Sony Corporation

Yoshikazu Ishimatsu

Akira Suzuki

Toshiro Ota

Takuji Shimoda

Ryo Soga

Yoshinori Yamamoto

Hirokimi Iwata

Hideo Imai

Atsuyuki Ukai

Hiromitsu Katada

A disc cartridge is comprised of a cartridge body for rotatably accommodating therein a disc and which has an opening portion from which the disc is partially exposed to the outside, and a shutter slidably attached to the cartridge body for opening and/or closing the opening portion, wherein the shutter is provided with first and second guide members, the first guide member is engaged with a first guide groove formed on a major surface of the cartridge body and the second guide member is engaged with a second guide groove formed on a side wall of the cartridge body. Thus, the shutter can be prevented from being disengaged from the cartridge body inadvertently or unintentionally. Further, in its opening and/or closing operation, the shutter can smoothly open and/or close the opening portion without being shaked.

Disc cartridge with slidable shutter

A shock absorber for a disc recorder/player, the shock absorber including a rubber tubular member mounted between the recorder/player's driving unit and the recorder/player's casing and having at least a pair of wall sections and a hollow section, and a compression spring interposed within the hollow section, the wall sections being arrayed along a first axial direction corresponding to the direction of movement of the recorder/player, with the direction of movement of an object lens of an optical pickup being a second axial direction and a direction interconnecting the driving unit and the casing being a third axial direction, the hollow section being formed along the second axial direction and the compression spring being arrayed so that the direction of the longitudinal axis thereof is aligned with the third axial direction.

Shock absorbing device and recording/playback apparatus for disc-shaped

In a disk drive apparatus for driving a CD or CD-ROM having a disk tray with a recess, the recess is provided with a plurality of pawls that keep the disk stable when it is loaded in the recess and the apparatus is vertical. In this way, unexpected contact of the outer circumference of the disk with the outer circumference of the recess is avoided. The recess is moreover provided with insulators that fully allow deformation or displacement of a base unit in one direction, but minimize it in other directions. External vibrations acting on the apparatus when it is vertical are therefore effectively damped, and rotation of the disk in the apparatus is steady.

Disk drive apparatus with insulators to minimize external vibrations

CD/CD-ROM apparatus

A recording/reproducing apparatus for a disc-shaped recording medium having a driving motor for running a disc-shaped recording medium in rotation, an optical pickup device and a chassis member carrying the optical pickup device for shifting the optical pickup device across the inner and outer peripheral portions of the signal recording region of the disc-shaped recording medium via a guide shaft and a guide member. The chassis member has a stop member abutted by the reference surface of the mounting base when the reference surface of the mounting base is abutted against the stop member for stopping the shifting of the optical pickup device. When the optical pickup deice has been moved to the inner most portion of the disc-shaped recording medium, the optical pickup device may be stopped highly accurately. In addition, the read-out start position for the disc-shaped recording medium may be detected highly accurately.

Apparatus and method for controlling the position of an optical pickup

A disc cartridge that requires no metal guide member and therefore can be easily assembled. With conventional disc cartridges, the metal guide member made of a stainless sheet or the like must be inserted in the case, requiring a number of parts and assembly processes. In addition, the expensive metal guide member makes the final product extremely costly. Especially, an assembly process for assembly the guide member into the case by putting the guide member through the guide slider and the pair of sliders is difficult to automate, thereby reducing productivity. Further, there is a problem that the compression coil spring locked between the sliders is easily detached during assembly process.

Disc cartridge with easily assembled slider and shutter means

An LED mounting holder for mounting one or more LEDs on a printed circuit board and for having the printed circuit board on a front panel of an electronic apparatus with the LEDs mounted on the printed circuit board. The LED mounting holder has a plurality of holding sections each formed by a plate of an electrically conductive material, a plurality of height position setting sections, a contacting section of an electrically conductive material for being contacted with the main body of the electronic apparatus, and a holder support for supporting the LED mounting holder by the printed circuit board. The holding sections are provided at the positions on the holder in register with the mounting positions of the LEDs on the printed circuit board for holding the LEDs and are protruded towards the distal ends of the LEDs for facing away from the printed circuit board. The height setting sections are provided at the positions on the holder in register with the mounting positions of the LEDs on the printed circuit board for setting the height positions of the distal ends of the LEDs held by the holding sections. When mounted in the electronic apparatus, the holder assures accurate setting of the mounting height positions and the mounting positions in the array of the LEDs, while preventing static charges from being introduced into the main body of the electronic apparatus via the holding sections and contact sections.

