International Business Machines Corporation

Steven Martin Flaherty

Shawn Michael Nave

Raymond Yardy

Aaron Lyle Herring

A lockout lever is hinged on the side of a slot in an I/O station of an automated library. The lever includes a leading blade and a trailing blade that protrude into the slot. The leading blade is urged open by a spring. When an LTO cartridge or a DLT cartridge in the wrong position is introduced into the slot, the forward motion of the cartridge is impeded by its substantially flat side that faces both the leading and trailing blades and prevents rotation of the lockout lever. When a DLT cartridge is introduced correctly, the cavity in its side accommodates the leading blade as the trailing blade is pushed out of the slot. The leading blade is sized to clear the gap in the door hinge of the DLT cartridge when removed from the interior of the station.

Lockout mechanism for I/O station of automated library

A two-lever toggle mechanism operates in conjunction with a conventional toggle bracket of an I/O station to prevent the incorrect loading of a DLT cartridge into a dedicated pass-through slot. A rotating front lever includes a leading protrusion facing the slot and a front wing that cooperates with the toggle bracket to prevent its closure when an incorrectly loaded cartridge is present in the slot. A rotating rear lever similarly incorporates a trailing protrusion facing the slot and a shank slidably coupled to an elongated groove in the front lever, such that the two levers rotate together. Therefore, the trailing protrusion provides an additional safeguard to ensure that only a DLT cartridge that is placed correctly into the slot permits the closure of the toggle bracket.

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Tucson, AZ, United States of America

Steven Martin Flaherty