Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Sony Corporation

Yoshito Saji

Teruyuki Takizawa

Kuniko Nakata

Hironori Okazawa

Masahiro Inata

Kozo Ezawa

Takeo Santo

Shinichi Wada

Masuo Maruyama

Yoshiteru Namoto

Kengo Masaoka

Hidehiko Ohta

Haruo Yamashita

Naoki Inoue

Kanji Wakabayashi

Yoshihiro Mushika

Manabu Obata

Yukio Nishino

Benichi Miyazaki

Osamu Kajino

Mitsunori Matsumura

Yukio Morioka

Goro Naoki

Masayuki Shinoda

Tadashi Maeoka

Tadashi Kuroda

Masaomi Inoue

A low-cost disk device with which the same spindle motor and clamper can be used for different types of disk device, such as a DVD drive. A clamper includes a clamper main body and a plurality of positioning components. The clamper main body clamps a disk between itself and a spindle motor that holds and rotates the disk. The plurality of positioning components are formed on the clamper main body for the relative positioning of the clamper main body and each of the plurality of spindle motors in the radial direction.

Disk device

A disk drive according to the present invention includes: a mechanical chassis; a pickup for reading and/or writing information from/on a disk storage medium; a rotation drive section with a turntable to mount and rotate the storage medium thereon; a pickup supporting member having a bottom portion for supporting the pickup and the rotation drive section and a standup wall that stands upright from the bottom portion toward the turntable, the pickup supporting member being supported on the mechanical chassis so as to turn around an axis of rotation that is defined through the standup wall; and a pickup raising/lowering portion, which is provided for the mechanical chassis in order to drive the pickup supporting member to either a first position in which the pickup is ready to perform a read or write operation on the storage medium that is mounted on the turntable or a second position in which the turntable has been retracted so as to avoid contact with the storage medium being inserted or ejected.

Disk device with ring-shaped elastomer member between mechanical chassis and wall of pickup supporting member

It is an object of the present invention to provide a low-cost disk device with which the same spindle motor and clamper can be used for different types of disk device, such as a DVD drive. A clamper comprises a clamper main body and a plurality of positioning components. The clamper main body clamps a disk between itself and a spindle motor that holds and rotates the disk. The plurality of positioning components are formed on the clamper main body for the relative positioning of the clamper main body and each of the plurality of spindle motors in the radial direction.

Disk device for recording and reading information

A disc cartridge comprises a rotary member () that is held on first and second shutters in a disc storage unit in which a disc is stored with a first surface externally exposed from a disc opening and that is engaged with the first and second shutters so that the first and second shutters are opened and closed as the disc rotates within the disk storage unit, wherein the rotary member has a disc receiving portion comprising a contact area () that comes into contact with the periphery of a second surface of the disc and receives the disc when the first and second shutters are closed state and a groove () provided outside the contact area.

Disc cartridge for storage of a disc

An optical disk device includes: an optical disk drive mechanism disposed in a housing-shape drive case (), the optical disk drive mechanism including an optical head () on which a semiconductor laser () is mounted, a rotary driver for driving an optical disk (), and a transfer mechanism for transferring the optical head (); and an agitating fan () for making air in the drive case () flow. In the optical disk device, a wind path is formed so that the air in the drive case () flows in a manner in which it is drawn toward an agitating fan () side and the drawn air is discharged toward the optical head () or the semiconductor laser () by rotation of the agitating fan (). Therefore, a rise in temperature of the semiconductor laser () can be suppressed effectively, while the dust proofing is ensured.

Optical disk device

A disk drive is adapted to a disk cartridge having a rotational member and a shutter interlocked with the rotational member. The drive includes a transporting portion for transporting the cartridge and a shutter driving mechanism, which includes a rack portion engaging with a gear portion of the rotational member, and first and second driving levers supported to fit into, and turn with, first and second notched portions of the rotational member, respectively. The transporting portion includes a first cam structure for driving the first and second driving levers of the shutter driving mechanism such that the levers swing as the transporting portion moves. As the transporting portion moves, the first and second notched portions and the gear portion of the disk cartridge held on the transporting portion get engaged with the shutter driving mechanism, which then rotates the rotational member to open or close the shutter.

Disk drive

A disc cartridge includes: a disc storage portion; first and second shutters provided on the bottom of the disc storage portion; and a rotational member interlocked with the shutters and having a disc supporting portion to support the disc thereon while the shutters are closed and a notch to be located inside a head opening while the shutters are opened. The shutters include disc holders for holding the disc thereon with the center of the disc offset from that of the disc storage portion such that an outer side surface of the disc contacts with the sidewall of the disc storage portion at a position where the notch is located while the shutters are closed. The inner circumference of a region, where the disc supporting portion contacts with the second side of the disc, defines a circle that has its center offset from the center of the disc storage portion.