LED mounting holder and device for mounting LED using it

A disk adapter for a disk cartridge is formed to fit in a disk housing section of the disk cartridge. The disk adapter includes an opening at approximately its center for rotatably accommodating a small diameter disk and a positioning element for positioning the disk adapter in the disk housing section of the disk cartridge and to prevent rotation of the adapter in the rotational direction of the accommodated small diameter disk.

Disk adapter for disk cartridge

A disc cartridge is comprised of a cartridge body accommodating a disc-shaped record medium being formed of a pair of cartridge halves, each of which has an opening extending from a central portion of at least one of the pair of cartridge halves to a peripheral wall thereof to expose one portion of the disc-shaped record medium rotatably accommodated therein to the exterior of the cartridge body, a portion of the peripheral wall to which the opening extends being thinner than the remainder of such peripheral wall. A reinforcing member of a material having a mechanical strength higher than that of the pair of cartridge halves reinforces the thinner portion of the peripheral wall to which the opening extends.

Disc cartridge with opening for exposing disc extending to thin portion

A disc cartridge including a housing main body having an opening portion for exposing a disc-shaped recording medium to the outside and for rotatably housing therein the disc-shaped recording medium, a shutter for opening and/or closing the opening portion of the housing main body and which is slidably attached to the housing main body so as to be movable in the direction perpendicular to the direction along which the disc cartridge is inserted into a recording and/or reproducing apparatus and in both the right and left directions with the opening portion of the housing main body as the center, a lid attached to the housing main body so as to be openable and closable for the opening portion, and a locking device which is formed on the housing main body and comprises an engaging portion to be engaged with the engaging portion formed on the lid, a single flexible arm member, an operation portion for breaking the engagement between the engaging portion and the engaging portion formed on the lid and a guide portion for guiding the operation portion rectilineally.

Disc cartridge with releasable locking means

A mode selecting assembly for a recording and/or reproducing apparatus includes at least one operating member, which is displaced to change the apparatus over to an operating mode. The operating member is displaced by the revolution of an operating gear having a toothless portion and the operating gear is driven by a pinion. The engagement of the operating gear with the pinion is triggered by a trigger member responsive to the depression of a corresponding operating push button. The operating gear is prevented from further rotation after the establishment of the selected operating mode by a locking member when the selected operating push-button is continuously depressed. The mode selecting assembly further includes timed recording capability wherein the pinion in engagement with the end of the toothed portion of the operating gear maintains the trigger means in an inactive state to place the apparatus in a preparing mode for timed recording. At the preset time, the preparing mode is released by a releasing member and the operating gear is rotated to its original inoperative position where the toothless portion faces the pinion to disengage the operating gear from the pinion.

Mode selecting assembly for recording and/or reproducing apparatus

A cassette tape recording and/or reproducing apparatus having support members fixed on a chassis and engageable from above by a tape cassette for supporting and locating the latter in an operative position in respect to a head or heads mounted on a carriage which is movable relative to the chassis between an inactive position in which each head is spaced from the operatively positioned cassette, and an active position in which each head is adapted to engage the tape in the cassette; is provided with holding members which are pivotally or slidably mounted on the chassis itself for movement with respect to the latter between cassette holding positions, in which they engage from above with an operatively positioned cassette for securely holding the latter against the support members without stressing the carriage or its movable mounting on the chassis in the direction that would affect the level of the head or heads in respect to the tape in the cassette, and cassette releasing positions, in which the holding members are spaced from the cassette so as to avoid interference with the movement of the cassette to and from its operative position on the support members. The holding members are actuated so as to be moved to their cassette holding and releasing positions upon movement of the carriage to its active and inactive positions, respectively. Such actuation of the holding members is achieved either by cooperatively engageable actuating members on the holding members and carriage, respectively, or by actuating connections between the holding members and a control mechanism by which the carriage is selectively moved between its active and inactive positions.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Yoshikazu Ishimatsu