Victor Company of Japan, Limited

Norimasa Arai

Takashi Saito

Masafumi Mochizuki

Masayoshi Uchida

Junsuke Tokumitsu

Noriyoshi Kokubo

Masao Nozaki

Takaharu Nishino

Yoichi Kashida

A disk drive (30) for use with a magnetooptical disk cartridge (10) having a magnetooptical data storage disk (12) rotatably enclosed in a generally flat, boxlike housing (14), a sliding shutter (16) mounted astraddle one edge thereof for opening and closing a pair of disk access windows (22, 24) in opposite sides of the housing. The disk drive has a cartridge cardle (38, 138) for receiving the disk cartridge as the latter is inserted in an entrance slot (36) in the disk drive casing (32, 132). Pivotally mounted to the cartridge cradle a shutter opening lever (46) opens the cartridge shutter (16) well before the disk cartridge (10) is fully inserted through the entrance slot. The electromagnet assembly (68, 168) of the magnetooptical disk drive, by which a magnetic field is generated for biasing the disk during data transfer with an optical data transducer, is positioned sufficiently close to the loaded disk cartridge (10) to appeciably reduce the height or thickness dimension of the disk drive.

Magnetooptical disk drive having improved features for reducing the size

A signal-pickup cartridge is adapted to be loaded into a holder of a signal-pickup device proper of a rotating recording medium reproducing apparatus. The signal-pickup cartridge comprises a cantilever having at its distal tip a reproducing element for picking up and reproducing a signal from a rotating recording medium rotating in the apparatus, a cartridge case supporting therewithin the cantilever and having a ceiling plate and vertical walls on opposite sides thereof, a box-shaped cover joinable to the cartridge case to cover the lower face thereof in a manner to protect the cantilever and the reproducing element, and a mechanism for joining the cover and the case in latched state. This mechanism is triggered to unlatch the cover from the case when the cartridge is inserted into the holder.

Signal-pickup cartridge for a rotary recording medium reproducing

A rotary recording medium reproducing apparatus for reproduces a rotary recording medium accommodated within a case. The case comprises a jacket provided with a space for accommodating the rotary recording medium and an opening for allowing the rotary recording medium to go in and out of the jacket, and a lid member inserted through the opening of the jacket for closing the opening of the jacket. The rotary recording medium reproducing apparatus has a rotary recording medium clamping mechanism provided at an innermost part of the reproducing apparatus, for clamping an outer peripheral groove guard of the rotary recording medium when the case is inserted into the reproducing apparatus and then the jacket is pulled out from the reproducing apparatus. The rotary recording medium clamping mechanism comprises a rotatable lower clamp member, a mechanism for holding the lower clamp member to assume a substantially horizontal position upon clamping, an upper clamp member provided rotatable to oppose the lower clamp member and having projection projected downwards at a tip end thereof, and a mechanism for locking the upper clamp arm, after the outer peripheral groove guard of the rotary recording medium enters between the upper and lower clamp members, in a state where the projection faces the inner side of the outer peripheral groove guard.

Rotary recording medium clamping mechanism

A series of film-containing cassettes are placed in projecting positions and thereafter in rewinding positions. First and second take-up reels are arranged to be axially movable between first and second positions. An elongate film guide member is movable between an active position in which the guide defines a straight threading path between the cassette occupying the projecting position and the take-up reel occupying the first position and a normally inactive position in which the guide is clear of the threading path. In the film threading mode, the leading end of film is driven through the straight threading path and taken up by the take-up reel. A film handling mechanism is provided between the opposite ends of the threading path. Upon completion of film threading, the movable elongate guide is restored to the inactive position and the film handling mechanism is brought into operation to engage the film with an aperture plate. Upon completion of film projection, the cassette and the first take-up reel which occupy the projecting and first positions, respectively, are shifted to the rewinding and second positions, respectively. A subsequent cassette is shifted to the projecting position and the second take-up reel occupies the first position. Film threading of the subsequent film cassette is effected simultaneously with rewinding of the previous cassette.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Norimasa Arai