Tape cassette including a spool locking member

Abstract

A tape cassette (1) comprises a case body consisting of an upper half case (2) and a lower half case (3), a pair of spools (7,8) for winding a tape, supported for rotation within the case body and provided respectively with circumferentially arranged toothed portions (7a.sub.1,8a.sub.1), a locking member (11) placed for sliding within the case body and provided with locking fingers (11a.sub.1,11a.sub.2) to be brought into engagement with the front portions of the toothed portions (7a.sub.1,8a.sub.1) of the spools (7,8), and a cam portion (11d) to be brought into engagement with the positioning pin (99) of a recording/reproducing apparatus in loading the tape cassette on the recording/reproducing apparatus, and a locking spring (11c) fastened to the locking member (11) to bias the locking member (11) toward the back side of the case body. The positioning pin (99) engages the cam portion (11d) of the locking member (11 ) to shift the locking member toward the front side of the case body so that the locking fingers (11a.sub.1,11a.sub.2) are disengaged from the toothed portions (7a.sub.1,8a.sub.1) in loading the tape cassette on the recording/reproducing apparatus. The locking spring (11c) biases the locking member (11) toward the back side of the case body so that the locking fingers (11a.sub.1,11a.sub.2) engage the toothed portions (7a.sub.1,8a.sub.1) of the spool (7,8) in removing the tape cassette (1) from the recording/reproducing apparatus. The locking member (11) locks the spools (7,8) firmly so that the spools are not caused to rotate even if an impact is applied to the back side of the case body.