. The motor shaft extends into one of the pawl hubs and is mounted in bearings at the ends of the shaft. One of the bearings is located inside the pawl hub so that the bearing mountings for the motor shaft can be spaced as far apart as possible, thus reducing the amount of wow and flutter even though the player is extremely compact. The pawl hub mounting the motor shaft is driven independently of the motor by a drive gear which engages the periphery of a gear wheel secured to the pawl hub. The drive gear is driven by a drive belt which extends from the motor rotor to the player capstan.

Compact cassette tape player with capstan drive motor under spindle

In a cassette tape recording and/or reproducing apparatus having a tape drive with a rotatable idler which is bodily shiftable for changing the operating mode, a mode changing mechanism has first and second mode selecting slide members mounted on a chassis for independent movements along parallel paths between operative and inoperative positions, a pivot arm carrying the idler and being swingable in opposite directions, for example, for establishing fast-forward and rewind modes, respectively, a coupling member straddling the slide members and being engageable with the pivot arm and with actuating members which are provided on the slide members, respectively, and which engage the coupling member at respective locations thereon spaced apart in a direction transverse to the paths of movement of the slide members, and a spring acting on the coupling member along a line of force which is intermediate the locations where the actuating members engage the coupling member and in a direction for causing the coupling member to simultaneously move the slide members to their inoperative positions. The movement of a selected one of the slide members to its operative position turns the coupling member about the actuating member on the other slide member and thereby effects swinging of the pivot arm in one direction or the other for establishing a corresponding mode.

Mode changing mechanism for cassette tape recording and/or reproducing

A mechanism for use in a cassette tape recorder automatically changes the mode of the recorder when the end of the tape is reached by sensing the cessation of rotation of the pinch roller. A mode change lever having an elongated hole with converging sides that receives a cylindrical portion of the pinch roller is biased by a spring so that the cylindrical portion engages the converging sides and the mode-change lever tends to rotate in a first direction. Once the pinch roller ceases to rotate, the mode-change lever is moved in a direction opposite the first direction and so that it cooperates with a mode-change drive assembly rotated by the capstan. The mode-change lever is then displaced and releases a mode key, so that the mode of the recorder is changed and is typically shut off.

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Saitama, Japan

Mitsuru Ida