Fujitsu Corporation

Naoki Takayama

Kenichi Utsumi

Takahisa Miyamoto

Toshihito Kanetsuku

The present invention is for the purpose of allowing a transferring mechanism to certainly carry out the direct insertion/extraction of a cartridge into/from a recording/reproduction unit. For this purpose, in a structure according to this invention, introduction guides (a guide member) for guiding the cartridge to be inserted from the external through an accessor (the transferring mechanism) toward the interior of a deck (the recording/reproduction unit) is provided in a cartridge insertion/discharge opening section of the deck. The introduction guides are formed to have tapered surfaces broadening out from the deck to the external. Further, this invention is applicable to a large-capacity external storage memory storing a large number of cartridges such as magnetic tape cartridges and optical disk cartridges.

Cartridge insertion/discharge opening structure of recording/reproduction unit for library apparatus, and library apparatus

The present invention automatically limits the number of decks drawable from a large number of decks within one locker. For this purpose, the decks are classified into sets each comprising two decks adjacent to each other. A deck lock mechanism according to this invention is composed of a first locking mechanism for, when one deck belonging to each of the deck sets is in a drawn condition, inhibiting the other deck from being drawn; and a second locking mechanism for inhibiting the one deck from being drawn when the other deck is in a drawn condition. This invention is applicable to a large-capacity external storage memory storing a large number of cartridges such as magnetic tape cartridges and optical disk cartridges.

Growing community of inventors

Inagi, Japan

Naoki Takayama