Fuji Photo Film Company, Limited

Fujifilm Corporation

Other

Fuij Photo Film Co., Ltd.

Seiji Tsuyuki

Yusuke Ishihara

Hideaki Shiga

Daisuke Takahashi

Kiyoo Morita

Thomas R Albrecht

Jeffrey S McAllister

Robert Ralph Heinze

Hidetoshi Yamamoto

Yasushi Hatano

Akihiko Fujii

Kouta Kitamura

Shozo Onmori

Yosuke Sumiya

Katsuki Asano

Ren Ishikawa

Kiichiro Kitagawa

Naoki Okutsu

Seiji Oodate

A tape reel assembly comprises a reel hub and flanges coaxially secured to, and extending radially outwardly from, opposite axial ends of the reel hub, respectively, each flange being molded by resin injection molding and having a tapered inside surface sloping down at a fixed taper angle from an inside periphery to an outside periphery thereof. The flange is molded by the use of an injection mold having a mold surface which borders at least a part of a mold cavity for configuration of the tapered inside surface of the flange and is convexly curved to the mold cavity.

Mold assembly for molding tapered flange

The object of the invention is to provide a magnetic tape cartridge, in which a release pad can be assembled securely by a robot. A magnetic tape cartridge including: a reel around which a magnetic tape is wound; a cartridge case which houses the reel in a locked position; a release pad for releasing locking of the reel; and a cup-like hub of the reel in which the release pad is mounted, wherein a plurality of guide holes for allowing a plurality of lock release pins to penetrate therein, which extend from the lower surface of the release pad, are made in the periphery of a base plate of the cup-like hub, and a plurality of pairs of guide ribs, which are capable of guiding the plurality of lock release pins to the plurality of guide holes, stand inside the cup-like hub corresponding to the plurality of guide holes.

Method for determining a relative position of a part of a magnetic tape cartridge

A magnetic tape cartridge is equipped with a cartridge, a single tape reel, a tape leader pin, and a U-shaped clip. The cartridge case is formed by fastening upper and lower cases of synthetic resin together and has a tape leader opening formed in the upper and lower side walls of the upper and lower cases. The single tape reel has magnetic tape wound thereon and is rotatably housed within the cartridge case. The tape leader pin is firmly attached to a leading end of the magnetic tape, and is detachably held in an upright state between the upper and lower cases so that it faces the tape leader opening. The U-shaped clip is attached to walls near the tape leader opening to fasten the upper and lower cases together, whereby the fastening strength of the upper and lower cases is enhanced.

Magnetic tape cartridge

A reel comprises a hub onto which recording tape is wound and a flange that is disposed on an end portion of the hub and retains a width-direction end portion of the recording tape, wherein plural cutout portions that locally divide the hub and the flange are formed in the flange. The cross section of the hub in plan view has a substantially equilateral triangular shape and positions where constricting force resulting from the tape reaches a maximum are caused to protrude in advance.

Reel and recording tape cartridge

A magnetic tape cartridge includes a reel around which a magnetic tape is wound, a cartridge case rotatably accommodating the reel, a reel lock for locking rotation of the reel relative to the cartridge case, a resilient member urging the reel lock toward the reel, a release pad for disengaging the reel lock by displacing the reel lock against an urging force of the resilient member, so as to allow rotation of the reel, and a pivot provided on the reel lock at a position facing with and slidably contacting a contact surface of the release pad in a manner allowing rotation of the release pad. The pivot and the contact surface are both made of resin, and the contact surface is made of a resin having a higher hardness than the pivot.

The present invention aims to provide a magnetic tape cartridge capable of improving operational precision and efficiency in the process of mounting a release part for unlocking a reel. A magnetic tape cartridge having a release button (part) for unlocking a reel, the release button being mounted in a hub with a cup shape formed on the reel, wherein a bottom portion of the hub has a fitting opening into which the release part fits, and a detection opening with a predetermined positional relationship with the fitting opening; and a reflection (metal) plate attached on a bottom surface of the bottom portion of the hub is viewed from an aperture of the detection opening defined in a top surface of the bottom portion of the hub.

A magnetic tape cartridge made up of a cartridge case composed of an upper and lower cases welded together on the mating surfaces by ultrasonic welding with a plurality of energy directors, and a single reel of magnetic tape rotatalby retained in the case, in which the weld deposits formed by the energy directors may be prevented from sticking out of the mating surfaces. A plurality of energy directors provided on one of the mating surfaces have an elongated shape, and are disposed with the longitudinal direction substantially perpendicular to the direction along the side wall of the upper and lower cases.

