Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Yasuhisa Fukushima

Makoto Fujita

Masakazu Ishizuka

Kenji Shiomi

Kozo Ezawa

Yuji Ariyoshi

Benichi Miyazaki

Yukio Morioka

Masuo Maruyama

Akira Kurozuka

Ichiro Kawamura

Yoshio Umeda

Shinichi Maeda

Yoshiyuki Hashimoto

Yoshinobu Nakata

Goro Naoki

Yoshiaki Nakatsuka

A disc device records or reproduces information in or from a disc stored in a disc cartridge. The disc cartridge includes a casing having a front face with an opening for receiving the disc; and a cover closing the opening of the casing. The cover includes a slider moving along a side face of the casing, a shutter closing the opening; and a hinge part rotatably coupling the shutter to the slider. The disc device includes a stopper contacting the slider when the disc cartridge is inserted into the disc device to restrict movement of the slider in an insertion direction, and a cam part separating the hinge part from a contact region between the shutter and the casing when or before the casing further moves with the stopper restricting movement of the slider and the shutter is pressed by the casing to rotate about the hinge part.

Disc cartridge and disc device

A disc conveying device includes a plurality of disc holding members stacked in a first direction which is a disc thickness direction, one of the plurality of disc holding members holding a disc such that the disc can slide to one side in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, a disc holding member moving mechanism separating the one of the plurality of disc holding members from an adjacent one of the plurality of disc holding members in the first direction, moving the one of the plurality of disc holding members to the one side in the second direction, and partially protruding the disc from other discs held by the plurality of disc holding members to the one side in the second direction, and a disc conveying mechanism holding a protruded part of the disc and conveying the disc to the one side in the second direction.

Disc conveying device and disc conveying method

A feed-screw type optical pick-up device transfer mechanism is provided for transferring an optical pick-up device through a base member coupled to a follower member in a state in which teeth of the follower member are engaged with a screw portion threaded around an external circumference of a driveshaft. The teeth of the follower member include two main teeth relating to the transfer of the optical pick-up device, and at least one subsidiary tooth provided between the two main teeth and not related to the transfer of the optical pick-up device.

Optical pickup device transfer mechanism

To present a disk loading device reduced in the thickness of the entire device, capable of loading plural types of cartridge and bare disk commonly, easy to handle in horizontal or vertical position, and particularly excellent in dust-proof performance or manual insertion and discharge performance of tray in power off state, a holder,moved back and forth by transfer means provided inside includes a detecting switch,of a shutter opener,and a detecting switch,of a disk holder,and these two detecting switches are combined, while a dust-proof member such as dust-proof cover,is provided in a passage to the disk and optical head,in an external air stream in the device, and therefore, immediately after putting the media into the holder,the type and state of the media can be detected, and breakage of device due to insertion of plural types of cartridge in wrong direction or wrong side can be prevented, and also contamination of the disk or optical head,by suction of dust or smoke can be also prevented. Moreover, the worm gear provided in a drive gear train,of the holder,is designed to exclude the axial force in the opposite direction of the loading motor,and meshing with the wheel,can be freely cleared, and therefore the loaded media can be easily discharged and taken out in power off state.

Disk loading device and disk cartridge

Trays for reproduction-only media and trays for recordable and reproducible media are individually fixed in a single magazine and the recordable and reproducible media are protected by making ejection difficult, thereby providing an auto-changer and a magazine for dual-purpose use or mixing of the reproduction-only media and the recordable and reproducible media. A tray (27a) and a tray (27b) stored in a magazine (21) are fixed to the magazine (21) by respective locking member. A magazine holder (53) of the auto-changer is provided with a release lever (49) and a release layer (50) which are assisted by a release spring (51) and a release spring (52), respectively When the magazine (21) is inserted into the magazine holder (53), the locking member (47) and the locking member (48) are pushed by the release levers, respectively, whereby the lock of the trays (27a) and (27b) in the magazine (21) is released, and the trays (27a) and (27b) can be freely taken out of the magazine (21).

Read-write, read-only medium automatic interchange apparatus and

An automatic disk changer has a recording/reproducing device capable of operating a reproducing-only disk and a recording/reproducing possible disk, disk trays that can be placed on the recording/reproducing device, and each of which has a disk-type discriminating means able to discriminate as to whether the disk could be a reproducing-only disk or a recording/reproducing possible disk, a tray storage holding the disk trays, and a tray carrier able to pullout/insert the disk trays from/into the tray storage and able to transport the disk tray to/from the recording/reproducing device.

Automatic disk change apparatus and disk tray for the apparatus

There is disclosed herein a recording/reproducing apparatus including a magnetic field supply device for recording and reproducing of information and a cartridge holder for holding a cartridge having therein a recording disc. The apparatus includes a first motor for driving the recording disc when the cartridge is inserted into the cartridge holder, a sliding member adapted to be engaged with the cartridge holder to cause the disc to be disengageable with the first motor, a rotatable lever engageable with the sliding member so as to cause the recording disc to be disengageable with the first motor, and a geared transmission coupled to a second reversible motor and having an engaging portion which is engageable with the rotatable lever to cause the disc to be disengageable with the first motor. Also included in the apparatus are an arm having the magnetic field supply device and a drive mechanism coupled to the geared transmission so as to be driven in accordance with the rotation of the second motor and connected to the arm which is movable in accordance with a movement of the drive mechanism to cause the magnetic field supply device to move to be close to the magnetic disc and separated therefrom.

Arrangement of recording/reproducing apparatus

A cartridge loading device comprising a cartridge holder for receiving therein a cartridge; a base provided with guide grooves through which pins formed on side walls of the cartridge holder are received for guiding the cartridge holder; a loading plate supported movably to the base for causing the cartridge holder to reciprocatingly move along the guide grooves of the base between a first position where the cartridge is loaded/unloaded and a second position where a disc received in the cartridge is rotated; an eject plate supported movably to the base for unloading the cartridge received in the cartridge holder at the first position and for allowing, when the cartridge is loaded, the cartridge holder to the second position; a sub-eject plate supported movably to the base coming into contact with the loading plate; at least one first resilient member connected at one end to the loading plate and at the other end to the sub-eject plate for resiliently engaging the loading plate and the sub-eject plate with each other; at least one second elastic member for biasing the loading plate in one direction; at least one third resilient member for biasing the eject plate in a direction for discharging the cartridge; a first lock lever engaging with a lock claw formed in the loading plate to thereby lock the loading plate and restrict a movement of the loading plate; a second lock lever for locking the sub-eject lever and restricting a movement of the sub-eject lever; and a solenoid for driving the first lock lever.

Loading device for a cartridge

A cartridge includes a shutter movably mounted along and on outside surfaces of a cartridge box for opening or closing a central hole and a head slit together, a slider for driving the shutter, and guide grooves provided outside a receptacle for a disk and serving to guide the slider. The shutter normally closes the central hole and the head slit to permit the cartridge to completely surround the disk, thereby preventing entry of dust from the outside. Even when the slider is broken by accident, the disk is immune from scratches to be constantly held in a good state since the slider is moved on the outside of the receptacle. Moreover, a drive for the shutter is provided forwardly of the center of the receptacle to enable increasing the recording capacity of the disk and miniaturizing the cartridge.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Yasuhisa Fukushima