Sony Corporation

Ryoji Takamatsu

Tomohiro Watanabe

Tsutomu Toyoguchi

You Yoshitoshi

Masahiro Sato

Toru Hama

Hiroyuki Urushibata

Ikuo Nitta

Takeo Kondo

Yoshiro Watanabe

Koichi Nojima

Osamu Naitou

Kouji Umezawa

A disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus having a housing section for housing a plurality of discs, the housing section having a plurality of trays each for setting a disc thereon, the tray being movable between a pull-out position outside of the housing section and a housed position within the housing section, a recording and/or reproducing unit for recording and/or reproducing the disc, a movement unit for moving one of the housing section and the recording and/or reproducing unit relative to the other, the movement unit causing relative movement between the housing section and the recording and/or reproducing unit in an arraying direction of the plural trays housed in the housing section and a pull-out unit for pulling out from the housing section one of the plural trays housed within the housing section. The pull-out unit such that a portion of a disc housing recess of the tray remains within the housing section holds the tray even after pulling out the tray from the housing section and shifts the pulled-out tray to the recording and/or reproducing unit, with the tray holding state being released by the recording and/or reproducing unit after housing the tray in the housing section.

Disc recording/reproducing apparatus and disc container casing used therein

Device for driving tape-like recording medium

A disc player having a chassis supported in an outer housing through resilient members and having a cartridge housing unit therein which stores a disc cartridge housing a stack of discs. The disc player also has a locking and ejecting mechanism in the chassis for selectively locking and ejecting the disc cartridge. A disc playback unit and a disc withdrawing mechanism are mounted on a movable chassis that is movably mounted in the chassis for movement along the stack of discs.

Disc player with an automatic disc charger including eject locking

A disc changer player comprises a disc loading unit into which there is loaded a disc accommodating magazine in which a plurality of discs are accommodated in a stacked condition, a translating chassis having a disc reproducing operation mechanism mounted thereon and translating in a stacking direction of the discs relative to the disc loading portion, a selecting operation member for selecting a desired disc by controlling a translation of the translating chassis, and an eject mechanism for ejecting the disc accommodating magazine from the disc loading unit, wherein the disc accommodating magazine is ejected by controlling operation of the eject mechanism by the selecting operation member. Further, the disc changer player comprises a pair of opposing chassis, a plurality of feed screw shafts supporting the pair of opposing chassis, and a gear member through which the translating chassis is translated by a rotation of the plurality of feed screw shafts, wherein the gear member that is meshed with at least one feed screw shaft engages the translating chassis so that the gear member can be meshed with the feed screw shaft and the movable gear member is translated in accordance with an operation of the disc reproducing operation mechanism so as to be strongly meshed with the feed screw shaft.

Disc changing apparatus for disc player including improved translating

A disc drive apparatus employs a locking mechanism for locking a movable base structural component to a stationary frame during disc loading and unloading operations. The locking mechanism is associated with a head drive mechanism which drives a head including a head for transferring information between a disc and the head, toward and away from the disc, so that the locking mechanism is operated between the locking position in which the movable base frame is restricted from movement relative to the stationary frame, and on unlocking positon in which the movable base frame is permitted to move relative to the stationary frame.

Disc drive apparatus

An optical disk player wherein a chassis having an optical pickup, a disk table and the like mounted thereon is supported by a frame using elastic support means at a plurality of positions, a vessel filled with a viscous fluid and sealed is provided at either the frame or the chassis, and a movable member provided at the other of the two is arranged in the sealed viscous fluid. With this arrangement, the slope of the Q curve in the resonant region is moderate enough to improve the antivibration characteristics, thus substantially eliminating sound omissions.

Optical disk player

An operation changing mechanism for a tape recording/reproducing or other electronic apparatus includes a reversible electric motor for selectively rotating a driving gear in opposed directions, a first swinging gear engaged with the driving gear and rotatably coupled to a co-axial second swinging gear with the common axis of the first and second swinging gears being mounted for orbital movements about the axis of the driving gear between first and second limited positions to which the common axis is urged in reaction to rotation of the driving gear in the opposite directions, respectively, a rotary cam member with peripheral gear teeth engageable by the second swinging gear and having a toothless gap that accommodates the second swinging gear to halt turning of the cam member, the shifting of the common axis of the swinging gears from one to the other of the limited positions thereof in response to a change in the direction of rotation of the drive gear being effective to move the second swinging gear out of the toothless gap and into engagement with the peripheral gear teeth for again turning the cam member, an actuating member engaging a cam surface on the rotary cam member and being reciprocally moved thereby in response to turning of the rotary cam member for changing a respective operation of the electronic apparatus, and a locking device for holding the rotary cam member against inadvertent turning from each position in which the second swinging gear is accommodated in the toothless gap.

Operation changing mechanism responsive to direction change of a

A disc loading apparatus for use in a disc player comprises an arm device supported by a stationary structure to be movable for loading a disc carried to a predetermined position on a disc rotating device mounted on a chassis supported by a resilient supporting member engaging with the stationary structure and unloading the disc from the disc rotating device, first and second rollers for carrying the disc to the predetermined position, and a locking mechanism provided between the chassis and the stationary structure for locking the chassis to be substantially fixed to the stationary structure in response to the movement of the arm device for disc loading or disc unloading.

Disc loading apparatus for use in a disc player

A mode selecting mechanism for a magnetic tape recording and/or reproducing apparatus is provided with a rotary member having a crank pin extending therefrom and being mounted on a chassis for turning by a control motor between first and second positions, a head base carrying a magnetic head or heads and being slidably mounted on the chassis for movement between inoperative and operative positions, a first spring acting on the head base for urging the latter toward its operative position and causing engagement of a follower on the head base with the crank pin so that turning of the rotary member is adapted to cause movement of the head base between its inoperative and operative positions, capstans rotatably mounted on the chassis and each having a pinch roller associated therewith and supported by a pivotally mounted lever for movement between inoperative and operative positions relative to the respective capstan, and a connecting linkage engaging the crank pin and each pinch roller supporting lever and including a second spring through which a pinch roller is urged to its operative position against the respective capstan when the rotary member is turned to dispose the head base in its operative position, the directions in which the follower on the head base and the connecting linkage engage the crank pin being selected so that the forces of the first and second springs, respectively, act in opposite rotary directions on the rotary member during the turning of the latter by the control motor.

Mode selecting mechanism for magnetic tape recording and/or reproducing

A tape playing machine which has a novel head deck which is capable of moving back and forth and which is mounted on three rollers so as to obtain smooth parallel back and forth action and wherein one of the normal actuating switches of record-players is eliminated and only five actuating buttons are required. The invention further encompasses plastic molded spring rear cassette mounting members which include a cassette biasing feature as well as a feeler pawl for engaging an opening in the cassette so as to determine whether the tape in the cassette can be erased. Additionally, the reel supporting hubs include a cylindrical member with interlocking fingers engageable with the reels so as to lock the reels to the tape chassis.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Ryoji Takamatsu