Fujitsu Corporation

Fujitsu Kiden, Ltd.

Takahisa Miyamoto

Kenichi Utsumi

Toshihito Kanetsuku

Osamu Ohmori

Yutaka Sugai

Tomoyuki Okada

Yuji Kato

Hiroshi Nakazawa

Hirofumi Saito

Satoshi Kanbayashi

Akira Takano

Kazuhiko Kawase

Naoki Takayama

Hitoshi Saito

Nobuhiko Motoyama

Hideaki Yoshida

Hiroaki Nishijo

Hiroyuki Sugihara

Osamu Omori

Yuji Katoh

Ichiro Tatsuda

Mamoru Haneda

Hitosi Saito

In order to achieve a drive system having a simple structure in which a cartridge having therein a wound magnetic tape can be supplied or replaced in small installation space, a carrier unit structure is employed in which a cartridge is horizontally retracted from a magazine capable of horizontally inserting/removing the cartridge and then held therein. Further, a drive unit is located beneath the carrier unit, and the cartridge held in the carrier unit is released so that the cartridge can be dropped and loaded into the drive unit.

Drive system equipped with an autoloader mechanism, and autoloading device

The present invention relates to a library apparatus capable of enhancing the coupling accuracy and the positioning accuracy among a plurality of lockers to bring up the traveling accuracy and positional accuracy of an accessor within a passage penetrating the lockers so that the accessor can surely accomplish the insertion/extraction of a cartridge into/from a storage rack or a deck. For this purpose, a supporting member which holds a rail for guiding the accessor along a direction of coupling the plurality of lockers within the passage is installed in the coupling direction for each of the lockers, and a positioning groove in which a bar-like tool is fitted when positioning the adjacent lockers with respect to each other is made in an end portion of the supporting member in the coupling direction. This invention is applicable to a large-capacity external memory system storing a large number of cartridges such as magnetic tape cartridges and optical disk cartridges.

Library apparatus for disc cartridge

In order to prevent a deck tower from collapsing because two or more decks are drawn at the same surface side of the deck tower, stopper mechanisms for preventing the deck from being drawn are provided at deck shelves at the upper and lower tiers. A deck apparatus includes a stopper member for preventing the decks from being drawn, which is movably mounted, so that the stopper mechanisms at the upper and lower tiers may be linked with each other. It also includes a locking arm for when the stopper member at any shelf is moved to release the deck from being locked, preventing the stopper members at the remaining shelves from moving. The locking arm allows only an deck to be alternatively drawn.

Deck apparatus equipped with a lock mechanism

In order to achieve a magazine structure in which any necessary cartridge can be removed or inserted while a magazine is mounted in an autoloading device, a carrier unit is equipped with a lock releasing mechanism at the distal ends of openable/closable arms thereof so that a cartridge received in the magazine may be individually released from locking. This prevents any failure on the reading and writing of data due to removal of any wrong cartridge since the cartridge to be released can be defined by a programmable operation of the carrier unit.

Loading device

In order to reliably lock a door element and detect its state, a pressing unit is mounted to a part of a door element so that it may press in the closing direction independently of the door body, and latch means is mounted to the mating part of the door element so that it may be engaged with a distal end of the pressing unit at a distance less than a predetermined spacing to finely move the door element. A projecting part is mounted to the pressing unit so as to project toward the mating part. The mating part includes resilient means acting to repel a force of the projecting part influenced in the direction of the mating part, and a switching element operable to detect the closing state of the door element when the projecting part presses the resilient means with more than a predetermined pressing force.

Door opening/closing mechanism

A library apparatus is capable of enhancing the dimensional accuracy of locker frame structures to allow an accessor to surely carry out the insertion/extraction of a cartridge into/from a storage unit or a deck. Each of the locker frame structures is made up of a top board, a base and sheet metal columns vertically standing between corner portions of the top board and the base. Each of the sheet metal columns is fixedly welded to the top board and the base from the inside of the locker. The library apparatus is applicable to a large-capacity external storage system storing a large number of cartridges such as magnetic tape cartridges and optical disk cartridges.

Library apparatus

A library apparatus is provided with a cartridge forced exit station for forcibly discharging a defective cartridge for safe removal by an operator. The cartridge forced exit station includes a storage rack for accepting the defective from an operating space side of a transferring mechanism in the interior of the library apparatus. The storage rack houses the defective cartridge. The storage rack is configured to selectively prevent access between a cartridge storage space in the storage rack and the operating space side.

Cartridge forced exit station for a library apparatus

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

A cartridge access station in a library apparatus for providing safe loading/unloading of a cartridge while maintaining a simple and compact arrangement of the library apparatus. The cartridge access station includes an communication space for establishing direct communication and connection between an operating space for a transferring mechanism in the interior of a library apparatus and an external space of the library apparatus. A rack is provided in the communication space to guide the entry/exit of a cartridge from both sides of the operating space and the external space and to hold the cartridge within the communication space.

Cartridge entry/exit station for a 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.

Deck lock mechanism and library apparatus

The present invention is for realizing the improvement of the cartridge storage efficiency and size reduction of a library apparatus by installing relative flags using cells of a storage rack to suppress the increase in the installation area or volume of a locker resulting from the installation of the relative flags, and further for shortening the time required for the initial operation of an accessor. For these purposes, a positional correction relative-flag structure of the cartridge storage rack is equipped with a body section which is inserted into the cell of the storage rack to be brought closely and fixedly into contact with the cell, and a relative flag to be read out by an sensor on the accessor side for the correction of the position of the storage rack is attached to an end surface of the body section. 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.

Positional correction relative-flag structure of cartridge storage rack

The present invention provides a library apparatus which is capable of ensuring the specification accuracy of a reference flag and a diagnostic cell to make sure the error correction at the initial stage (initial operation) while facilitating the accuracy adjustment of the reference flag and the diagnostic cell, thus allowing the certain insertion/extraction of a cartridge into/from a storage unit or a deck by an accessor. In the library apparatus according to this invention, the reference flag to be read out by a sensor on the accessor side to detect the absolute position of the accessor is disposed close to and integrated with the diagnostic cell into and from which a diagnostic cartridge is inserted and extracted by the accessor to verify the operation of the accessor. This invention is applicable to a large-capacity external storage system storing a large number of cartridges such as magnetic tape cartridges and optical disk cartridges.

Accessor position alignment in a library apparatus

A cartridge direct entry/exit station for a library apparatus, the library apparatus transferring selected cartridges to a drive unit through a transferring mechanism for processing of information recorded therein. The cartridge direct entry/exit station is configured to accommodate a magazine storing a plurality of cartridges, thereby facilitating the simultaneous entry or exit of plural cartridges. The cartridge direct entry/exit includes a communication space defined to establish direct communication between an operating space in the interior of the library apparatus and an external space of the library apparatus, and a magazine holding mechanism for holding the magazine in a state where an insertion/removal side of the cartridges faces the operating space.

Cartridge direct entry/exit station for library apparatus

A library apparatus having components permitting accurate and straightforward assembly. The library apparatus includes respective cell, drive, accessor and passage units, each having box shaped housings including a connection mechanism. A coupling couples the housings of the passage units with the other units. Other features of the library apparatus include a reference mark on the accessor unit which permits a transport mechanism in the passage unit to correct positional errors of the transport mechanism to other components.

Growing community of inventors

Inagi, Japan

Takahisa Miyamoto