Disc cartridge

An optical disc drive includes: a tray to mount a cartridge including a disc and having a positioning hole; a chassis for supporting the tray to move in a first direction; a spindle motor; an optical head; a traverse base, which is supported on the chassis so as to rotate around an axis defined in a second direction near one end of the chassis in the first direction and which mounts the spindle motor and the optical head thereon, the second direction being parallel to the disc and perpendicular to the first direction; a traverse holder coupled to the traverse base; a positioning pin provided for the traverse holder and fitting in with the positioning hole, thereby positioning the cartridge; and an elevating portion for moving a portion of the traverse holder in a third direction perpendicularly to the disc.

Optical disc drive having a traverse holder that is rotatable around an axis that is mutually different from the axis of a traverse base

A disk drive includes a plurality of optical heads corresponding to a plurality kind of disks, and a disk distinction device for distinguishing whether a set disk is a first disk or a second disk when a disk is set on a disk tray, a first disk tray conveying mechanism for the first disk and/or the second disk tray conveying mechanism for the second disk conveys the disk tray to a first tray position in which recording and/or reproducing is performed on the first tray or the second tray position in which recording and/or reproducing is performed on the second tray, according to a result distinguished by the disk distinction device, thereby, an optical head corresponding to a disk set to the disk tray is selected correctly and a recording or reproducing operation is performed on the disk.

A disc cartridge includes: a cartridge body including a disc storage portion storing a disc, having first and second sides, therein so that the disc is rotatable there and that the first side is exposed and chucking and head opening formed on the bottom of the storage portion so as to get the disc chucked externally and allow a read/write head to access the second side, respectively; a shutter supported, and movable with respect to the cartridge body, between the second side of the disc and the bottom of the disc storage portion so as to expose or cover the chucking and head openings and defining a hole under a center hole of the disc while the shutter is closed; and a disc holder provided for the shutter and pressing the disc against the shutter and holding it thereon while the chucking and head openings are covered with the shutter.

Methods and systems for scaling and rotating an image in a single operation

A disc cartridge includes a cartridge body, a first shutter, a second shutter, and a rotational member. The cartridge body includes a disc storage portion, a chucking opening and a head opening. The disc storage portion has a disc window and a bottom and stores a disc, having first and second sides, therein so that the disc is rotatable in the disc storage portion and that the disc exposes the first side inside the disc window. The first and second shutters are provided on the bottom of the disc storage portion to expose or cover the head opening. The rotational member is provided over the first and second shutters inside the disc storage portion and is engaged with the first and second shutters in such a manner as to open or close the first and second shutters when rotates inside the disc storage portion.

Disc cartridge having deeper concave portion continuous with shutter opener/closer groove

An optical disc apparatus according to the present invention is equipped with a disc rotation mechanism for placing and rotating a disc, a plurality of optical heads for emitting light beams for recording and/or reproducing data on the optical disc, a transport unit including a guide structure for guiding the optical heads to be radially transportable on the disc, an optical head transport mechanism for transporting the optical heads along the guide structure, and a transport base for supporting the disc rotation mechanism, the guide structure and the optical head transport mechanism, an optical head storing portion having a plurality of storage support guides for supporting and storing each of the plurality of optical heads, and an optical head insertion and removal mechanism for transporting each of the optical heads from the optical head storing portion to the transport unit or from the transport unit to the optical head storing portion, and each optical head stored in the optical head storing portion is transported to the transport unit by linearly moving from a position at which it is stored.

A disc cartridge includes a cartridge body, first and second shutters, and a rotational member. The cartridge body includes a disc storage portion to store a disc in a rotatable state, a chucking hole provided on the bottom of the disc storage portion so as to get the disc chucked externally, and a head access window provided on the bottom of the disc storage portion so as to allow a head, which reads and/or writes data from/on the disc, to access the disc. The first and second shutters are provided so as to expose or cover the head access window by rotating in the disc storage portion. The rotational member is provided so as to rotate in the disc storage portion, too. The first and second shutters are interlocked with the rotational member so as to rotate in mutually opposite directions and at respectively different velocities.

A disc drive according to the present invention is adapted to a disk cartridge including: a disk; a body to contain the disk; a window provided for the body to allow a data reading and/or writing head to access the disk; a shutter for opening or closing the window; and a rotational member including a gear as a part of its outer periphery and rotating to open or close the shutter. The drive includes a shutter driving mechanism for opening and closing the shutter by rotating the rotational member of the disk cartridge, and the shutter driving mechanism includes a driving gear, which engages with the gear of the rotational member and which turns around a first rotation shaft. The first rotation shaft swings around the center of rotation of the rotational member of the disk cartridge that is held on the holding portion.

Growing community of inventors

Ashiya, Japan

Yoshito Saji