A magnetic tape cartridge includes a cartridge casing formed by upper and lower casing halves connected together, and a single reel around which a magnetic tape with a leader pin fixed to the leading end of the magnetic tape is wound and which is contained in the cartridge casing for rotation. The leader pin is removably held in a tape draw-out opening with its axial direction directed in the vertical direction under urging force of a spring member acting on its upper and lower end portions sideways with the upper and lower end portions received in recesses respectively formed in the upper and lower casing halves. An inclined surface directed obliquely downward is formed at least a part of the side wall of the recess formed in the upper casing half opposed to the direction in which the spring member urges the leader pin.

A single reel with magnetic tape wound thereon is housed in a case. A restraining member, for restricting rotation of the reel by moving toward or away from the reel, is urged in a restraining direction by an urging member. The pushing-up portions of a releasing member are inserted into the through holes bored in the reel gear of the reelso that the lower ends can abut a driving gear. The releasing member moves the restraining member in a releasing direction by moving according to the chucking operation of drive-side rotation drive means. In this manner, reel-rotation restraining means allows rotation of the reel when being used and restricts the rotation when not being used. In this construction, each of the through holes is bored between the tooth edges of the reel gear so that the releasing member can perform a reliable releasing operation.

A magnetic tape cartridge is provided, in which the mating of the lower half and the upper half can be easily performed and which is applicable to automated assembly, when the magnetic tape cartridge having a sliding door is assembled. The rib projects from the upper section of the first guide wall in the direction of the opposite second guide wall. On the other hand, the groove, which faces the rib, is carved on the inner side surface of the sliding door. The rib engages with the groove, thereby restricting the vertical displacement of the sliding door. Also, the engagement of the rib and the groove guides the sliding door in the guide channel freely.

A magnetic tape cartridge includes a cartridge casing and a single reel which is contained in the cartridge casing for rotation. A brake member of the magnetic cartridge is provided with a brake gear and is movable up and down between an operative position and a retracted position. The reel is provided with a reel gear which is brought into mesh with a drive gear of a tape drive mechanism and a through hole through which a push rod extending from a brake release member projects to be brought into abutment against the drive gear of the tape drive mechanism so that the brake release member moves the brake member to the retracted position. The through hole opens in an area which is slightly wider than tips of teeth of the reel gear, wherein the area includes a pair of opposed flanks of the reel gear which form a valley.

Magnetic tape cartridge with brake release push rod extending through reel hole wider than only one reel gear pitch

A magnetic tape cartridge includes a cartridge casing and a single reel which is contained in the cartridge casing for rotation. The reel has a reel hub in the form of a cylindrical member which has a bottom wall and is provided with an opening and a stopper gear formed on the bottom wall. A brake member is provided with a brake gear and is movable up and down between an operative position where the brake gear is brought into engagement with the stopper gear to prevent rotation of the reel and a retracted position where the brake gear is disengaged from the stopper gear to permit rotation of the reel. The brake member is normally urged toward the operative position and moved to the retracted position by a pusher member of a tape drive system which acts on the brake member through the opening in the reel hub when the magnetic tape cartridge is loaded in the tape drive system. A continuous wall portion is erected around the opening in the reel hub, and the brake member includes a horizontal portion and a continuous skirt portion which extends downward from the horizontal portion and is in contact with the continuous wall portion of the reel hub to close the opening together with the horizontal portion. The brake member is moved between the operative position and the retracted position with the skirt portion kept in contact with the continuous wall portion of the reel hub.

Magnetic tape cartridge with rotatably-mounted multi-projection brake release member

A cartridge casefor a magnetic tape cartridge comprises a cartridge caseconsisting of a lower halfand an upper half. The lower halfis provided with retaining ribseach having a retaining slanted surfacesuch that a plate-like cartridge memoryis positioned on the retaining slanted surfaceswith its one sidelowered and is obliquely supported with respect to a bottom plateof the lower half. The upper halfis provided with supporting members for supporting various non-resilient constituent parts positioned on the lower halfand including the cartridge memory. The upper halfis provided with a stopper rodsuch that when the upper halfis assembled with the lower half, the stopper rodreaches a cartridge memory-rising region before the supporting members contact with the non-resilient constituent parts on the lower half

Cartridge case with chip retaining features

A single-reel magnetic tape cartridge has a cartridge casing and a single reel around which a magnetic tape is wound and which is contained in the cartridge casing for rotation, in which the magnetic tape is fixed at the leading edge thereof to a leader pin employed for extracting the magnetic tape from the cartridge and the flanges at the upper and lower ends of the leader pin are engaged by the lateral drawing force of a latch spring removably held in the tape cartridge casing. Even for cases in which there is a deviation in the insertion position in which leader pin is inserted by the record and playback apparatus, etc. causing the entry path of the leader pin into the cartridge casing to be off track, etc., it is still possible for the leader pin to be inserted into the cartridge casing. The incline angle, in relation to the insertion direction of the leader pin, at the point at which the flanges of the leader pin are brought into abutment with the guide surface of the latch spring is set within the range of 30&#xb0;&#xb1;5&#xb0;.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Seiji Tsuyuki