Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Tatsuro Nishi

Norikatsu Yoshida

Yuji Ariyoshi

Hitoshi Higaki

Takuto Yamazaki

Shinichi Maeda

Masanori Ohnishi

Yukio Morioka

Hiroshi Takahashi

Takahiro Sato

Naohisa Tanabe

Masakazu Ishizuka

Yasue Chihara

Yosuke Noda

Hirokuni Hagita

Seiichi Miyamoto

A disc device includes a plurality of magazines, each having a tray that stores a plurality of discs, a plurality of disc drives that performs recording or reproducing of information on or from the plurality of discs, a picker that draws out the tray from one of the plurality of magazines and that conveys the tray to a position near the plurality of disc drives, and a disc separating and supplying device that, at the position near the plurality of disc drives, holds the plurality of discs stored in the tray, separates at least one of the plurality of discs stored in the tray from a remainder of the plurality of the discs stored in the tray, and supplies the at least one of the plurality of discs stored in the tray to at least one of the plurality of disc drives.

Disc device

A disk () having a center hole (), the disk () being provided with a support-capable structure for making it possible to support a disk (A) positioned one level above the lowermost part in a stacked state using separation claws (Ac,Bc) protruding radially outward from the center hole ().

Disk

The disc device includes a picker which conveys, in a horizontal direction, a magazine tray in which a plurality of discs are stored, a lifter which pushes out the plurality of discs from the magazine tray, and a carrier which shifts in a vertical direction, which retains in a stacked manner the plurality of discs pushed out by the lifter, and which supplies the discs to a plurality of disc drives, respectively. The lifter is flexibly mounted such that the lifter shifts relative to the picker in the horizontal direction.

Disc library device

A disc drive unit is configured with a plurality of disc drives as one unit. At least one of a pair of opposed disc drives arranged on an identical horizontal plane is provided with a tray support member for supporting a front end of a tray of the other disc drive when the tray is ejected. The tray support member is capable of protruding from the one disc drive and withdrawing into the same.

Disc drive unit and apparatus having the same

A disc device which takes out a disc stored in a magazine and conveys the disc to any disc drive, in which the magazine comprises a tray which stores a plurality of discs, and a case which has a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape and which stores the tray. The case has an opening at front face into which the tray can be inserted into or taken out therefrom. The tray has an outer shape being substantially rectangular in planar view. The tray is provided with cut portions formed at corner portions positioned on the back side of the case being cut off. The disc device further comprises a picker which holds the tray and draws out the tray from the case. The picker rotates the tray when the cut portion passes through the opening.

A disc device supplies a disc to each of a plurality of disc drives. The disc device includes a carrier which retains a plurality of discs being stacked in such a stacked state, which separates one disc from the retained plurality of discs above a tray ejected from an arbitrary one of the disc drives, and which places the separated disc on the tray. The carrier includes a plurality of claw portions holding the inner circumferential portion of the bottommost disc out of the plurality of discs, and a disc press pressing the topmost disc out of the plurality of discs so as to be in parallel to the disc placing face of the tray.

Disc device having a carrier for retaining a plurality of discs in a stacked state

A disc device includes a carrier which retains a plurality of discs in a stacked state so as to separate one disc from the retained plurality of discs above a tray ejected from arbitrary one of the disc drives, and to place the separated disc on the tray. The carrier includes a spindle unit inserted into a center hole formed in each of the discs, a first hold claw portion which holds an inner circumferential portion of the disc, and a second hold claw portion provided at a position higher than the first hold claw portion by a substantially thickness of one disc, the second hold claw portion holding an inner circumferential portion of the disc. One disc from the retained discs is separated by shifting the first and second hold claw portions back and forth between an inner side and an outer side of the spindle unit.

Disc device with carrier for retaining plurality of stacked discs

There is provided a disk device having a buffer portion capable of relatively moving at least a rack at the beginning of meshing with a drive gear in an opposite direction to a moving direction of a slide cam member moved by conveyance of a disk, when the disk is conveyed to a replayable position by a disk conveyance mechanism and the slide cam member moves so that the drive gear and the rack are meshed with each other.

Disk device including disk conveyance mechanism and disk installment mechanism

A disk device is provided with a pair of slide cam members that start movement when a disk is conveyed to a replayable position, and a pair of clamper lifters respectively having clamper support portions supporting a clamper. The clamper lifters are moved in opposite directions to each other in a horizontal direction orthogonal to a thickness direction of the disk device in conjunction with the movement of the pair of slide cam members. They are arranged so that the timings of the start of movement in the opposite directions to each other are different from each other. The clamper support portions have inclined surfaces in contact with an outer peripheral part of the clamper so as to move the clamper in the thickness direction of the disk device in accordance with the movement of the pair of clamper lifters in the opposite directions to each other.

Disk device having clamper lifters with different start of movement timing

The invention allows for restriction of radial and axial movements of a shaft by a simple structure. A shaft supporting structure includes a base () provided with a bearing (), and a first shaft () arranged at the bearing (). The shaft supporting structure further includes a helical torsion spring () fitted on the first shaft (). The base () includes a first engagement hole (), and a hooked section () engaging with first and second arm sections () of the helical torsion spring (), respectively. The helical torsion spring () presses the first shaft () onto the bearing () in a radial direction of the shaft by an elastic force generated by engagement between the first arm section () and the first engagement hole () of the base (), and engagement between the second arm section () and the hooked section () of the base (). A portion of the second arm section () faces an axial end face of the first shaft ().

Shaft supporting structure with coil spring for pressing shaft onto bearing, and optical disc apparatus including the same

A disk drive is provided for restraining deterioration of the verticality of the optical axis of an optical pickup in relation to the surface of the disk when the side of the disk to be scanned for the recording and/or reproducing action is alternated from one side to the other side, in recording and/or reproducing data signals on both sides of the disk. The disk drive () includes a turn table () on which a disk D is rotatably supported, a pickup () for recording and/or reproducing data signals on both sides of the disk D rotated by the turn table (), and a disk tray () for transferring the disk D between a recording and reproducing position which confronts the turn table () and a loading and unloading position at the outside of the disk drive (). A turning movement mechanism is provided for turning the turn table () and the pickup () at once from a first position which confronts the one side of the disk D to a second position which confronts the other side of the disk D or vice versa.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Tatsuro Nishi